Spin to Win – Quarterly Report – April to June 2015

Work completed to date:

Design and implementation of the Virtual Assessment Tool (VAT):

The VAT will enable assessment and tracking (approximately 600 athletes who are 4-8 years prior to bench mark performance) on a set skills curriculum. All curriculums are confirmed and have been loaded into the VAT. Development phases 1 & 2 of the VAT are now complete with Phase 3 – delivery and implementation about to take place.

Development of pathways for the ‘Spin to Win’ athlete:

Coordination of the ‘Spin to Win’ project by Bree Bryant has continued in this second quarter of the project. During the Australian Championships in May the Pathways team presented two Pathways Forums, which were open to everyone in the gymnastics community – including parents, coaches, judges and managers. The presentation included information on the FTEM model, Spin to Win, Team Future, Virtual Assessment Tool, with Q&A at the end.

In the April GA Latest News newsletter the Pathways team included information about the Spin to Win project, the GA Latest News is distributed to every affiliated club in .

Further development of the ‘Flip into Gymnastics – Fly anywhere’ concept. GA Pathways have now developed ‘Spin to Win’ giveaways for children who attend Talent ID initiatives and events, including a ‘Flip into Gymnastics, and fly anywhere’ bumper sticker, ruler, stress ball and highlighters. The bumper sticker was designed Giveaways have been distributed to the five HPC’s (appendix 6)

TID requirements of the ‘Spin to Win’ Sports:

High on our agenda is ensuring we are accessing the right talent for gymnastics – resulting in our key high performance programs are working with the best available talent.

Currently rolling our various talent identification initiatives with five selected High Performance programs across Australia for both Men’s and Women’s (MAG & WAG). Initiatives include:

 Talent ID screening days,  HP coaches scouting at local clubs, and  Organized state based development camps for clubs athletes who are competing in International Levels (elite) held at the High Performance Centre (HPC). Co-branding and promotion of the Talent ID initiative on the Gymnastics Australia website and Facebook page (appendix 1).

One TID initiative at the WAG National Centre of Excellence – MEL (NCE-MEL) is using Olympians and Ashleigh Brennan to scout for talent at GA pathways clubs, each child in the session receives one of two certificates (appendix 2), and a Spin to Win sticker.

Many of the TID initiatives have already been very successful; the Gymnastics NSW MAG HPC has increased their entire program numbers by 33% since the start of the year.

Bree has been meeting with multiple gymnastics clubs in an attempt to build relationships between them and the HPC, and to encourage clubs to become a GA Pathways Club (appendix 3), which is then promoted on the GA website (appendix 4).

Identification process of possible candidates for our partner sports and beyond:

Aerial Skiing:

Currently Aerial Skiing is in the process of reviewing the applications they received for the development squad for 2015. Bree targeted 15 girls between the ages of 15-19 years of ages from both elite stream and levels stream gymnastics, spoke to parents on the phone and provided information on how their daughters can apply for the Aerial Skiing development program. This included a personalised letter, handbook and application form.

The number of applications they received this year was more than twice the number they usually receive and the feedback from Rachel Johnson the Aerial Skiing program manager was that the quality of applicant and suitability is much better this year than it has been in previous years.

Due to the increased interest in the Aerial Skiing program an information session was held for parents and potential athletes in April, this was led by Rachel Johnson with a short presentation by Bree Bryant. During the Australian Gymnastics Championships Rachel Johnson, Bree Munro (VIS Aerial Skiing Program Coach) and Bree, with the purpose being to identify girls who might be suitable to transfer into Aerial Skiing once they have finished gymnastics.

Bree attended the Ski and Snowboard Australia awards night in early May.

Diving:

Continual work with the five Diving Talent ID programs in Australia (NSW, QLD, SA, Vic, WA).

Contacted parents of athletes who had recently finished gymnastics & provided information about upcoming Talent ID sessions in four states: SA, WA, Vic and NSW, so far Bree has contacted 50 parents. The Diving WA TID squads have doubled since January from 9 to 20 athletes, with one girl going straight into the National TID squad. Ongoing meetings with the TID coaches in each of the five programs, and Diving Australia staff, including CEO David Bell, National Technical Manager Val Beddoe, National Talent Identification Coordinator Barbi Donnet and Head National TID coach Jinlan Wang.

Bree presented a Spin to Win project summary at the Diving Australia board meeting in Brisbane in April.

In June Bree met with the new State Executive Officer for Diving Victoria, Matthew Duck, presented information about the Spin to Win project and the plan for supporting Diving in Victoria.

The Gymnastics Australia website has been updated with a Spin to Win page with information about the project (appendix 5).

Uploaded eleven talent transfer stories on the GA website and Facebook pages. This included two talent transfers within gymnastics (from WAG to Rhythmic and Trampoline) and into other sports including Weightlifting and AFL (appendix 7). The story on Kiana Elliott, former elite WAG gymnasts now Australia record breaking weightlifter, went on the GA website and Facebook page in May, the Facebook story was shared 26 times, including being shared by: Australian Weightlifting Federation, Olympian Damon Kelly and many Weightlifting clubs around Australia.

Incorporation into the Team Future Program:

Preparations are on-going towards the inaugural WAG Open camp in 19-22 August at the AIS.

Key Project deliverables achieved to Date:

 Over 60 children have attended Spin to Win Talent ID screening days in gymnastics with 18 of those children been identified and offered high performance training  Over 100 children have attended Spin to Win Talent ID screening days in diving with 10 of those children been identified and offered high performance training  So far Spin to Win has supported 10 Talent ID screening days across gymnastics and diving  Targeted 15 girls for the Aerial Skiing development squad, 4 girls submitted their application form to be considered

See appendices below

Appendix 1 – Gymnastics Talent ID initiatives promotion

Appendix 2 – Stephanie Moorhouse certificates for Talent ID club scouting initiative

Appendix 3 – The value of being a feeder club to the National Centre of Excellence document

Appendix 4 – A list of Gymnastics Australia Pathways Clubs on the GA website

Appendix 5 – Spin to Win promotional material

Appendix 6 – Spin to Win webpage on Gymnastics Australia website

Appendix 7 – Examples of Talent Transfer stories on GA website and GA Facebook page