The Jump! team has a wealth of knowledge, years of experience and a joy for working with children. Click below for contact information and to learn more about them.

Jennifer Hood, Owner and Director
Lindsay Little, General Manager
Marie-Claire , Coach
Kelly, Coach
Sara G, Coach
Nada , Coach
Gen , Coach
Hima, Coach
Kelsey, Coach
Sarah T, Coach
Johanna, Coach
Katrina, Coach

Jennifer Hood

Jennifer Hood has over 15 years experience working in six different gymnastics organizations across Canada. She has developed recreational programming for young children, and is a certified teacher, specializing in primary education. She is also a mother of three daughters, 7, 4 and 4 months.

All of her experience has led her to one important conclusion: when it comes to our children’s physical fitness, we can do better.

Conventional approaches to children’s sports have a vocabulary that includes words like early specialization, burnout, boredom, over-scheduling, dropout, intimidating, overly competitive, stressful, too late, and unfortunately, too often, childhood obesity.

Children are more likely to remain active if they are involved in something they enjoy. The problem? We do not know what our children will be interested in as they grow, and we certainly can’t enroll them in everything to ensure they don’t “miss out” later.

Fortunately, this is a problem with an answer.

For many years Jennifer has had a vision for a program that gives our children the basic building blocks of physical movement. A program that would ensure that they have the necessary foundation to be active for life, no matter what sport they choose and no matter whether their goal is recreation or excellence.

Following the birth of her second child, she decided to make her vision a reality.

In the spring of 2007, Jennifer was accepted into Langara College’s Self-Employment Program, where she spent ten weeks developing her business plan. She then dedicated the next 14 months to creating the curriculum, training staff and designing her facility.

Jump! Gymnastics opened its doors on September 2nd, 2008 and quickly became a destination for parents from across Vancouver and classes are now running at near capacity each session.

Jennifer was recently one of only thirteen women accepted to BC's Forum for Women Entrepreneurs 2010 E-series. The FWE's highly competitive E-series is a six-month program for women entrepreneurs of early-stage high-growth leverageable businesses. Jennifer is honoured to have been selected in such great company and looking forward to exploring opportunities to bring Jump! Gymnastics to more children.

“This isn’t about training gymnasts,” says Jennifer, “this is about using developmental gymnastics - the sport that offers the best opportunities to develop foundational movement skills - as a starting point to help our children be active for life.”


Contact Jennifer: jen@jumpgymnastics.ca


General Manager, Lindsay Little

Lindsay’s classes benefit from her calm, patient and kind approach, in addition to her abundance of creative ideas that make gymnastics fun and engaging for young children. She has her national coaching certification in gymnastics, and has coached children for twelve years in BC and Ontario. Lindsay has a BSc with a major in development psychology and is working on her second degree in human development and counseling. Lindsay believes that every child is an individual, every individual has a special talent, and that by supporting a child’s physical, mental and social development a coach can find and nurture that talent.

Contact Lindsay: lindsay@jumpgymnastics.ca

Coach: Marie-Claire
Hometown: Vancouver, BC
Education: University of King’s College, Halifax, N.S. Student (current)
Playtime Activities: Jumping on her trampoline, hot yoga, playing with her dog, Jake.
Professional Goals: Graduate from university next year with a degree in Int’l Development and Classics, to read fluently in Ancient Greek, to travel to Tanzania
Favourite Place: Uganda
Favourite Food: Smoked Salmon
Favourite Colour: Blue
Coaching Philosophy: Make gymnastics fun and safe and allow room for individuality in instruction.



Coach: Kelly
Kelly taught as a Physical Education Teacher in New Zealand where she earned her BA in Sport and Leisure Studies. Since coming to Canada she has continued to share her passion for sport with children through her work with the YMCA Camp Elphinstone and Sportfit. Kelly applies differentiated learning within the class environment to ensure that each child is challenged and experiences success based on individual abilities. She loves to help children learn by using past successes as the building blocks both to new skills and greater self-confidence.

Coach: Sara G
Hometown: Richmond, BC
Education: Bachelor of Human Kinetics UBC (2009) and B.Ed. UBC Student (current). Sara is a nationally certified coach in gymnastics, badminton, field hockey and soccer and has taught sport and activity classes to children age four to twelve.
Playtime Activities: Soccer, biking, hiking, movies and friends
Professional Goals: To be an elementary school teacher and travel the world
Favourite Place: Cambodia
Favourite Food: Pasta
Favourite Colour: Blue
Coaching Philosophy: To treat each child as an individual and focus on their strengths- making sure they achieve success, have fun and want to continue with sport.

Coach: Nada
Hometown: Surrey, BC
Education: BA University of Alaska Fairbanks (2009), Vancouver Island University (Fall 2010)
Playtime Activities: Monkey bars, basketball, camping and outdoor activities
Professional Goals: To be an elementary school teacher
Favourite Place: Alaska
Favourite Food: Ice Cream
Favourite Colour: Purple
Coaching Philosophy: The skills and experiences children have when they are young are building blocks for life.


Coach: Gen
Gen has recently completed a practicum towards her Bachelor of Education (PE and Coaching) at Jump! She is also a Weight Training instructor. Her experience with Jump! kids has reinforced her belief that each child has a unique gift, whether it be in their way of thinking or in their physical abilities. Allowing each child freedom of expression, while addressing their individual needs, helps them learn independence and self-confidence.

Coach: Hima
Hometown: Surrey, BC
Education: SFU Student (current )
Playtime Activities: Reading, running, playing tennis and snowboarding
Professional Goals: To be an elementary school teacher
Favourite Place: Paris, France
Favourite Food: Cold Pizza, Green Eggs and Ham
Favourite Colour: Purple
Coaching Philosophy: Positivity and enthusiasm are the keys to successful learning

Coach: Kelsey
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Education: UCSB (2007-2009), UBC (currently)
Playtime Activities: Shopping, hiking, anything active- yoga, dance (in my room), baking and learning
Professional Goals: To graduate from UBC and find a job in Vancouver (oh yeah... and backpack through Europe)
Favourite Place: Paris, France and Tuscany, Italy
Favourite Food: Mom’s spaghetti sauce, Italian food, fresh bread, anything with coconut milk
Favourite Colour: Lime green and teal
Coaching Philosophy: I like to be really inclusive with all of the kids so that everyone learns a lot and has fun and also so that everyone gets to know each other.


Coach: Sarah T
Hometown: Brisbane, Australia
Education: Bachelor of Education, Griffith University
Playtime Activities: Running, swimming, surfing and eating
Professional Goals: Seek employment that allows me to continue to see the world
Favourite Place: Uruguay
Favourite Food: Cheese
Favourite Colour: Red
Coaching Philosophy: Including everyone, making sure kids have fun and instilling a passion for life-long learning.

Coach: Johanna
Hometown: Vancouver, BC
Education: University of BC Student (current)
Playtime Activities: Scrabble, Frisbee and Charades
Professional Goals: Graduate from UBC, learn Spanish and travel to Indonesia
Favourite Place: Italy
Favourite Food: Sushi and pasta
Favourite Colour: Green
Coaching Philosophy: To pass on life skills, new knowledge and fun!

Coach: Katrina
Hometown: Vancouver, BC
Education: McGill University Student (current)
Playtime Activities: Field hockey, walking, biking
Professional Goals: Graduate McGill- Med. School? (and travel through India)
Favourite Place: Turkey- the culture and people were amazing
Favourite Food: Sushi and chicken souvlaki
Favourite Colour: Purple
Coaching Philosophy: Teach with enthusiasm while providing a safe and enjoyable learning atmosphere.