August 6, 2014

Day 1 of my training camp with Lee Woolls at Birmingham Gymnastics! I was still really tired and a little woozy from the trip but it was a good day at the gym.  We trained from 12p-6p with a break for lunch.  I met all the lads and everyone was really nice.  Some boys from Leeds’ Gym (Nile Wilson’s gym) also came to train.  Josh Nathan trained with me.  He’s my billet and is brilliant!

I met coaches Lee, Sam and Luke and all of the boys.  We started with a general warm up with the entire big group (16 or so boys): stretches and lines on the floor. A few things were new to me like back roll into immediate back handspring to back tuck.  It was a fun warm up.  Next we broke into pairs to do conditioning til 1;30p.  I was used to the exercises and all went well except I started to get a stomach ache from the long trip.  The boys worked independently at conditioning stations with minor corrections or help by the coaches. The gym was light, airy and clean.

One really cool thing is that in Britain they have 'squads' like age group national team in Canada, but they meet for camps 8 times per year!  They are a real team.  Also, when they get to a certain age (12?) they start training 4 days a week with the squad and the national coach and just 2 days a week with their personal coach.  I also love that they all warm up together in a big group like Markos does for national camps, every day, then split up a bit.

Next we broke for an hour lunch and play outdoors.  Fresh air was what I needed and I started to feel better!

After break, first we did tumbling on the rod floor.  I did 2 front layouts in a row, back handspring lines, and whip backs.  Next I went to Rings while some other boys did pommel.  My wrist is still sore so I did less pommel than the others.  On Rings I had a good set with some back giants to handstand hold (good corrections from Lee), double full dismount and some honma – yohnassen, almost making the second flip. I noticed there were never more than 2 boys at the chalk and everyone was ready for their turn.

My right foot was sore so I had to leave vault early.  The coaches were great about moving me to another event.  I went to pommels and did some scissors on the two handle.

Next was parallel bars where I practiced my Stutz on the pit bars (over a trench so the coach can be right at your level without standing on blocks).  Lee gave me some good tips. I also worked on double back dismounts from the real bars.  Joe Fraser and Josh Nathan worked their routines to practice for the upcoming U.K. School Games.

By High Bar I was starting to feel a little better.  I worked on my endos, healy’s to eagle grip, hop to front giant, dislocates, tkatchevs and dismounts.  I have the wrong technique in dismounts so need to relearn those again!  Frustrating but I knew that and will just have to go at it again. I won’t give up.

I ended with some stretching and rolling as everything was feeling pretty sore.  Off to Josh’s flat for a good meal and sleep!

Sa

Sam, myself and Josh Nathan