Gymnastics Australia '93

Gymnastics in Australia ‘93

- Rick McCharles

In the fall of 1993, I traveled to Australia under the auspices of the Canadian Gymnastics Federation and the Coaching Association of Canada. I judged two international competitions and visited several major training centers in order to report on the current state of men’s gymnastics “down under.”

I was also keen to observe the “world’s most improved women’s gymnastics nation.” How did this small western democratic country finish sixth at the 1991 World Championships (Indianapolis) and seventh at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona? What were they doing right?

Olympics 2000

Australians were ecstatic when Sydney was awarded the Olympics 2000 ahead of front-running candidate Beijing.

“... (This decision) has saved the credibility of the I.O.C. (International Olympic Committee), upheld the principles of Olympism, and returned the Games to the athlete!”

- Jim Barry, President Australian Gymnastics Federation

Australia has high expectations. The host country traditionally does very well at the Olympics. Spain, for example, boasted more medals in Barcelona than at all other Olympics combined.

Australian Institute of Sport (A.I.S.)

The Australian Sports Commission funds amateur sport “down under” with a budget in 1993 of about $68 million, most of which is channeled to the A.I.S.

The Australians have no administrative nerve center to compare with Sports Canada in Gloucester, Ontario. Instead, the focus of sports funding is on training venues.

The main A.I.S. Center opened officially in 1981. It is a gigantic sports complex just outside the National capital Canberra. Eight sports are centered there including gymnastics.

Additional Institute campuses are housed in Perth (field hockey), Adelaide (cricket, cycling), Brisbane (squash, diving, sprint canoeing, rugby), Sydney (volleyball) and Tasmania (slalom canoeing). Also supported are a number of “satellite” A.I.S. coaches at private clubs and Universities. Funding is available for 14 Olympic sports as well as cricket, netball and rugby.

A.I.S. Scholarships

The top athletes at the A.I.S. are on training scholarships:

• full board and accommodation

• personal training equipment

• personal competition equipment

• access to sports science and medical care

• travel to competition and training camps

Some education expenses are reimbursed. A few scholarships even include transportation home once each year. All scholarship athletes at the A.I.S. must go to school or work in addition to training. Any athlete can apply for a scholarship or they can be invited by the head coach of each sport.

On the men’s side, Warwick Forbes, the Australian National Coach, recently signed a 22 year old gymnast from the former Soviet Union. Warwick hopes he will be eligible to represent Australia by 1996.

Scholarships are renewed annually and each year some gymnasts are asked to leave. It is a sad time but the A.I.S. Staff feel that those departures are as well managed as they possibly can be.

Residential accommodation built in 1985 provides 250 rooms. There are 19 more flats for married athletes. An additional 50 beds are available for visiting athletes.

Gymnasts are the youngest athletes on scholarship. Children must be at least 12 years old to live in residence. However, the “house parents” told me that there are ways to bend the rules. Girls aged 10-11 have gotten in. The youngest ever was age nine though she stayed for only three months.

I’m always concerned to see young children living away from their families for elite sport training. Coaches and staff in Canberra reassured me that each child is unique. For some the A.I.S. just doesn’t work — those kids return home quickly. Others easily combine training away with a strong, healthy family life. Monique Allen, nineteenth all-around in Barcelona, lived here for nine years. The A.I.S. is home for her.

Some families simply move to Canberra when their child is offered a spot at the A.I.S.

House parents assigned for athletes under age 18 are very carefully selected. I was very impressed with the quality full-time care provided.

Behavior and dress requirements are strict. Male athletes can have neither long hair nor ear-rings. Sleeveless shirts are not allowed in the dining center. And the rules are enforced.

I met many former A.I.S. scholarship holders and all valued the time they spent here. Most former Australian national team athletes, at least on the men’s side, seem to stay involved as coaches and judges after they retire.

Men’s National Team Program

The main objective is a top 12 finish in the Sabae, Japan World Championships 1995 in order to qualify with a full team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I feel that this is only just barely possible if all of their top gymnasts compete perfectly and they have no injuries. The men’s team does not have much depth.

