In her first Scottish Championships, Isabella Willocks made the long trip north to Perth for the first major competition of the season.

Issy was looking to compete new skills she had been working on in the Espoir category. Everybody was really welcoming which helped the podium training where Issy displayed a relaxed but focused approach successfully training all her skills.

Warm up for competition went extremely well, with the new skills looking particularly solid. Starting on Bars Issy showed a clean tidy routine but unfortunately a couple of missed handstands cost her resulting in a lower than expected score. Moving to Beam, she was unable to replicate the solid acro series from the warm up and finished the routine with two falls. On floor she produced a very tidy routine producing a very respectable score of 10.95, finally to vault and the first time she had competed her new vault (Tucked Tsuk) in major competition. A slightly low landing was the only major deduction but a very positive result considering she had only been working the vault for just over a month. A good debut at a new competition and although not everything went to plan there were many positives and Issy showed that she has the skills to potentially finish in the top 10 and with more to come in the near future we're sure next year she will be back next year determined to show what she is capable of.

On Friday 3rd March several members of the WA programme made the journey down to Pipers Vale Gymnastics Club in Ipswich for the Quatro Cup competition. 

NGA followed up their hugely impressive display at the Junior British Team Championships in 2016 with another victory in the FIG team competition. 

The team made up of Elite squad members Laura Kaletha (14) Christine Tse (14) Scarlett Williams (13) and Ramiyah Kofi (12) produced some beautiful work across all four of the apparatus to top the podium ahead of the teams who boasted several current National squad members and seasoned International performers. 

The young team will now move onto their next objectives with huge confidence when they compete at the individual British Championships and English Championships a couple of weeks later. 

Notts were also admirably represented by a team from the WA challenge section as Thea Dane, Olivia Hackney and Lucy Moxham competed some new skills in preparation for the English Championships, with plenty of time  now left to consolidate their routines. 

Earlier on in the day, it was the turn of the youngsters from the Elite group who were looking to gain some vital competitive experience in preparation for their upcoming National Levels. 

Summer Hill showed great potential with a crowd pleasing floor routine, Mika Longin worked beautifully without any major errors across all the apparatus and earned two awards for execution, with Jasmine Whitaker and Geneva Jones both delivering signs of encouragement for their upcoming competitions.

Christine Tse, Laura Kaletha, Isabella Willocks, Jasmine Whitaker, Mika Webster Longin and Geneva Jones competed at their first competition of the year, Quatro Angel of the North  in Liverpool. It was a good opportunity for the girls to compete new skills and kick start their competition season. 

Mika showed nice tidy routines and is ready to improve on them over the next few weeks. Jasmine was pleased to compete a confident new beam routine with no falls whilst Geneva focused on her routines and on gaining confidence in the competition environment. On floor, Laura demonstrated powerful tumbles including a double Arabian and a one and half twist  punch full twisting straight front. Isabella, who is preparing for the Scottish championship, landed a new tuck tsukahara and a beautiful new double pike dismount off bars. Christine competed all around with poise and elegance and earned a well deserved second place. 

Well done to all the girls and good luck with the rest of your competitions! 

A massive well done to our Development Elite and Development Challenge girls who entered the EVGC Valentine's Invitational on Sunday.

The Development Elite girls did a fantastic job. Congratulations to Katie, 2nd, and Cadie, 1st on vault. On bars Cadie also came 1st. Katie came 2nd on floor, Cadie 3rd and Diaz 1st on range, and an extra special mention to Cadie who came 1st all-around. 

Naomi had a clean beam routine despite nerves prior to comp, Sophia performed with grace and poise at her first ever competition, and Erin did a great vault. The coaches were so pleased with all the girls' team spirit.

Development Challenge also did a great job competing at club grade 5 last weekend. A big well done to Anna Bianchi who came 2nd overall and Adele Brown who came 3rd overall. Both girls showed us some fantastic routines especially their range and conditioning where they placed 1st and 2nd.                                                      

The girls also achieved a few apparatus medals where we saw Adele and Violet perform much improved bar routines meaning that they placed 2nd and 3rd on bars, a beautiful floor routine from Lottie which earned her 1st place on floor and a silver medal for Bella's very neat beam routine! Nina and Amelia both improved their confidence with their skills on beam meaning they placed 4th and 5th on this piece.

All the girls had a clean competition and were very pleased with themselves!

Both groups are now working hard and looking forward to their next competition on 5th March.

Thank you also to EVGC for hosting such a lovely and smooth-running comp!

Wow…where did my first year here at the Academy go? I would like to take this opportunity to provide you all with an update on the building works, a brief review of 2016 and the direction the Academy is heading in 2017 and beyond.

 The Academy is now the sole tenant of the building and we are in the process of securing an initial, five-year lease with the Council. Since the closure of the leisure centre, contactors have been on site making the necessary amendments to provide us with a new entrance and access to our space, which will also include use of a couple of rooms within the centre.

Building works are due to be completed by the middle of March, however I am unable to provide you with an estimated date of when our access will be made available for use. In the meantime, please do continue to use the stairs and pathway up to our main entrance and feel free to wait upstairs in the hallway next to our offices.

My arrival has coincided with a few staff leaving for pastures new, alongside an influx of talented and motivated individuals who have gelled together remarkably well to create the exciting team that we can all be hugely proud of. The Academy has also grown from within, investing in two promotions from zero hours’ contracts to full time salaried positions, which is a large shift in mind set for any sporting club.

Our coaching team have been supported for the first time in their quest to upskill, with many of the team making use of the new Academy initiative for funding towards coaching courses. Last year saw several qualifications gained at the introductory level, continuing through to the pinnacle of High Performance, which has provided the members with an even greater level of coaching and expertise.

The Academy had enjoyed major success at every level of competition throughout 2016, boasting a European Champion, 2 Team GB representatives in Rio, the Junior British Team Champions, as well as many more medallists at a National, Regional and County level. Participation levels have increased within our Gymnastics for All discipline, providing more opportunities for development at the grass roots level, with a highlight for the discipline being; the inaugural “In House” Gfa competition which saw over 230 members participating.

The growth in membership has also seen the Academy strive to achieve a more conducive ratio of athlete: coach levels, for the participants to fulfil their own levels of potential throughout the various disciplines, whilst creating progressive pathways for entry and exits from each of our sessions/ disciplines.

The careful and strategic expansion continued with the introduction of our new satellite club at the Rushcliffe Arena where participants receive an introduction to the sport before becoming full members of the Academy. Creating a larger talent pool to select from within, is a key priority for the Academy moving forward, whilst maximising the opportunities for all involved to continue loving their time in this wonderful sport.

The Academy has invested heavily on the equipment front, providing our Athletes with a truly world class facility and we are looking to invest again this year to create a useable space within the sports hall. Expansion is needed to offset the increased overheads involved with the sole tenancy agreement, however the new sessions will take place over a weekend, providing extra room on a week night for warm ups and physical preparation to take place.

Charity status within 2017 is a major objective for our hard working and dedicated members of the Board. Discussions and enquiries into the process have progressed very positively and we are hopeful that an announcement can be made during the summer months, resulting in another huge step forward for the Academy.

I would like to finish with a note of thanks to the entire membership and wider stakeholders, whom without your support, the Academy simply wouldn’t be as thriving as it is today. Whilst we are some way away from being the finished article, the team and I will continue to do our very best to continue the positive, upwards trends in each area and service that we provide.

Regards,

Adam Folwell