SquadLink THIS MONTH COMPETITION UPDATE. Team Victorian Championships

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Shawn Watkins
5 years ago
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SquadLink THIS MONTH The L3-6 competition season is in full swing now with

We ve had staff jet set to the USA on an invaluable professional development

Championships, the National Club Championships in sunny Queensland is only a

COMPETITION UPDATE Team Victorian Championships The Level 7-10 gymnasts

1 SquadLink THIS MONTH The L3-6 competition season is in full swing now with the Regional Championships upon us. We ve had staff jet set to the USA on an invaluable professional development experience, the Level 7-10s did MLC proud at the Team Victorian Championships, the National Club Championships in sunny Queensland is only a couple of weeks away and.spring has kind of sprung woohoo! COMPETITION UPDATE Team Victorian Championships The Level 7-10 gymnasts competed at the Victorian Team Championships at the end of August coming away with some wonderful results: Level 7 Silver Level 8 Silver Level 9 Gold Level 10 Gold

Level 5 Lulu Spinks Imogen Grant Liliana Dal Sasso Abigall Huang Harriet Spiden Annabel Feeney Level 6 Alannah Turner Keira Geary Krystal Trinh Hanna Graham Amelia Nakos Lara Sjoblom Level 7 Amber

2 COMPETITION UPDATE cont. National Club Championships Congratulations to the following gymnasts who have been selected to represent MLC Gymnastics at the National Club Championships in Queensland at the beginning of October: Level 5 Lulu Spinks Imogen Grant Liliana Dal Sasso Abigall Huang Harriet Spiden Annabel Feeney Level 6 Alannah Turner Keira Geary Krystal Trinh Hanna Graham Amelia Nakos Lara Sjoblom Level 7 Amber Ward Emma Ross Daphne Lo Jessica Goh Phoebe Sneath Amy Barnett Level 8 Naomi Lee Tess Hayes Abbey Thein Nicola Lim Joon Annabelle Wingrove Sama Ahmed Level 9/10 Giulia Archer Lauren Pengelly Lisa Nadine Tan Harriet Wingrove Keep up to date with the fun by following us on Instagram!: mlc_gymnastics PARENT VIEWING Please note that the next Parent Viewing will be on Friday 19 th October from pm and Saturday 20 th October 8.00am-5.00pm. For those who are new to MLC Gymnastics, we open the folding doors between the Sports Hall and the Gym so you can watch your daughter train. Please be aware of the following: Viewing training during the term is discouraged, so please use this opportunity to watch your daughter. Your other children must be supervised at all times. Balls are strictly prohibited in the sports hall during the viewing session. There is no food or drink permitted in the Sports Hall. Please ensure that all family members stay away from the entrance to the gym for the safety of gymnasts. Flash photography is not permitted during training.

THE MINDFUL ATHLETE The Shooting Stars and Star Flyers athletes, coaches and parents were lucky enough to be involved in a session presented by 2 psychologists from The

This session was a practical exploration of the science of mindful attention and how it impacts athletic training and performance.

From here, Kayleigh then qualified for the National School Snow Sports Championships and placed 11th! Amazing work Kayleigh!

This is an amazing mix of events which we have been told very few people do, so well done Amber!

3 THE MINDFUL ATHLETE The Shooting Stars and Star Flyers athletes, coaches and parents were lucky enough to be involved in a session presented by 2 psychologists from The Mind Room as part of our Wellness Program. This session was a practical exploration of the science of mindful attention and how it impacts athletic training and performance. From all reports, Michael Inglis and Jo Mitchell were wonderful presenters and have hopefully given the attendees some strategies they can use in the gym and in life in general! GYMNAST NEWS Congratulations to Kayleigh Yap who came 2nd in the individual mogul event and 1st in the team mogul event at the Victorian School Snow Sports Championships. From here, Kayleigh then qualified for the National School Snow Sports Championships and placed 11th! Amazing work Kayleigh! Congratulations to Amber Ward who raced at the Victorian School Snow Sport Championships in the following events: Slalom, SkierX, Snow board and 2 types of cross country. This is an amazing mix of events which we have been told very few people do, so well done Amber! STAFF NEWS Congratulations to Bridget Facey who has been successful in entering the Police Force! She starts at the end of September but will continue coaching her Gymstar athletes. Well done Bridget! Fiona Tomietto walked 35km from Yarra Bend Park in Fairfield, all the (long) way to St Kilda to raise money for Mitochondrial Disease! Fi took part in the event on Sunday 26th August but you can still donate to her page. The Mito Foundation have nearly reached their goal of $590,000! Well done Fi!! _ga=

