Welcome to the July edition of Kim’s Corner! Wow, our Aspire girls have been busy in the gym, competiting and preparing for competitions. I thought this month I would also explain a little more about the gymnastics levels and what they mean; as well as our philosophy on training hours in the gym for our levels gymnasts.
Queensland Club Championships
Congratulations to our Southport Gymnasts who competed beautifully at the 2018 Queensland Club Championships in Caloundra. We are so excited to announce our club has placed 8th Overall Club in QLD! This year, Southport Gymnastics had teams in all five divisions, from Level 4 to Level 8-10 and our gymnasts were battling it out against Clubs from across the State. Our gymnasts have been working so hard in the gym and at their lead up events, we were proud of them before they even take to the floor. We knew the girls were well prepared and ready to rock and this amazing result speaks for itself! Thanks to our gymnasts, coaches, parents and support crew for helping the girls do what they love!
This year, one of our very talented parents has been busy making Southport Gymnastics Hair Ribbons for the gymnasts who were selected for State Clubs. The ribbons look fantastic and we thank Kim Dalton for her efforts in putting them together. Part of the money raised in selling the ribbons will go back into the gym for equipment for our gymnasts. As we get closer to Jnr State Championships, we will have more ribbons made available for purchase. Check out how gorgeous they are!
Lots of Fun at Delta Team Challenge
The last couple of months have seen our Aspire gymnasts in Level 3-9 preparing for Delta Team Challenge. This event was hosted by Delta Brisbane and girls travelled to Kedron to compete in what is a great lead up even for State Club Championships. Our girls had a fantastic comp and had lots of fun on the floor. Check out all of the results, wrap up and photos from the Delta Team Challenge below:
Competitive Levels & Training Hours
In 2015, Gymnastics Australia introduced the Australian Level’s Program, providing a comprehensive guide to the pathway for gymnasts within both National and International gymnastics stream. The new routine formats in this program, encourage the progressive development of gymnasts through the levels.
At Delta, we believe coaching good gymnastics is most important and the stream selected for each girl should be based on their individual needs.
We aim to give all girls the best chance to achieve their potential. Delta competitive gymnasts may have the opportunity to transfer between streams at one of the listed transfer points and when the Aspire Coaches feel it is most beneficial to a child’s development.
Training Hours
At Delta we believe it is important each child grow and develop at their own pace. Allowing appropriate time to develop strong fundamentals, ensures each child achieves ongoing improvement and becomes confident and competent.
We consider each gymnast individually and factor in the below when deciding on group placement and training hours:
- A gymnast will be placed in a group that suits his/her social and gymnastic level of development
- A gymnast must demonstrate the capacity to gain value for the hours they train in both the short & long term
- A gymnast must want to increase training hours and love their training before an upgrade occurs
- A gymnast must benefit from training more hours commensurate with the time, money and effort required to do those extra hours
One of the secrets to our success is we nurture the girls and don’t push them when they aren’t ready to be pushed.
At Delta we know that our girls train fewer hours than any other of the competitive clubs in Queensland – a fact of which we are very proud!
It is our philosophy that we would prefer our gymnasts to work hard in less hours rather than waste time training more hours to achieve no better result. We are happy for a gymnast to take a little more time developing, knowing that it leads to a longer, healthier, happier, and more successful career.
At Delta we believe gymnasts should train the hours which will provide them with the best value for the time and effort they invest into gymnastics. We want to promote gymnasts have a balanced lifestyle, which enables them to participate in school activities, have family time and maximise their training outcomes.
See you in the gym!
Kim Whitehead
Team Leader