All contenders for the 1995 Worlds team were expected to train in Canberra by 1993.

State training centers are established in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

The main goal for the State gyms is to select and prepare boys for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. I was fortunate to observe the “2000 - 2004 Junior Boys National Training Camp” held at the A.I.S. in December 1993.

The Aussies are trying to prepare for the future. Long-range training camps for the 2000 Olympics were begun in 1989 after input from Dieter Hofmann (former East German National Coach) and the men’s coaches in China.

Gymnasts are invited individually by Warwick Forbes. All but one of the gymnasts trains at the five State Centers or the A.I.S. A busy camp week included training twice each day, coaches meetings, state center review meetings, competitions, anthropometric assessment, physical ability testing and skills clinics.

I was surprised that the athletes stayed only one week. Australia is a huge country like Canada and air fares are expensive.

Women’s National Team Program

The Australian Olympic Committee is working with all National Sports Federations on a “2000 Gold Medal Plan.” Each sport was asked what they needed in order to win a gold medal in 2000?

Gymnastics, like every other sport, is putting together a wish list and budget. The debate on the women's gymnastics “Elite Development Plan 2000” has been heated.

The most controversial issue is the relative funding of the State Centers as compared with the A.I.S. Ju Ping Tien, National women’s coach officially since 1990 (and unofficially since 1985), believes that all of the best girls and coaches must be centralized at the A.I.S., as they are in China. Top coaches outside the A.I.S. feel that strong competition between the National and State centers is needed to develop the best possible team.

One top coach, Andrei Rodionenko, even spoke out in the national press in November 1993 criticizing Ju Ping's centralist philosophy. (Rodionenko was the former head coach of the Soviet women's team from 1982 - 1988.) Indeed, many feel that Rodioneko has a good argument. The famous '92 Olympic team included three girls from his club in Western Australia.

Currently, the strongest female gymnast, Joanna Hughes, trains with Fiona Bird in Melbourne and not with Ju Ping at the A.I.S.

Nineteen candidates for the 1996 Olympic team were identified in 1993 and encouraged to train in Canberra. Ju Ping believes that only at the A.I.S. are all of the needed support systems in place. However, many of the top girls have not moved. Ju Ping is not happy with their progress.

Most coaches not personally affected by the issue, including myself, feel that too much centralization is risky. The problem with the Chinese system (population 1.2 billion, by the way) is that once you make it to Beijing, the main goal is achieved. International results can become secondary.

However, the Australian Gymnastics Federation strongly supports Ju Ping in the conflict. She will probably win out in the end.

Women’s gymnastics is serious business at the A.I.S. The first thing I saw at the gymnastics training venue in Canberra was a poster advertising a “try-out” for the Olympics 2000 team. Only girls born between Jan. 1, '81 - Dec. 31, '85 need apply!

The gymnasts have a contract which requires low body fat. Height, weight and skin fold measures are taken weekly. One very lean girl gained a kg. in one week and was put on a much increased training load, even immediately prior to competition. In one training she was scheduled to do 10 vaults. (Yurchenko 1/1) Between those difficult vaults she was required to jog! Coaches were yelling at her for days.

Young girls talk about their skin fold measure in the same breath as they talk about their grade on the last spelling test at school; as if they can “improve” the first score as easily as the second.

As damning as this may sound, the house parents actually keep a very careful watch on the diet of the girls. Some do seem to eat very little. Others eat surprisingly large portions. The food is great — high protein; low fat. A big treat is apple crumble but it is only served once a week.

The youngest girls are required to bring their trays by a house parent for inspection. There seemed to be no pressure on the kids to take less food. Many times they were asked to eat more. Most often they were sent back to get more “colors” — there must be at least five different colors (usually vegetables) on the plate.

Withdrawal due to normal weight gain, injury or poor progress is not uncommon in the girls program.

“Aussie Sports Program”

Shortly after Sydney won the Olympics, the Australian Sports Commission concluded a $7 million deal with Japan. A new building at the A.I.S. in Canberra will be built by Japan, and run by an Australia-Japan Sports Foundation. It is actually cost efficient for Japanese teams to hold training camps at the A.I.S. rather than at home.

