Flik-Flak is at its core a gymnastics organisation, managing a top-level sports accommodation and developing training facilities for gymnasts. The home accommodation of sports association Flik-Flak, finished in January 2008 but recently renewed, is almost 12.000m2 and with four levels the largest gymnastics training facility in the world. Flik-Flak has an embedded research centre where video registration and innovative materials are tested and developed. These facilities make Flik-flak a top-level sports accommodation, not only for Dutch Olympic athletes but also hosting international athletes for their training camps. In preparation for the World Championship Tournament in Antwerp, Belgium, the national teams from USA and Japan trained at Flik-Flak. In 2014 Flik-Flak hosted an international FIG trampoline training camp.

More than gymnastics

Besides providing the required facilities to practice gymnastics, Flik-Flak is also actively involved in stimulating the community and enhancing sports participation. Flik-Flak offers room for everyone, including those with special needs.  Flik-Flak offers specialized programs for special needs, such as G-dance and G-gymnastics (for disabled people). Various initiatives are taken to increase sports participation in general, many of these projects proved to be successful and Flik-Flak has grown into a sports club with nearly 2000 members. The members differ greatly in age, gender and level. 

Flik-Flak offers a wide variety of gymnastics activities; Men’s and Women’s gymnastics on a high level, recreational gymnastics, trampoline, dancing, acrobatics, musical, young-children’s department (pre-school), increasing health- and physical fitness for elderly.

There are various levels for the gymnasts at Flik-Flak; there are gymnasts that solely practice for recreational purposes and fun, while there are also top-level groups that train for international competitions and work towards the Olympic Games. Flik-Flak is registered as a national training facility by NOC*NSF. Flik-Flak is also the home base for the talent development program set up by NOC*NSF and various national divisions train in the Flik-Flak facility on a weekly base.

Part of an international community

Flik-Flak cooperates with a wide variety of partners to improve the quality in sports and start up new initiatives. An example is the embedded research centre, Innosportlab ‘s-Hertogenbosch and the test facilities of Janssen-Fritsen, a world leading producer of gymnastics equipment. We are not only cooperating with innovation partners, but we are also focusing on partnering with community organisations and partners from different backgrounds. Flik-Flak aims to give back to the community: not only driven by the internal supply, but mainly working through external demand from the community and its inhabitants. For example, young children are participating in sports less and less. Flik-Flak’s aim is not to keep the young gymnasts in our organisation, but to give them a wide and stable base through gymnastics. When the time comes, and they want to move on to another sports discipline we are more than happy to say our goodbyes to the gymnasts. It is their development that is central not the retention rate of the young gymnasts, parents are happy with the solid base formed by Flik-Flak but also the opportunity to leave without a struggle.

Besides local and national partners, Flik-Flak cooperates with many international partners. In the past 10 years many Flik-Flak members were sent abroad to visit other Gymnastics related organisations, on top of that many foreign organisations visited the Flik-Flak facilities as well.

Website: www.flik-flak.nl