USA REPORT by ANNA FRANCIS During August, Meagan and I felt very privileged to represent MLC in the USA at the USAG Congress and USA Gymnastics Championships.

Disappointingly, USA does not do brunch very well, so the first of too many Starbucks visits transpired, as did the longing for a good Melbourne coffee!

A wellattended event with close to 5000 USAG members, the conference covered all aspects of gymnastics, including technical information for each Gymsport, business information, sports science,

4 USA REPORT by ANNA FRANCIS During August, Meagan and I felt very privileged to represent MLC in the USA at the USAG Congress and USA Gymnastics Championships. After a particularly unpleasant 34 hour journey over to Boston, we were relieved to be able to enjoy a night of horizontal sleep and the thought of a sleep in, then brunch the following morning. Disappointingly, USA does not do brunch very well, so the first of too many Starbucks visits transpired, as did the longing for a good Melbourne coffee! A one hour train ride awaited to Providence, Rhode Island, the location for USAG Congress. A wellattended event with close to 5000 USAG members, the conference covered all aspects of gymnastics, including technical information for each Gymsport, business information, sports science, psychology, judging, and anything else in between! The days were long, and full, but with presenters that are the bees knees in gymnastics circles, our enthusiasm definitely did not wane. Our friend Jess from Waverley Gymnastics Centre was also at Congress, so between the three of us, we attended as many lectures as possible and have pooled our resources together for our coaches and administration teams to make use of. We are looking forward to sharing it with them! In conjunction with Congress, there was also a Trade Show for equipment suppliers, leotard suppliers, medal and trophy suppliers, class management programs and many more! Meagan and I visited many a leotard supplier, and wanted to bring back tubs of $10 leotards GK, Alpha Factor, and Ozone but we had no room in our suitcases!! Wish I d known about those we could have started a Pro Shop, like all the clubs have in the USA! At the conclusion of Congress, we travelled by train to Manhattan, New York! While Manhattan is not exactly a gymnastics mecca (gyms don t really fit in apartments!!), there are some very strong clubs with both amazing coaches and athletes. Our first stop was NYC Elite the Upper West side facility, one of three located along the Hudson River, was not exactly your typical layout! Across three levels, this gym was the only one of their facilities that a) didn t have a pillar in the middle of floor, or b) did not require the gymnast to tumble either uphill, or downhill! They worked like clockwork all the same, and the skill level and work ethic of these young gymnasts was incredible! Like most clubs, they run recreational gymnastics as well as team gymnastics to cover the costs of the competitive program. Their one hour class rate is approximately AUD$70!! Their annual rental bill is close to AUD$1M. Next stop was Chelsea Piers, a huge facility with soccer, basketball, golf, rock climbing, ice skating, ice hockey, and of course gymnastics! The different sports are run across a number of piers on the Hudson River, and is a privately owned business. Due to the sheer number of participants on a daily basis, their class price was about AUD$50 per hour. Almost a bargain! As it was summer holidays, the entire facility was full of children involved in summer camps. In amongst the organised chaos, we witnessed a few small groups of team gymnasts up to Level 8. I d loath the job of organising the rotation schedule there!!

USA REPORT by ANNA FRANCIS Our last visit was a 90 minute subway and Uber ride away to Morganville, New Jersey. The home of the current flavour of the month, Riley McCusker.