Visiting Japanese and Australian athletes will enjoy motel-style accommodation in the near future.

As part of this deal, the Japanese bought rights to the highly regarded “Aussie Sports program.” This is a national multi-sport program which promotes sports leadership, a talent identification scheme, an “active girls” campaign, and basic sport skills. More than 95% of Australian schools use “Aussie Sport.”

South Africa has also adopted the scheme and inquiries have come from several other nations.

Australian Gymnastics Federation (A.G.F.)

The A.G.F. is a surprisingly small, personal organization. Operating out of simple offices in downtown Melbourne, they represent over 70,000 members and manage an annual budget of about one million dollars.

The executive director of Australia is Canadian Peggy Browne. Canada and Australia have traditionally enjoyed a close gymnastics relationship. The Australian Coaching Accreditation system evolved out of the C.G.F. National Coaching Certification Program, for example.

Jim Barry? Gene Shebri?

State Training Centers

Most of the State gyms are huge and well-equipped. They are dedicated primarily to a few competitive kids. I was envious.

The big gyms have excellent, thick apparatus padding made by the Australian company “Acromat.” Beam legs are completely covered so that all landing surfaces are flat. Mats are held securely with wide strips of Velcro.

Acromat also sells huge vinyl top mats that smoothly cover landing surfaces on horizontal bar, asymmetric bars and rings.

All the gyms have large in-ground pits. Unfortunately the “bunjie pit” (foam suspended on a trampoline) has not yet caught on there. Many of the pits are compressed and dirty.

Sydney, New South Wales

Part of a massive urban renewal project, the Homebush Bay complex will house many of the Olympic facilities in 2000.

Boys and girls share the State training center here which is housed in a large multi-sport complex. The N.S.W. State Championship meets are slated here annually.

Robert Hong, originally from Shanghai, is the head boy’s coach and the only competitive boy’s coach. He is a thoughtful, quiet man who believes in slow, steady progress. He is endlessly patient with basic tumbling drills and pays great attention to detail. He calls frequent line-ups and believes it is valuable to explain why each drill is important. There is no play time scheduled; training is very strict.

Robert needs many hours for this kind of approach. Boys aged 10 - 13 train over 30 hours per week:

	M	T	W	Th	F	S	S
morning	•		•	•	•	•
afternoon	•	•	•	•	•

Like many of the over 200 Chinese coaches in Australia, Robert is frustrated with the inefficiencies of the western world.

His boys wake-up as early as 4:30 a.m. to get to the gym for 7:00 a.m. training. Some drive for over an hour to reach the gym. At 9:00 a.m. they rush to school. Afternoon training is 3:30 - 7:30 p.m. Robert is very concerned about this situation. He very much needs a special school arrangement for his top gymnasts but seems to feel powerless to do anything about it.

I spoke with the parents of one 10 year old boy who had not yet competed. They liked the program but felt that 30 training hours per week was too much for their son. They declined one of the work-outs and were feeling a bit guilty since their son was now deprived with only 28 hours per week.

The N.S.W. girls train with Anne Scott and former Soviet Dmitri Zorin. The girls have a similar schedule (7:00 - 10:30 a.m.) but enjoy a better school arrangement.

Adelaide, South Australia Sports Institute (S.A.S.I.)

The State Center in Adelaide is very similar to Sydney — a large, beautiful gym in a multi-sport facility. The State gymnastics office is housed beside the gym in both cities.

Leanne (nee Rycroft) and Phil Noack are the recently wed respective men and women's head coaches — both were national team members.

The top girls aged nine and older (S.A.S.I. squad) are training 30 - 35 hours per week:

	M	T	W	Th	F	S	S
morning	•	•		•		•
afternoon	•	•	•	•	•

This kind of schedule and long training hours were standard in all the girl’s State gyms.

Phil has 30 boys in the program. The top four boys (age 9-14) are training 20 hours per week.

