On October 3rd, Gymnastics Ontario played host to the USA Gymnastics Acrobatics Program Director, Tom Housley and Chair of the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Committee for Acro, Selena Peco as part of the Gymnastics Ontario Coaching Congress. This was only the second official Acrobatic Gymnastics event held in Ontario.
Tom and Selena provided two sessions to the Gymnastics Ontario community. The first outlined the Pre-Team Handbook and how to implement an Acrobatics Program in your gymnastics club. This session also involved some hands-on teaching of the simple skills outlined in the Pre-Team Handbook. If you'd like to check out the handbook or download it you can find it on the USA Gymnastics website under Acrobatics or you can follow this link
During the second session Selena lead us through the USA Acrobatics Level system with an emphasis on the lowest competitive levels. The Oakville Gymnastics Club Acrobatics Team provided all its members, young and old, as demonstrators. Thank you to the Oakville Gymnastics Club for being so enthusiastic and willing to help.
These two sessions provided coaches from a variety of gyms in Ontario the opportunity to learn about the system we will be using here in Ontario for this season 2009/2010 and possibly into the 2010/2011 season. We are waiting to see what Gymnastics Canada will provide as a system. Presently the Gymnastics Canada Strategic Planning Committee for Acrobatic Gymnastics is working on the creation of a Canadian system that will be implemented (fingers crossed) in the fall of 2010.
For right now we are happy to cooperate and collaborate with the USA Gymnastics Acrobatics Program as we have much to learn.
Thank you to Tom Housley and Selena Peco for informative and comprehensive sessions.
If you would like any of the material that was handed out at the GO Congress about Acrobatics please feel free to contact Doug Shirton.
Thank you to all the clubs, coaches, and athletes that participated in this event. Gymnastics Ontario is ahead of the curve and well on it's way to providing a unique and exciting way to keep more young people in gymnastics through Acrobatics.
On a side note we were happy to have Pat Leith join our Acrobatic Gymnasitcs session as she was one of the team of collaborators who wrote the Gymnastics Foundations manual for Gymnastics Canada (the first Canadian gymnastics manual to include Acrobatic Gymnastics as a discipline). Pat was part of the Expert Group that assisted with the Gymnastics Foundations manual and filled the role of Theory Learning Facilitator.
Thank you to Pat for sitting in and being a supporter of the Gymnastics Ontario initiative to promote and develop Acrobatics in our province.
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