5 USA REPORT by ANNA FRANCIS Our last visit was a 90 minute subway and Uber ride away to Morganville, New Jersey. The home of the current flavour of the month, Riley McCusker. Unfortunately, due to the USA Championships running the next weekend, the elite group had already left to train in Boston. Even still, there was a group of about 35 Level 6-10 athletes and about 20 Level 4 s. This large group was carefully selected from their recreational program and their training program is intense, but also perfectionistic. There are very high expectations for shape and form but their skill development is also excellent. It s often a discussion point for us about what becomes more important the execution, or the skill itself. Their training program sure does demonstrated that you can have both, but these kids were very tough! You could see that even some of the 6/7 years olds are used to really pushing their bodies to the limits! Our last club visit was back in Boston at our current National Coach s own club, Brestyan s Gymnastics. Mihai Brestyan has coached two athletes to USA Team gold at the Olympics and is now assisting Australia in a return to the world stage. His group of Level 7-10 athletes had about 55 athletes in it and only four coaches doing the coaching. The girls knew their program and trained with an incredible intensity. Often they would finish their apparatus assignment and be puffing on the side at the end! Their summer holiday training sessions lasted 7 hours with a lunch break in the middle and their focus at that time of the year was on skill development. Their skill level was excellent but Mihai said their work ratio was so high at the moment that there was not so much of a focus on the execution. They were getting very fit and building skill and then the time would come where they worked on the technical aspects too, in preparation for their season! The last few days in Boston were spent at TD Gardens watching the USAG Gymnastics Championships. We watched the Junior and Senior elite athletes (of which there were about 20 in each), and just WOW! I must say, I don t often feel star struck (I would if I saw Pink) but being so close to Simone Biles was a bit surreal! She was looking stronger than ever and even she said she was not in her best form yet! I can t wait to see how far she can go! Simone won the AA title and every apparatus! They say she is the Nadia Comaneci of this era, but I think Simone will (or maybe already has!!) surpass all Nadia s accolades soon. I ve never really been a networker either, but I am glad we did on this occasion as we went back to the hotel where all the judges, coaches and gymnasts were staying with some new friends. As we were enjoying our pizza, Riley McCusker, Olivia Greaves, Morgan Hurd, Grace McCallum, Jordan Weiber, Nastia Liukin and some other famous USA gymnasts of the past were all within our reach! I think this was the most exciting thing I shared with the gymnasts when I came back home!! They couldn t believe I actually talked to Riley (just one sentence though!!). Thank you to Leslie and Debbie Bennett for supporting us with this trip Meagan and I have returned with some very useful information and we are looking forward to sharing more of it. This opportunity helps us immensely and we hope to be able to offer return visits to other MLC staff, particularly as we work on our return to world class gymnastics, as a country!

6 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! September babies Alisa Z 3rd Natalie K 4th Aria R 6th Abigall H 8th Grace VDB 16th Jackie (S) 18th Zoe M 20th Harriet S 21st Ava J 27th Bridget (S) 29th S = Staff member GYMNAST OF THE MONTH GYMNAST OF THE MONTH Gymnast of the month is awarded each month (except January & December). Coaches of each squad (excluding Pre Starlets) are asked to nominate a gymnast who they believe is a role model for others in the squad and for younger gymnasts in the club and have also shown improvement in one or more areas over the month. From the nominees, a Gymnast of the Month (for the competitive program) is then selected. All nominees are awarded a certificate, and the winner a certificate & gift. Nominees for July: Starlets 6-9 Hours Nina Weeks Starlets 9-12 Hours Natalie Kum Star Flyers Hours (Alex & Siobhan) Josephine Riotto Star Flyers Hours (Li) Harriet Spiden Shooting Stars 12 Hours Rebecca Paratz Shooting Stars Hours Jacinta Smith & Amelia Entwisle Shooting Stars Hours Lisa-Nadine Tan...and the winner is.. Jacinta Smith

