Mark van Gorp

About me

I’ve lived in Tilburg all my life, I’m the father of two daughters – Noa and Zoë – and I’m married to Claudia. Sport has played an important role in my life for as long as I can remember. Sitting still has never really been in my vocabulary.

I started doing gymnastics when I was seven. As I got older, I realised that, as well as enjoying the sport myself, I also got a lot of pleasure from coaching others. That’s why I started working as a coach with the women’s competitive gymnastics team. Coaching gymnasts, working on their development and helping them realise their potential gave me a huge boost of energy. Seeing the athletes’ progress and growing self-confidence, in particular, made my role as a coach truly special.

I gave up gymnastics myself in 2009, but the sport remained an important part of my life. For many years afterwards, I continued to work as a coach in the gym, passing on my knowledge and experience to the next generation.

When I wanted to get back into exercise myself and was looking for a new challenge, a colleague introduced me to TausGym. From my very first FIT taster session, I was hooked. I wasn’t very familiar with this way of training, but I realised straight away that it suited me perfectly. The variety, the challenge and constantly pushing my limits really appealed to me. Years later, I’m still enjoying my training and continue to challenge myself to go one step further every time.

Pushing boundaries is very much part of my nature. For example, I’ve completed several 42-kilometre Iron Viking runs and even a 60-kilometre Ultra Viking. Not because I necessarily wanted to be the fastest, but because I enjoy discovering where my limits lie and how you can push them through perseverance, discipline and self-belief.

When Noa was born in 2016, I stopped working as a gymnastics coach to spend more time with my family. However, when Noa took up gymnastics herself years later and the club was urgently looking for coaches, I started to feel the itch again. I didn’t have to think twice and have now been working as a gymnastics coach for two years. My focus is very much on technique and posture. From my own experience, I know how important a solid foundation is for training better, becoming stronger and staying injury-free.

When Riaz asked me to join the Taus Gym team, time was always my main excuse. But the last time he asked, I thought: why shouldn’t I be able to fit it in? Fortunately, this time I did say yes 😊

As an instructor, I want to help people not only get fitter and stronger, but also to experience what sport can do for your personal growth. Whether you’re just starting out or have been training for years, I love guiding people, motivating them and helping them get the best out of themselves.

“I believe that everyone is capable of more than they think. Sometimes you just need someone to help you push those boundaries.”