Inside the Jakarta alleyway 'gym' training young gymnastics champions

Inside the Jakarta alleyway 'gym' training young gymnastics champions They practise backflips and cartwheels in a narrow alley with little equipment or privacy. But the children from this poor Jakarta neighbourhood are proving they can compete with Indonesia's best. JAKARTA: In a working-class neighbourhood in North Jakarta, a group of children practise backflips and cartwheels, learning to stick their landings. If they take a tumble, there are no spring floors to cushion their fall, only two decrepit foam mats placed on unforgiving concrete. Their training ground is a rat-infested alley barely 2m wide, hemmed in by laundry racks and parked motorcycles. "Hold on! Let her pass first!" their instructor Yoga Ardian calls out during a training session on a typical afternoon. The children, aged six to 14, immediately pause their routine and lift the mats to make way for a motorcyclist. Seconds later, the makeshift gym is restored and the children line up once again to sprint, flip and tumble down the narrow passageway. They would pause at least a dozen times more to make way for pedestrians, food vendors with pushcarts and other motorcyclists. "This is what it's like training in an alley," Yoga, the founder of Indosalto Gymnastics Club, told CNA on a recent Saturday. “We don't have the luxury of space, privacy or equipment.” Despite these limitations, national champions have emerged from this alley in the Penjaringan neighbourhood. At the Indonesia Gymnastics Open tournament in mid-July, three of Indosalto’s students were gold medallists: 14-year-old Karlina, who goes by one name, nine-year-old Katrina Binafi and eight-year-old Adelia. Karlina is, in fact, a three-time national tricking champion who has also won medals in gymnastics and kickboxing competitions. Tricking is an acrobatic sport that combines elements of martial arts, gymnastics and breakdance. “What we lack in facilities, these students make up for with spirit. They are eager to learn, eager to try new things, eager to push themselves. That's what makes them special,” said Yoga, 35. Karlina said training with Yoga made her realise she had a talent for acrobatics and that it could open doors she never knew existed. "Before this, I didn't really have a dream," said Karlina, who joined Indosalto from the very beginning in 2022. "When I started winning competitions, I realised maybe I really could become an athlete. Now I want to keep competing, keep improving and make Coach proud." “DON’T JUST WATCH, I’LL TEACH YOU” Yoga was just as spirited in his own gymnastics journey. As a boy, he dreamed of becoming a capoeira athlete, drawn to the Brazilian martial art for its fluid blend of combat, dance and acrobatics. He was also fascinated by how capoeira is regularly practised in the cramped alleyways of Brazil’s favelas, which resemble the alleyways of his home in Penjaringan. Years spent mastering capoeira gave Yoga the acrobatic foundation to transition into gymnastics, eventually allowing him to build a career as a coach and instructor. But teaching the children in his neighbourhood did not cross his mind until 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic had brought the world to a standstill and Yoga suddenly found himself without work as a coach and instructor. With his gymnastics classes and private coaching sessions disappearing overnight, there was little he could do except to train by himself. Each day, he unrolled a mat in the alley outside his house and practised gymnastics and capoeira, determined not to lose his conditioning. Before long, he drew an audience. Together with a few friends from the neighbourhood, Karlina would watch her future coach practise. “I’m a fan of kungfu films. I thought (Yoga) was doing kungfu because he was making similar moves,” Karlina said. “Eventually, Yoga said, ‘Don’t just watch! Come here! I’ll teach you’.” The first skill Yoga taught was a standing backbend. He started by supporting them with a hand on their backs as they leaned backwards, teaching them to trust their bodies as they reached for the ground. As their strength, flexibility and confidence grew, they were able to bend into the bridge position on their own. Once they mastered the backbend, it wasn't long before Karlina and her friends progressed to a backbend kickover, arching into a bridge before kicking one leg, then the other, over their heads to return to a standing position. Then came the back handspring, in which they jumped backwards onto their hands before landing on their feet in one fluid motion. After a few months, Karlina and her friends were doing backflips, jumping and rotating backwards without placing their hands on the ground. HOME OF CHAMPIONS After the pandemic, attendance at Indosalto fluctuated and students came and