Fyrish’s first training camp

After an 8 year absence I returned to South Durham’s summer camp with 4 girls from my newly formed club which is based in Alness in the Scottish Highlands.  For the girls aged 7 and 8 years this was their first introduction to quality gymnastics and 7 year old Louise couldn’t stop looking around the gym at the skills being performed.  My club’s new team of coaches were gob smacked at the set-up and are demanding a similar facility for Xmas.

The girls train in a one badminton court sized hall where the vault run starts in the bike cupboard, so stepping into the ‘pink gym’ was quite an experience for them.  The warm welcome was much appreciated and helped our young girls settle in quickly.

This was my first visit to the facility and what a fantastic job they have made of planning the facility, with so many stations that multiple progressions are easy to set-up so that the gymnasts are kept busy.  With over 60 gymnasts attending the camp it was so impressive to see all gymnasts being occupied at all times.

To compliment the new facility it was good to see Nic and Rach have invested heavily in coach education and their pool of coaches is quite superb, and full of characters!  Arthur is verging on insane, which is understandable given he is the sole man in the midst of a team of strong women.  Nora coached both myself and the girls with clarity – and redefined straight talking for me.  Nora how can I even imagine a gym without you!

And for my girls what a step up – From Handspring progressions on vault to turning Tsukies!  With limited experience on bars their reasonable swings are now competent ¾ giants with backaways, sole circles and clear hips.  All are now somersaulting on floor and 3 girls are working flics on beam – and they learned to dance as well, with a stunning dance routine that was brought together in less than 3 hours.  Roxanne and Leonni - it looked fantastic.

Most impressive of all though, was how happy the gymnasts were; hard works really does pay!  So we can’t wait to return next year, and to ensure we work hard enough I am going to put a photo of Nic up in our gym – Mrs Motivator supreme.  And of course Nora’s voice will be ringing in my ears!

Girls, a big thankyou from all of us.

Sonny Rhind
Fyrish Gymnastics Club