This center has had many problems in recent years. Funding for the boys program was dropped in 1992 though they are re-applying for 1994. To raise cash the gym is now being rented out to other clubs.

The cost for each S.A.S.I. squad gymnast for training, travel and school is about $3000 per year.

In contrast, across the parking lot from the S.A.S.I facility is another large gym — the Koorana Club. One of the top teams in Australia below the Elite divisions, this private club is very financially stable.

Alan and Pat Saunders are the head coaches of competitive girls spending over 25 hours each week at Koorana. They are very proud of the fact that all 85 coaches are volunteers. Al told me that he would quit the day any coach was ever paid. “The coaches do it for the right reasons,” he claims.

Ascot Park Gymnastics FOCUS school, Adelaide

“ ... It is a pilot scheme worthy of adoption throughout Australia.”

- Jim Barry

A real highlight for me was the Ascot Park Gymnastics FOCUS school. This otherwise normal elementary school provides two additional teachers — a P.E. specialist and a teacher for gymnasts in the S.A.S.I. high performance program.

All children in the school get a strong physical education grounding with emphasis on gymnastics. The specialist P.E. teacher is also responsible for state wide gymnastic “in-service.”

Principal Jacquie Taylor stated that the best benefit of the FOCUS school is that all students share a sense of identity. Two different Department of Education reviews found that fitness and school work were markedly improved since the program was established as a "pilot" in 1989. In fact, the school has been so successful that a dozen more FOCUS schools are planned for other sports starting in 1994.

Peter Sharpe, now A.G.F. Coaching Director, is credited with this innovation in special schooling. He was inspired by a visit to the Seneca School in Toronto.

For a high performance youth sport like gymnastics, the Adelaide FOCUS school is ideal. The top S.A.S.I. athletes are the “Gym Focus Class” — 16 boys and girls from grade two to grade eight. They go to school together in one room.

School hours are flexible, set in coordination with the training plan. The school is five minutes away from the gym and the kids come and go as required by training.

The Gym Focus Class teacher Jim Katsambis was hand-picked by the principal. His classroom had a happy, relaxed and caring atmosphere.

I asked Jim how he was able to teach kids of different ages without set school hours. “With pleasure,” he replied. In fact, he found it an advantage to have kids of different ages in one class. And these are talented children.

The gymnasts at the A.I.S., in comparison, attend regular classes at four different regular schools. Dozens of bus trips are required each day to shuttle athletes.

The school arrangement is fairly good. Class doesn’t start until 10:00 a.m. for gymnasts. However, some of the regular teachers are not sympathetic to the special needs and talents of athletes. There are some problems.

The A.I.S. education officer told me that they plan to move towards the Ascot Park model. They want dedicated classes for athletes that offer a condensed academic program and flexible hours.

Ideally the class would be situated at the Institute, possibly in portable trailers. However, it is far more likely that special classes will be set up in schools nearby.

The coaches are debating the relative merits of this kind of change — most are now supporting the FOCUS class model.

So am I.

Melbourne, Victoria Institute of Sport (V.I.S.)

Former international gymnast Tim Lees is head V.I.S. coach for boys. The gym is situated at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

There is also no funding yet for this State program though they are hopeful for next season. Two gymnasts were invited to attend the National Team Training Camp in 1993.

The V.I.S. wants to prepare boys up to about age 14 whereupon the best should advance to the A.I.S. There is not nearly the controversy on the men’s side regarding this point. The State centers simply can’t match the resources of Canberra.

Twenty-five boys train at the V.I.S. The top six boys (age 13 - 16) have a special school arrangement though they are not yet all in the same school. The boys are allowed to miss the first period on days when they have morning training. Some also get equivalency for P.E. class. Others replace study hall with an academic.

The precompetitive boys train about 17 hours per week with coach Russell Smart. These gymnasts have no morning training.

The kids get to the gym as quickly as they can after school. Melbourne, like Sydney, is a huge sprawling city where driving is a major problem. Gymnasts try to arrive between 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Russell runs a long warm-up of between 1-2 hours (depending on how quickly guys arrive from school) which covers injury prevention conditioning, flexibility improvement, strength improvement and sometimes includes landing training, a handstand complex and leg work. Apparatus work starts at 6:00 p.m.