went, but Karlina stuck around, rarely missing the sessions that Yoga conducted nearly every day. Her progress was so impressive that Yoga decided to sign her up for a regional tricking competition in August 2023. "I was really nervous because it was my first time competing," recalled Karlina, whose mother is a factory worker and whose father has died. "The other competitors had been training and competing for years, and I was this new kid who had only started training about a year earlier." She ended up winning the one-on-one battle category – a title she successfully defended in 2024 and again in 2025. "It wasn't that I was better than the other competitors. I just got lucky," she said modestly. "I landed all my tricks cleanly and my movements flowed well, while some of the others made small mistakes." She is set to defend her title again in early August, and has expanded beyond tricking. In 2025, she competed in the National Kickboxing Championship, winning two silver medals in the musical form and creative form categories. At the same time, Indosalto has cemented its reputation with three of its pupils striking gold at the Indonesian Open Gymnastics Championships in July. Karlina took the gold in the girls' over-12 balance beam event and placed fifth overall across all events. Adelia won the girls' under-nine uneven bars event, while Katrina claimed gold in the girls' under-nine vault. "When the announcer called my name as the gold medallist, I just froze. I couldn't believe it," said Adelia. "I couldn't believe it either. I was so happy," Katrina added. Both girls said they were nervous because they had only been able to practise on competition-standard uneven bars and springboards about a week before the championships. "But Yoga kept telling me, ‘Just go out there and do what you always do'. That gave me the confidence to compete," said Katrina. OPPORTUNITIES AND POSSIBILITIES Word of Indosalto has spread far beyond the narrow alleyways of Penjaringan. Indonesian news outlets have been featuring the club's improbable rise since January, while the club and its rising stars Karlina, Katrina and Adelia now draw huge followings on social media. Parents from across Jakarta have contacted Yoga – who has returned to his pre-COVID-19 work of coaching and instructing – to ask if their children may train at Indosalto. To meet the growing demand, Indosalto launched public classes on Sundays at a park in Jakarta’s main sporting complex. Unlike the free weekday sessions reserved for children in Penjaringan, the weekend classes charge a fee and are open to anyone interested in learning gymnastics, tricking or capoeira. The Indonesian Gymnastics Federation also took notice, inviting the club to use its training facilities free of charge and waiving entry fees for its competitions. For Yoga, the offer was nothing short of a godsend. “The biggest help is the entry fee waivers, which can be up to 2.5 million rupiah (US$139) per person. That is a huge sum for many families in this area,” he said. Support has also poured in from individuals and companies, who have donated leotards, shoes, training gear and equipment, helping the club gradually replace its improvised setup. Its "uneven bars" were little more than two pull-up bars wedged between buildings, for instance, and it had no springboard for vaults, no balance beam and no proper landing mats, Yoga said. "We don’t have proper equipment, but we don’t let it stand in our way,” Yoga said. “I just focus on what I can teach: Strength, body control, balance, flexibility and discipline. If those foundations are strong, the children can adapt very quickly in all kinds of situations." Doors have opened beyond sport for the children. Event organisers invite them to perform at events, while casting directors approach Yoga about auditioning them for film and television projects. Yoga has turned down more offers than he has accepted as “some of those events would have meant the children missing school”. But he makes it a point to inform the children of every opportunity and explain why he accepted or rejected it. “That way, they know what possibilities are out there after they finish school," explained Yoga, who does not have children of his own. “They can work in the film industry and appear in action movies. They can be fight choreographers. Some may be interested in becoming coaches like me or be professional athletes,” he added. “It's up to them to decide what path they want to take.” His hope is that many more champions will emerge from the neighbourhood. “Most of the children here don't have much to do besides going to school … so they spend most of their time just hanging around,” said Yoga. “Around here, it's common to see fights and even gang clashes. We're trying to help them become more disciplined and give them a better direction.”