7 GYMNAST OF THE MONTH cont. Nominees for August: Starlets 6-9 Hours Starlets 9-12 Hours Star Flyers 10 Hours Star Flyers Hours (Alex & Siobhan) Shooting Stars 12 Hours Shooting Stars Hours Shooting Stars Hours Mary-Jane Gilbert Lor-Ren Chan Maeve O Byrne Isabella Gan Cara Graham Tess Hayes Jessica Goh...and the winner is.. Mary-Jane Gilbert RESULTS Eclipse Invitational Level 3 2nd Vault; 1st Bars; 1st Beam; 5th Floor; 1st AA (Alice, Sophie, Dusty, Maeve, Claire, Lucy) Level 4 (Division 2) Isabella Kingsley-Smith 5th Bars; 2nd Beam Level 4 (Division 1) MLC Green Team 2nd Vault; 2nd Bars; 4th Beam; 2nd Floor; 4th AA (Chloe G, Alexandria, Josephine, Georgia, Mackenzie, Olivia) MLC Black Team* 1st Vault; 1st Bars; 1st Beam; 1st Floor; 1st AA (Chloe H, Jennifer, Eliza, Isabella, Anja, Audrey) Chloe Groom Alexandria Tasevski Josephine Riotto Georgia Brown 3rd Vault; 4th Bars; 3rd Beam; 3rd Floor; 3rd AA 2nd Floor 3rd Floor 4th Vault Chloe Horgan* Jennifer Goh* Eliza Wingrove* Isabella Gan* 3rd Vault; 1st Beam; 3rd Floor; 1st AA 2nd Beam; 1st Floor; 2nd AA 4th Vault; 2nd Bars; 4th AA 5th Vault; 4th Beam; 2nd Floor; 5th AA *Gymnasts were in a different session to the other Level 4 gymnasts

8 RESULTS Eclipse Invitational Level 5 (Division 1) MLC Black Team 4th Vault; 1st Bars; 3rd Beam; 3rd Floor; 1st AA (Sian, Kayleigh, Imogen, Harriet, Charlotte, Liliana) Sian Francis Kayleigh Yap Imogen Grant Charlotte Pole 1st Bars; 5th Beam 5th Bars; 2nd Floor 3rd Vault; 2nd Bars 4th Floor Level 6 (Division 2) (Hanna, Sienna, Laura, Claudia) Hanna Graham 2nd Bars, 4th Beam; 5th AA 4th Vault; 3rd Bars; 1st Beam; 2nd AA Level 6 (Division 1) MLC Green Team (Amelia, Krystal, Lara, Madeleine) MLC Black Team (Alanna, Keira, Mia, Daisy) Alanna Turner Amelia Nakos Krystal Trinh Lara Sjoblom Keira Geary Mia Daniels 1st Beam; 2nd Floor; 1st AA 1st Vault; 4th Floor 2nd Vault; 4th Bars; 2nd AA 2nd Beam; 3rd Floor; 4th AA 5th Vault; 1st Beam 5th Beam 4th Floor 4th Vault Level 7 (Division 2) 2nd Vault; 1st Bars; 2nd Beam; 1st Floor; 1st AA (Phoebe, Daphne, Isabella, Rebecca, Lara) Phoebe Sneath Daphne Lo Isabella Dussin Rebecca Paratz Lara Hennessy 2nd Vault; 2nd Beam; 2nd Floor; 1st AA 1st Bars; 1st Floor; 4th AA 5th Vault; 2nd Bars; 5th Floor 1st Beam 5th Bars Level 7 (Division 1) Amy Barnett Madelyn Bui 2nd Vault; 2nd Bars; 2nd Beam; 2nd Floor; 2nd AA 1st Vault; 5th Floor 2nd Beam

