Ontario Training Camp

Hello All:

Acrobatics is finally here!!! Gymnastics Ontario is starting the new discipline of Acrobatic Gymnastics. This is another option for your athletes and a great way to keep your retired artistic athletes in the sport. We are holding our first Acrobatic Training Camp on November 27-28, 2009 hosted by the Oakville Gymnastics Club.

Coaches . . . come and learn how to coach this exciting new discipline. Bring your Athletes and they will learn moves and techniques that will have them mastering acrobatics in no time. Please find information and the registration form attached.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Doug Shirton
Program Manager
Acrobatics, Aerobics, Men's Artistic
Gymnastics Ontario
416-426-7104
416-426-7377 (fax)
www.ogf.com

ACRO Ontario On Major Website

Check out the article on the USA Gymnastics website about the Gymnastics Ontario Coaching Congress. There is a great slide show of pictures from the sessions.

Thanks again to all who participated.

You can find it by searching out the USA Gymnastics website or by following this link

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/post.php?PostID=4165&prog=a

GO Congress ACRO!!!

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

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/PDFs/Acro/PreTeam/acropreteamhandbook.pdf

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.

GO Congress ACRO Workshop

Great News for the Acrobatic Gymnastics community in Ontario.

Gymnastics Ontario is providing two workshops at this coming weekend's congress at East York Gymnastics Club.

Tom Housley, the USA Gymnastics Acro Program Director will be bringing a clinician from New Orleans to deliver the following workshops:

"Implementing an Acro Pre Team Program"

and

"How to Start Coaching Acro: Beginner Levels"

Both workshops will be offered Saturday, October 3rd in the afternoon.

If you or your club is interested in participating in either of these sessions contact:

Christina Bracamonte, Events Manager
Gymnastics Ontario
3 Concorde Gate - Suite 214
Toronto, ON, M3C 3N7
416-426-7737
christina@ogf.com

Hope to see several clubs come check out the workshops.

Don

Pre-Team Handbook - A GREAT RESOURCE!

Here is a great resource that we are strongly promoting to all new clubs that are venturing into Acrobatic Gymnastics.

The American Pre-Team Acrobatics Handbook is excellent. We have been using it at our club in Oakville and find it really helpful.

Click here to find it on the USA Gymnastics website:

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/PDFs/Acro/PreTeam/acropreteamhandbook.pdf

If you are looking for more resources you can find some instructional DVD's for purchase on the USA Gymnastics Acrobatics site as well.

Thank you to the USA Gymnastics program for their continued support of the development of acrobatics on Ontario.

Don

Check out a Quadruple Back

Go to Youtube to check out the video of a pretty awesome quadruple back performed by the men's four from Spelthorne, Great Britain.

Copy and past the following search line:

Acrogym CUP Albershausen 2009 MG Spelthorne sen. dynamic

April Acrobatics Note

This month saw the first official meeting of the Gymnastics Ontario Acrobatic Gymnastics Working Group. It was held at the Trampoline and Tumbling Provincial Championships, Senenca College, Toronto, April 17th.

Our small group of Doug Shirton (GO Co-ordinator for Acrobatics, Aerobics and Men's Artistic Gymnastics), Jeff Coulter from Winstars Gymnastics in Windsor, Niki Lavoie from the Oakville Gymnastics Club and myself, Don Holmes, also of the Oakville Gymnastics Club convened a short meeting after the competition on Friday evening. All of us coach tumbling right now but also participate in acrobatics.

Long-term planning and promotions was the focus of the meeting. We hope to find a space on the Gymnastics Ontario website soon so that we will have a bit more exposure in the meantime I will post pictures, articles, links and notes here on the Acrobatic Gymnastics in Ontario blog.

We are planning a training camp open to all who are interested at either the Winstars Club or the Oakville Gymnastics Club sometime in May. I will post details here.

If you have any questions feel free to drop me an e-mail at:

acrogym.ON@gmail.com

and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Don