The goal for Russell’s group is physical preparation. The top boy in the group was acclaimed for the day he did 360 half presses from L-sit on parallettes pausing only once to note, “It's getting dark outside.”

Over an hour drive away is the V.I.S. women’s program at the Cheltenham Gymnastics Club. This is the top elite club in Australia. Cheltenham teams won both of the highest divisions at Nationals in 1993.

Australian head coach Fiona Bird and former Soviet Vladimir Lashine have a partnership that works. The gymnasts are great despite training in a simple, cramped warehouse gym. Coaching makes a great gymnast, not the facility.

Cheltenham did finally move to a large modern warehouse gym in late 1993 though it was unfinished when I visited.

Brisbane, Queensland Gymnastics Association Institute

The head coach for boys is former international competitor John Curtain. He is well known for his excellent article on injury prevention conditioning which has been widely circulated around the world.

The boys in John’s program are recognized for great strength preparation.

Forty identified girls ages 6-12 work under the direction of Women's High Performance Coach Peter Dowdell. These girls train at the Center or at one of five satellite clubs.

Perth, Western Australia Institute of Sport (W.A.I.S.)

W.A.I.S. had three coaches and seven gymnasts invited to the men’s National team training camp. All seven boys, age 12 - 14, train 32 hours per week. All showed good potential and good physical ability.

The head coach is David Hardman, another young former gymnast. Recently hired to assist is former Soviet coach Sergei Shelest.

The top young gymnast in Australia, David Schneider, trains at W.A.I.S. He was the National champion for boys under 14 in 1992 and 1993.

Western Australia seems to enjoy good corporate sponsorship for sport. The Healthway company, for example, supplied $150,000 over two years to implement the Western Australia Gymnastic Association’s “Gymnastics in Schools Program.” This includes teacher in-services, child activity days, promotional days, promoting links between schools and local gym clubs, “gymfests” and training programs for field officers on a statewide basis. The program was begun in June 1991.

Talent Identification

“Trying to make a top gymnast out of a child with limited physical ability is like trying to play a sonata on a piano with only five keys.”

- John Atkinson, Great Britain

“Is it cruel or misleading to encourage a child to participate in a sport at the elite level if they are physically or mentally not suited for that sport?”

- Warwick Forbes

Warwick made an excellent presentation on talent identification at the Nikon Gymnastics Technical Congress, held in conjunction with the Australian international competition. He cited a Bulgarian study for F.I.G. which compared height, weight and age of the top competitors in the world.

The top 10 girls in the world:

- 36.1 kg (79.5 pounds)

- 144.7 cm

- 16.1 years old

Girls teams internationally can be ranked by weight. The winning team is usually the lightest team. For girls, height also correlates with performance. Elite gymnasts must be tiny.

The top 10 men in the world:

- 58.6 kg (132 pounds)

- 165.5 cm

- 21.3 years old

Height was not a good indicator of performance and even weight only correlated slightly. Male gymnasts must still be relatively small.

Warwick recognizes that somewhere in Australia is a boy with the potential for a gold medal in the 2000 Olympics. His (difficult) task is to find and then nurture that talent.

East Germany did probably the best job of talent identification. Coaches enjoyed a national system that annually evaluated every child in the country.

In Australia, Warwick feels that knowledgeable gymnastics coaches are looking at no more than 10% of the boys each year. In Melbourne they saw about 7000 boys last season in schools; in Perth about 2000.

Warwick believes in a centralist model like the one used in China and the one which worked so well in East Germany. The State centers are responsible for initial talent identification in schools. At age seven the evaluation need not be too sophisticated. Simply look for lean, short, strong boys. Girls need the same qualities but also must have naturally strong legs

In Canberra, Warwick finds that over 80% of elementary schools allow him to assess their kids. He telephones the principal of each school personally and then finalizes details with the teacher responsible for physical education. Warwick and one other coach go to each evaluation.