9 RESULTS Eclipse Invitational (cont.) Level 8 (Division 2) Cara Graham 3rd Vault; 5th Bars; 5th Beam; 2nd Floor; 3rd AA Level 8 (Division 1) Amelia Entwisle Tess Hayes Nicola Lim Joon Abbey Thein 1st Vault; 1st Bars; 1st Beam; 1st Floor; 1st AA 1st Vault; 3rd Bars; 2nd Beam; 2nd Floor; 1st AA 2nd Vault; 2nd Bars; 4th Beam; 4th Floor; 2nd AA 3rd Vault; 1st Bars; 3rd Floor 3rd Beam; 1st Floor Please click here for the full set of results. Jets Invitational Level 3 1st Vault; 3rd Bars; 5th Beam; 2nd Floor; 3rd AA Level 4 (Division 1) MLC Silver Team MLC Green Team 2nd Vault; 2nd Bars; 1st Beam; 1st Floor; 1st AA 2nd Vault; 1st Bars; 2nd Beam; 2nd Floor; 2nd AA Level 5 (Division 1) MLC Black Team MLC Green Team 5th Vault; 4th Bars; 5th Beam; 2nd Floor; 4th AA 5th Beam Level 6 (Division 1) MLC Black Team MLC Green Team 3rd Vault; 2nd Bars; 2nd AA 5th Bars; 1st Beam; 5th AA Level 6 (Division 2) 2nd Bars; 5th Beam; 5th Floor; 5th AA Level 3 Dusty Priest Alice Lundie Sophie Chuter Claire Cuddihy* Maeve O Byrne* 1st Vault; 2nd Bars; =4th AA =2nd Vault; 5th Beam; 4th Floor 5th Floor =2nd Vault =2nd Vault; =3rd Floor *Gymnasts competed in a different session to the other Level 3 gymnasts Level 4 Over (Division 1) Josephine Riotto Olivia Wang =4th Vault; 4th Bars; 1st Floor; 2nd AA 2nd Bars

10 RESULTS Jets Invitational (cont.) Level 4 Under (Division 1) Jennifer Goh Chloe Groom Chloe Horgan Alexandria Tasevski Eliza Wingrove Georgia Brown Mackenzie Lehmann Isabella Gan 4th Vault; 5th Bars; 1st Beam; 1st Floor; 1st AA 5th Vault; 3rd Bars; 2nd Beam; 3rd Floor; 2nd AA 2nd Bars; 5th Floor; = 3rd AA 1st Bars; 4th Floor; =3rd AA 3rd Vault; 3rd Beam; 5th AA 4th Bars 4th Beam 5th Beam; 2nd Floor Level 4 Under (Division 2) Isabella Kingsley-Smith 2nd Vault; =3rd Beam; 1st Floor; 2nd AA Level 5 Over (Division 1) Sian Francis Liliana Dal Sasso 1st Bars =4th Beam Level 5 Under (Division 1) Lulu Spinks Imogen Grant Annabel Feeney Abigall Huang 2nd Bars; =4th Beam; 1st Floor; 2nd AA 4th Vault; 4th Bars; 3rd Floor 5th Bars 5th Floor Level 6 Over (Division 1) Krystal Trinh Alanna Turner 1st Vault; 1st Beam; =3rd Floor; 2nd AA 4th Vault; =3rd Bars; 5th Beam; 4th AA Level 6 Over (Division 2) Zoe Moore 4th Bars; 3rd Beam Level 6 Under (Division 1) Mia Daniels Keira Geary Madeleine Yim Lara Sjoblom 5th Vault; 3rd Bars 2nd Bars 4th Bars 3rd Beam Level 6 Under (Division 2) Hanna Graham =4th Bars; 5th Beam; 5th AA Please click here for the full set of results

SquadLink THIS MONTH COMPETITION UPDATE. 4th in Australia!!

SquadLink THIS MONTH COMPETITION UPDATE. 4th in Australia!! SquadLink THIS MONTH We hosted the MLC Junior Star Classic in September with over 400 gymnasts competing over 1.5 days!! And the National Club Championships was a successful trip again.amazingly orchestrated