During the first days of March, Vietnam and El Salvador became the fourth and fifth hosts of single-country five-day training camps offered by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to develop Rhythmic Gymnastics everywhere in the world. With other related training sessions held in the past year, ten Rhythmic age group events have now been held.
Thirty-nine different federations attended these camps with 191 different coaches. The conclusion of these camps brought the total number of participants in the 68 age group training sessions for Men’s, Women’s and Rhythmic Gymnastics to over 1,500 (1,531 to be precise) different coaches from eighty-eight different federations.
After the Introduction Camps held in various regions around the world for the FIG Age Group Development and Competition Programme for Rhythmic Gymnastics, the interested participating federations were offered single country 5-day training camps if they wished to adopt the programme. About 15 such camps will be held this year and an equal number in the coming year.
This Age Group Development and Competition Programme includes a testing and monitoring programme for RG physical abilities and technical body elements and apparatus skills as well as a complete competition programme with modified rules for age group gymnasts and competition exercises with compulsory content for all ages. It also includes a variety of additional information related to developing a systematic Gymnastics programme that can lead to high performance and understanding the issues related to growth and intensive training at young ages.
The five-day camps focus primarily on practical work in the gymnasium with coaches and their gymnasts on the various technical body element and technical apparatus tests and the physical ability tests, the compulsory exercises and the modified optional rules. The coaches worked with their gymnasts under the supervision of an FIG expert. The FIG will incorporate the learning and observations from these training camps to make small modifications and improvements to the programme once all the information from the camps is analysed.
The development of this programme and its introduction around the world has been subsidised on an ongoing basis by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that had also helped the FIG support an analogous programme for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in the previous years.
Vietnam Age Group Training Camp for Rhythmic Gymnastics
Twenty-three Rhythmic Gymnastics coaches from Vietnam and thirteen of their personal gymnasts attended this 5-day training camp. The camp was held in Ho Chi Minh City at the Hoa Lu Sports Center.
The training camp leader was Nadya Aleksandrova of Great Britain who was formerly Bulgarian and British National Coach, is a member of the Academy working group for Rhythmic Gymnastics and is one of the main developers of this age group programme. She was recently a member of a study group to help improve the Code of Points. She travelled to Vietnam directly from a similar camp she led in Malaysia.
The FIG thanks the Vietnam Gymnastics Federation and especially the President, Tong Ngoc Hoa for providing everything necessary to host this age group camp successfully. Special thanks go to federation Vice President Ms. Nguyen Kim Lan who did all of the preliminary correspondence and organisation. And to Ms.Tran Chien Thang who assisted constantly throughout the camp.
Vietnam Age Group Training Camp participants
El Salvador Age Group Training Camp for Rhythmic Gymnastics
The camp in El Salvador was attended by twenty four different coaches from four federations (Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba and El Salvador). The coaches all work and live in El Salvador. The camp was hosted at the Desarrollo Emprasarial FEPADE in the capital city of San Salvador.
The training camp leader was Monica Guzman of Mexico who is a Rhythmic Gymnastics coach and judge. She was recently one of the ten invited experts to learn in Lausanne. These experts would then help deliver the content of this programme in training camps throughout the world.
The FIG thanks the El Salvador Gymnastics Federation and especially the President, Benjamin Chicas Garcia for providing everything necessary to host this age group camp successfully. Special thanks go to federation events coordinator Laura Sanchez who did all of the preliminary correspondence and organisation.
El Salvador Age Group Training Camp participants
These simultaneous camps overlapped with a three-discipline Academy for Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics and Trampoline, that has just been completed in the People’s Republic of Korea. More such 5-day training camps for the Rhythmic Gymnastics age group programme will begin this weekend in the Philippines followed by Indonesia. And seven age group training sessions will be held during April in Africaand Europe. The month of May will see six Academies for five Gymnastics disicplines held in Latin Americaand in Europe.