More sophisticated assessment is used when young boys are evaluated at the A.I.S. or at a State center. Warwick looks at:

• bi-ileac (hip) width

- narrow hips = good upper body strength

• height (shortest 30% of the kids in the school)

• posture

• upper body strength

- e.g. good push-ups

• leg strength

- fast, powerful run

- good jump and hop

• shoulder flexibility

- natural flexibility is essential

- too much presages shoulder weakness

• coordination

• appearance

• general health

Additional but less essential qualities include:

• arms three cm. longer than height

• big chest

• courage

• determination

• achievement orientation

• tough

A few additional flexibility tests could also be added.

Attendance at their regular class is a good indicator of interest and general health.

Boys invited to train at the State centers should be a minimum of 7-8 years old. In the past they invited boys age 5-6 but this often turned out to be too young.

Warwick also does national monitoring of young gymnasts using the same tests but with more precise measurements. Technical skills are also required.

After age 16, Warwick feels, the real difference is psychological — the gymnast who “makes it” is the one who really “wants it.”

All of the State programs look for talented children in schools using some variation of Warwick’s model.

In Adelaide, for example, a calendar on the gym wall has 31 school visits scheduled for 1993. All elementary schools are noted on a city map by geographic proximity and average income of that district. Phil Noack found that visiting 30 schools last year was quite easy. In his opinion it would be possible to visit about 100 schools per year.

Phil asks to meet the young children out on the play ground at each school. (Australia is warm all year!) The kids are asked to line themselves up by height and then try a few simple drills; sprints, single leg hopping, skipping, etc. They watch only the smallest girls.

In some schools they are able to bring out a few classes of grade two or grade three children. You have time to run additional contests with smaller groups.

Many coaches in Australia have done more elaborate talent identification through physical education classes but Phil feels this really isn’t necessary at the first stage.

It is often quite difficult to assess body type when the kids are wearing school clothes. They never ask kids to remove any piece of clothing — they simply hope for a hot day.

The coaches get a roster of students when they arrive at each school. Any small child that shows a spark of talent is asked for their name and is checked against that list. A form letter including a few words of congratulations and an invitation to turn up at the local gym is handed out by the school.

In the 1994 school year Phil plans to hand out an Olympic sticker as a reward for all the kids who take part.

Very exceptional children may be asked to come directly to the State center for a try-out. Phil, like most of the other State coaches I interviewed, invites more new kids into the State gym from schools than from feeder clubs.

An hour is scheduled for State gym testing. There are no strict criteria but Phil always looks at wrist flexibility, knees, legs (no bow-legged kids), and general body type in addition to the items suggested by Warwick. The best age to do this testing is 6-8 but he looks at boys as old as 14. He spots planche press to handstand to see if he can get some hint of potential planche strength.

Hofmann recommended a test for “courage” — very cautious children may not be suited for intense training.

At the end of testing, the kids are rewarded with play time in the pit while the parents get a written evaluation.

Occasionally they ask parents of the best prospects to stay longer. They are interviewed to determine their background and level of interest in sport.

It is always difficult to predict eventual body type but “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” They look closely at the parents.

The entry level program at the State gym in Adelaide is one hour per week for a 10 week session. Boys do only physical preparation and fun activities. At this stage they should learn to love gymnastics. The cost is about $5 per hour for all these classes.

After the 10 week program the best boys are invited into advanced classes based on potential, ability and enthusiasm. Phil is more cautious than most coaches about increasing the number of training hours too quickly.

Free training at the State center is offered once per week for any Adelaide club. An official “feeder club” program is not set up yet for boys but Phil plans to use the successful Melbourne model.

The men’s State Gym in Melbourne has four “satellites” right now and is negotiating with others. One feeder club, however, recently quit the written agreement.

Clubs are at first reluctant to become “satellites.” They don’t immediately recognize that an elite program involves 4-6 boys training 30 hours per week with one coach. The net annual cost to the club is in the order of $20,000. When this reality becomes evident, most are more than happy to send their best boys over to the State gym.

