We sat down with Wendy Martin, CEO of Athletics ICC Insurance Services, to find out what insurance carriers actually look for when a gymnastics facility installs a landing airbag.

Insurance is one of those topics gym owners tend to think about only when something forces them to. An unexpected situation happened and suddenly you are on the phone trying to figure out whether the airbag you installed affects your coverage.

So we went straight to the source. We spoke with Wendy Martin, CEO of Athletics ICC Insurance Services, one of the leading US insurance agencies specializing in gymnastics, cheer, ninja, parkour, and other high-risk sports. Wendy is a lifelong gymnast. She also competed at the University of Michigan, coached at the University of Maryland for seven years, and spent years in the industry at Alpha Factor and GK Elite Sportswear before entering insurance. In other words, she knows both sides of the industry.

Here is what she told us.

Airbags Are Slowly Replacing Foam Pits, and Insurers Have Noticed

Before our call, Wendy reached out to every carrier her agency works with and asked what’s their opinion on this topic. The pattern that came back was clear.

“Foam pits are becoming less popular over time,” she told us. “It’s due to maintenance costs, hygiene, convenience. Bagjump has entered the world and they just make it easier. It’s something that could pop up, you can take it down, you can move it, it’s removable.”

One of her carriers put it more bluntly. Foam pits have caused a handful of severe injuries over the years, mostly from adults jumping in without understanding weight limits, or from pits with too few foam blocks to actually stop a fall safely.

Airbags are a different profile. Wendy has been in insurance since 2022, and in that time she has not seen a single claim involving a Bagjump.

“Having an airbag would help to eliminate some of these risks,” she said, “provided that all safety measures are followed properly.”

What Carriers Actually Want to See

Most carriers do not have hard rules for airbags. They have guidelines, and those guidelines are consistent across the market.

“We have guidelines that include maintenance, cleaning, inspection, and following manufacturer’s guidelines and instructions,” Wendy said. “Whoever is purchasing a Bagjump needs their guidelines and instructions right from the manufacturer. You need to do X, Y, and Z to be safe. And then there needs to be something by the owners of the gyms saying, yep, we’re doing X, Y, and Z.”

In practice, this means the gym owner should be able to prove three things at any moment. First, that the airbag is being maintained according to the manufacturer’s guidance. Second, that coaches have been trained properly. Third, that someone signs off regularly, whether through a maintenance log, a daily coach checklist, or another record-keeping system.

Wendy was specific about the training piece. “Educating your coaches on how to use the Bagjump, set up, take down, risk of underinflation or overinflation, making sure everybody knows how to use the airbag,  These are the guidelines given from the insurance carrier.”

The Inflatable Classification Trap

Here is the part most gym owners do not see coming. Because airbags are powered by air, some carriers classify them as inflatables. And some carriers do not cover inflatables at all.

“When people are putting it onto their application and submitting it to an insurance agent, they want to make sure they put that they have an inflatable, or at least a picture of the bagjump,” Wendy explained. “It’s an inflatable to some carriers because it is powered by air. Most people think of inflatables like a bounce house. This is just powered by air. So because of that, it does live in the inflatable category.”

The consequence is real. “We do have some carriers that won’t cover an inflatable. So some carriers won’t allow this in the facility. We as insurance agents need to know that we can’t go quote having the Bagjump at these carriers because they consider it an inflatable, and it’s no option. They’ll exclude it from the policy. That’s not good.”

Wendy noted that presentation matters too. Carriers that specialize in gymnastics and cheer are more receptive when the product is presented as a landing mat rather than as an entertainment attraction. The AirPit para Gimnasia is designed for exactly that use case: a professional gymnastics training tool, not a trampoline park ride.

“They are looking for the more basic,” she said. “You’re using it as a landing mat. You’re not setting up five bars in a row for people to flip and land on.”

Pricing Is the Same. The Decision Is About Fit.

One question every gym owner asks: does an airbag cost more to insure than a foam pit? According to Wendy, right now the answer is no.

“At the moment, price is the same. It doesn’t change it,” she said. “So what costs you more? It probably is more expensive to have a pit than it is to have a Bagjump. You have to keep changing out the foam cubes. It’s maintenance that’s required. The maintenance for the Bagjump is not as much, but you do have to make sure that you keep up to date with it.”

That shifts the decision back to what actually matters. Which product fits your facility, your coaching resources, your athletes, and your maintenance capacity? For lower-level programs and gyms that want a movable landing surface, airbags are often the better fit. For higher-level skills in gyms with limited coaching staff, a foam pit may still make sense in some cases.

Wendy shared a personal example from her own career. “I went to college at the University of Michigan, and we didn’t have a foam pit when we first got there. We did high level skills. We had just resi mats. A Bagjump airbag would have been great. That would have been wonderful, because we were just landing on resi mats that did not sink with us.”

Placement Matters More Than Owners Realize

Every facility is built differently, and every airbag placement decision is specific to the space.

“Everyone has to think about their space,” Wendy said. “Is a Bagjump okay up against a wall? In such a case, at least you have to have it padded on the wall, so that if you over-rotate a little bit, you’re fine.”

The advantage over a foam pit is exactly this flexibility. “The Bagjump is very appetizing because it goes up, it goes down, you can move it. You can put it on the spring floor and do drills onto it, and then you can remove it from the floor for days that you do routines.”

That flexibility is one of the main reasons gymnastics facilities are choosing airbags over permanent installations.

What Happens If There Is a Claim

If an injury on an airbag leads to a lawsuit, the investigation follows a predictable path.

“There’s a lot of things that are going to come into play,” Wendy said. “Number one is, did the coaches do X, Y, and Z that they were informed by the Bagjump staff? Did we give them directions and guidance? Was the air not working? Did somebody not check something? It’s going to be negligence. They’re going to try and find what happened to the bag.”

Depending on the answers, liability can land on the manufacturer, the gym owner, or the coaching staff. This is why documentation and recurring training matter so much.

“Educating your coaches and doing it regularly,” Wendy said. She was firm on our role as a manufacturer. “You just have to remember, as the product manufacturer, it’s your job to make sure that everybody’s trickling down. People just sell a product and they move on. But this product is probably going to be in people’s gyms for years.”

That is why every Bagjump installation comes with training, and why our support team stays available for the full life of the airbag.

Waivers Are Not Optional

The last point Wendy made was the most direct. Every person who uses or demonstrates the airbag needs to sign a waiver.

“A lot of people think it does nothing,” she said. “However, what the waiver does is defend the gym owner. If they don’t have a waiver for someone, the insurance can decline a claim because they’re going to say, they’re not your athlete, we don’t have to cover this.”

Bagjump airbags are becoming the standard replacement for foam pits in gymnastics facilities, and insurance carriers are following the shift. The requirements are not complicated. Disclose the airbag on your application. Place with a carrier that accepts it. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Train your coaches. Keep records. Get every user to sign a waiver.

Do those things and you are covered.

Wendy’s own summary of the product was short. “I think Bagjump is a great product. I think it’s helping a lot of programs that might not have the ability to have a higher elevated staff in their coaching. And I think this will help them too.”

Big thanks to Wendy Martin and the team at Athletics ICC Insurance Services for the conversation. For questions about installing a Bagjump in your instalación de gimnasia, or about the full range of Bagjump gymnastics airbags, our team is reachable here.