August 11, 2014

First day at Lilleshall! I had a good sleep then went to breakfast at 8:00am.  Some younger boys from London were there with their coach.  Boys come here for the week with personal coaches so they can learn along with the boys from the national coaches. This morning’s training started 9:45a.  Normally morning training starts at 9:30a and goes to 1 or 1:15p.  Today we went to 1:15p.

The coaches had a meeting first and then Sam Hunter called us together.  He welcomed me to Lilleshall and asked everyone to welcome me as well as I had come all the way from Canada. Sam called out names for groups.  I was put with other 12 year olds.  Then we stood in lines, in our groups, before the 8 coaches.  Sir Ed and Carol-Angela were also there in addition to all these coaches. Coach Baz Collie then gave us a motivational speech. He talked about how well the British Team had done at Commonwealth Games and wouldn’t all you boys like to achieve that.  He talked about the hard work and focus it would take and that he wanted to see quality with each turn the boys took, with toes, line, legs, arms and body positions. He talked about the U.K. School Games coming up and other events the boys were heading toward.  He talked about how the boys had improved their rings last week, ‘well done! Let’s keep it up!’. ‘Do you fancy winning medals at Commonwealth Games like our team did? Well you have 5 days at the Lilleshall Centre without distractions so you can really focus. You all have the ability and talent.  Do you have the focus and the hard work? Let’s have a fantastic camp! We have Elijah, a guest from Canada, let’s make him welcome!’

Next the youngest boys (9-10) went to one floor with Sam to warm up and our large group of 18 boys, (mainly 12 year olds) stayed on the floor with the other coaches, led by Baz (Barrie Collie).  We did lines like we do with Markos at National Camp, only every exercise was as perfect form as possible and coaches stood at each line to correct and spot and demonstrate as necessary. It was very disciplined and great. Here are some things we did:

·       Arm circles and swinging as we ran round to warm up, but arms higher than shoulders, proper form, toes pointed

·       Walking on hands dragging our toes behind us (good position for pommels) across the floor

·       Wheel barrow hops across the floor with proper arch, snap, hollow (I got a good comment!)

·       Skips and hops across the floor with toes and hands being paid attention to, snap up, tight

·       ‘point your ankles’, ‘punch the floor with tuck jumps’,

·       Dive roll, straddle jump, punch front tuck

·       Back roll, back tuck, back roll, back tuck

·       Perfect position handstand walking across the floor, coaches correcting position at the start

·       Forward roll to straddle splits, forward roll right split, forward roll left split, finishing each split with arms and hands extended correctly

·       Straight leg forward roll (and in the stand), handstand hop, forward roll, finish, handstand full pirouette, forward roll, finish

·       Back roll to hollow position, back extension to handstand, (hit every handstand), back extension to full pirouette, then hold the handstand (good Elijah)

·       Endo rolls, planche up to handstand (coach supporting), continue press to handstands down the mat

·       Another row of back extensions, back extension full pirouette

·       ‘don’t just do it fast. Remind yourself to do it well.’ (had all of them practice the back roll to pirouette)

·       Back roll, pop half turns, then attempts at back roll, pop full turn

The littlest boys now went off with the coaches to do rings and p bars conditioning. We divided into our groups.  My group did beat board front tuck stick then front pike stick with Carol-Angela correcting our landing position. It was great.  Nothing is allowed to become a bad habit. Next we did standing back tucks and back pikes, stick, present.  Last was a handstand planche station with a coach.  We did some conditioning on P bars next with a spot: manna, handstand, straddle planche, press with bent arms to handstand, then over to parallets for wall push ups.  Last we did rings strength conditioning and pommel strength (planche push ups).   Everyone moves very quickly from exercise to exercise, both coaches and athletes. No one stops, no one practices poorly, no one gives any less than 100 percent. 

Our group’s first event was rings. We were in the gym with no pits so just did work over the mats.  I started with honma johannoson and got it fairly quickly.  Then I went to back giants and made those to handstand hold on my second turn.  I decided to try front giants as I haven’t done them in England yet.  They were not too bad.  The second one I came close to handstand hold.

Next we went to the pit gym for vault.  This was good because we vaulted over a big block into the pit.  I worked on push in my front front tuck, tsuk layout, and tried some twisting too.  Now I was getting to know the boys more so that was great. Everyone wants to know how it is in Canada!

After Vault we had a short time on Parallel Bars before breaking for lunch at 1:10p. (the dining room closes at ‘half one’ as they say here so we all hustled and I sat with the boys in my group.) On P bars they use a small bag of loose chalk powder only which is quite nice and cleaner.  The other boys needed to work on routines so I did some Stutz on regular p bars then some peach progressions.  These were coming better with some corerctions.  I didn’t have time to work on diamidovs and giants.  These young boys have 2 giants, healy, tippelt, diamidov, Stutz, peach to re grasp glide kip, double tuck in each routine! This is a real strength of this group, as well as pommel. Great to see!!

Lunch was a nice hot meal. Then I got to play with the boys in their rooms for a while, relax and be ready at 3:15p for 3:30-6:30p training.

Sam Hunter led warm up at 3:30p.  We did a lot of flexibility which was nice.  Carol-Angela watched closely to be sure every exercise was carried out with proper legs, ankles, toes and hands. Holding straddle push ups if someone tired she said, ‘when it gets hard, that’s when you get better.”  Nile Wilson came for some choreography with Carol-Angela after that and general training.  Very cool.

Carol-Angela takes individual boys to work on their corners and form in floor exercise.  It is a lot like Rima’s work.  The boys try very hard to perfect each tiny detail, from senior boys on down to the age group boys preparing for School Games.

Next we did some high bar in the back pit gym.  I think I have a Russian coach! I did stalders, endos, dislocate to handstand giant hop to front giant, then another dislocate to giant hop to front giant.  I worked on progressions for double layout dismount again and am releasing at a better time and getting higher and straighter in my body.  Some boys are super good on p bars but not as strong on high bar. High Bar went well for me.

We did rod floor next:

·       Nice fly springs down the whole track

·       2 front layouts in a row, nice height

·       Whip backs

·       Every line must be properly finished and landed

·       Round off back layout with twists was next (1/1, 1 ½, 2/1!! First time from round off)

·       Round off back layout ½, punch front;

I liked the older boys (13-14) clapping for each other over pommel skills and successes.  It is also so amazing to see the seniors like Nile and Dom preparing right beside us in the gym on the next apparatus.   Sir Ed was right, when the squad comes it is a beehive of activity at Lilleshall training centre.  It is a great atmosphere here!

After floor we went to pommels.  I have so far to catch up because of my injury, but now that I can do a bit, I am determined to do what I can.  With Nile Wilson vaulting beside you, you’re not about to give up!I worked on handstand pirouette dismounts and got them back. I tried some flares and some circles on long pommel.  It is a bit of a slow road back.

I went off with my new friends to play, then dinner at 7pm.  After dinner we played in the massive gardens behind the Duke of Sutherland’s castle like home.  We played ‘football’ (soccer) tearing around pure green lawn-like field.  The trees are ancient.  I am sure they were here when the feudal lord had his tenant farmers working the fields and tending his hunting horses and dogs! 

Next,  my friends and I went walking through the gardens and forest surrounding the halls. Most of us are staying at Kent Hall.  Right behind is the covered pathway, fountain and forest area. It’s awesome!