The Melbourne boys satellite clubs enjoy good support — the State coaches work hard to keep them happy. They get all the resource materials they need for running boys gymnastics classes.

Gymnastics Training in Australia

Conditioning

Visitors are impressed with the exceptional fitness of the top Australian girls. They are lean and strong. Body type is a selection criteria. The Australian “look” is very important to the National team. This contrasts notably with Canada, the U.S. and other western nations that regularly compete girls who are heavier. This is inevitable in countries like ours that select international teams based only on competition results.

Strength is needed both to generate force and to absorb force. Gymnasts must be strong to learn skills efficiently and prevent injury.

Why are the Australian kids, as a rule, stronger than our Canadian gymnasts?

I believe this results from a combination of better athlete selection, more training hours, and harder day-to-day conditioning.

For example, I saw many girls doing 100 and 400 meter sprints! This might not keep you on beam, but it certainly makes you tough.

All the gyms have dozens of small ankle weights that the kids wear when conditioning. Some of the top girls have personalized weights that are increased as they get stronger. Boys often wear heavy weight vests for rope climb and chin-ups.

Over-training, however, is a real concern in the big gyms in Australia. (We don’t seem to suffer nearly the same risk here.) The coaches must be very vigilant.

Pommel Horse

Australian gyms have many good, big mushrooms of different shapes. Many of these are 1 meter across or more to encourage amplitude.

The top boys spend most of their training time on floor mounted F.I.G. pommel horses with and without pommels. The floor horse demands better height of swing and reduces the incidence of falling injuries.

Novikov's coach did a clinic several years ago in England. He was astonished to find that the British boys had never been taught how to fall off the pommel horse safely. In Russia they had long known that more injuries result from falling off the horse than from training pommel horse.

In Sydney, one horse had removable foam pommels which were put in place while learning new skills on the leather.

Rings

All of the boys gyms used a frame mounted ring spotting belt extensively with gymnasts of all ages. The belt is used mainly for improving swing technique. (Several also used parallel bar spotting belts.)

Asymmetric Bars

“Safety straps” are widely used by both girls and boys. I saw more girls than boys swinging on men’s horizontal bar. One gym stores the straps on the bar itself in a cloth bag . The most frequently used straps can be taped right on the bar.

Beam

There is little tradition of training low beam in Australia. Most gyms have only one low beam and it often goes unused. Instead they rely on soft foams covered with cloth. Many girls have their own personal “beam pads.” They are thrown over the high beam whenever a girl wants a little padding, even when training full routines.

Trampoline

All of the big gyms have in-ground trampolines into the pit, yet I felt that the Australian girls as a group did not have great “air sense.” Unlike my gym, the trampolines often sat empty.

It may help that he top two acrobatic tumbling coaches from the former Soviet Union are now working in Australia. Ju Ping has identified areas of weakness and wants to recruit the best specialist coaches in the world to speed progress.

What is working in Australia?

The gymnasts I saw had been well selected and were strong. The top gyms are dedicated to high performance training only. The coaches were serious about technique and body position.

National and State funding results in a truly national system. Ju Ping Tien and Warwick Forbes lead that system and have the authority to make decisions.

Here is one of the rare examples where government funding is more efficient than a free market. It is easy to contrast the Australian centralized system with the almost completely unregulated American non-system. The Australian model is much more efficient; gymnasts train better and more safely.

Our Canadian system falls somewhere between those two models.

Of course the great weakness, and potential weakness, of the Australian system is the possible complacency and lack of depth that results in a centralized system. There is less incentive for anyone once they get to the top.

I was surprised not to be more concerned for the potential negative side-effects of such intense training with young children. Soon after my arrival, I joked with Peggy Browne, the A.G.F. Executive Director, that I planned an expose on Australian elite gymnastics. Yet the only truly shocking abuse I saw “down under” was sheep shearing. (Now that’s cruel and degrading!)

The young gymnasts looked happy, healthy and well-coached.

We have a lot to learn from Australians. They have unfailingly borrowed the best of Canadian gymnastics expertise and in some cases have improved on it.

It is time we borrow back some of their best ideas!