In Barbie Team Gymnastics the player helps Barbie, Chrissie, Teresa develop and perfect their routines on for different pieces of apparatus, the vault, the beam, the uneven bars and the floor. The girls practice until they are good enough to compete in various contests and hopefully qualify for the Nationals.

Their friend Kira takes the roles as coach and sets out some initial routines, Kira also provides the in-game voiceover help in all screens. Kira's routines are difficult enough for the smaller contests but it is up to the player to construct more complex routines for the national competition. This game is not about controlling the character(s) as they perform, routines are constructed by stringing together a series of preset moves and then pressing the 'Play' icon, however some moves do require the player to manage a power bar, for example the vault where more power means more height and a better chance of a good landing.

All team members must practice on each piece of apparatus until they are proficient, denoted by a green tick in the team roster, at which point they can start entering competitions - there are four competition levels in all local, sectional, regional and finally national. After each Kira's notebook will show where a character failed to score enough points.