Final Day at Westerns

Today was another spectacular day for the EDGE team.

Here are some quotes:

Emma: "My finals on trampoline were the most exciting part of the day. Just being in the finals at Westerns was exciting... I don't know another word... spectacular!"

Genai: "I liked trampoline the most because I had an absolutely spectacular routine! It was exciting that I got finals in two things and I've never done that."

Kelsey: "I don't know. Seeing the girls from BC doing back tuck, front tuck was cool".

Janelle: "Super impressed with everyone this weekend. Nerves were well handled, performances were excellent and great attitudes all the way around."

Hailey: "Probably team final was the most amazing moment. Everyone was cheering so loud and then when the judge saluted me it was silent. I could hear the wind rushing past my ears as I was competing. It was kind of nerve-racking. I like it when there's noise and it was kind of weird when it was so quiet. Still fun though!"

Justin: "It was my very first Westerns and it was really fun and it was a great experience. Probably my favorite thing about today was my Double mini when I stuck my Rudi."

Alanya: "I think my favorite moment was just being with everybody. Just being together as a team like a family!"

Brody: "I think that my favorite part was trying being on a different team. I've never had a different coach then Janelle and Jamie and having new team mates was really cool. I actually had to get to know them and that was fun."

Rachel: "I really liked coming to my first Westerns and being able to spend time with the team. Everybody was really fun to be with. Yayyy!"

I can't finish better than that. Yayyyy indeed!

Jamie

WCC 2011 Day 2!

Today was a very long day but altogether successful. Each of our athletes had at least one truly great performance and we were proud of all of them.

We started off our day with Synchro and Tumbling in the morning. Team RaGe (Rachel and Genai) and Team KeDhalla (Emma and Alanya) both had good showings in Synchro and all of our tumblers showed some quality passes. Genai, Justin, Brody, Hailey, and Alanya went on to tumble in the final round later on in the afternoon as well. Fast and long rhythms was the key and Alanya was so successful stretching everything out that she actually ran out of floor. Rats (but a great problem to have!)

In trampoline Genai, Rachel, Emma and Alanya all competed well amidst dozens of competors. Justin, Brody, Hailey, Kelsey, Belle, Emma, and Alanya all showed passes on DMT (phewph!) and all were completed (although one accidental seat drop finish was a little unexpected).

Tomorrow morning we will see Brody, Hailey, Genai, Emma, and Alanya in the final rounds on Trampoline while Justin, Brody and Hailey compete their final passes on DMT. It should be very exciting.

Here is one of our best passes from last night. Perfect stick by Rachel!

After the day wrapped up we rushed back to the hotel to change into fancy duds. Everyone looked especially awesome as we traipsed off to the athlete's social. Pizza, a bouncy castle thingy, some rebounding toy horse whatsits, even some DDR. Looked like fun was had by all and the athletes wrapped up with a hot tub back at the hotel.

Pumped for tomorrow!

Jamie

Western Canada Cup 2011!

Here we are travelling again and this time the wifi works so we'll hopefully be able to update as we go!

The EDGE team is here in green Port Coquitlam, British Columbia for the 27th Western Canada Cup for Trampoline & Tumbling. Brody and Hailey are here with the Alberta Provincial Team (having been selected with 7 others for this honor) and Kelsey, Emma, Genai, Alanya, Justin, Rachel and Belle are representing the EDGE. We flew into Vancouver International last night and drove to the Hotel in just over an hour. Lucky we were told afterwards as others took as long as 2 hrs plus (and one family got lost and took 4 hours to find Port Coquitlam). After a nice meal (Spaghetti and Meatballs for most) at the hotel we handed Hailey and Brody over to the Alberta Team Manager (they will be staying with the Alberta team for the duration of the meet but travel with us) and then we all headed for bed and a good rest before the training and first day of competition.

This morning we hopped out of bed bright and early and headed out to the International House of Pancakes for a tasty breakfast. Everyone enjoyed themselves and fueled up nicely for the training afterwards. We made a point of vetoing any whip cream due to the famous Colton Smith Whip Cream incident of a travelling meet in the past. We managed to get out of there spill free and zipped over to the gym.

Training was quite good. Everyone was a little nervous but got used to everything quickly and pulled off routines on every event. The set up is different from what we're used to with warm-up equipment separate from competition equipment like we see at International Meets. This meant making sure that they took a few turns on 3 trampolines, 2 DMTs, and 1 Tumbling floor. All the equipment is of good quality and we had a great time. We found some lunch at a nearby Subway and enjoyed some sunshine in a park (mostly playing on a statue of a Maypole).

This evening was also the preliminary round of competition for several of the athletes. Justin had a best-ever Compulsory routine on Individual Trampoline and was quite pleased. Genai had phenomenal routines (both of them) on DMT. Rachel lived up to her nickname and was a "Rock Star" on DMT with a picture perfect, stuck, Straddle Jump to Straight Barani. Kelsey was especially pleased with a completed Optional on Tramp (with 10 different skillls!) We watched and cheered as Hailey and Brody both strutted their stuff on Tramp. Hailey was particularly spectacular on her optional (which she had been a bit worried about in training). Brody toughed out two strong routines despite feeling blah and feverish (don't worry Jen he's fine.)

We had an excellent dinner (great THANKS to Mr Atkins who was particularly wonderful to us there) and are well fueled and about to be well rested for our long day tomorrow!

Stay Strong.

Heart, Body, and Mind

Jamie and Janelle (who's particularly strong).

Day 1 Complete!

We have wrapped up our first day of competition.

The day felt a little long, what with the 2 hour training, warm-up and competition but everyone was physically on top of their game and they were fit and ready to go when the time came.

Elite Canada is unique in Canada because it is level free! Actually it's more accurate to say that everyone competes in one big level. The categories are simply "Men" and "Women". This means that Novices to Seniors are all competing one against the other. Top 10 will go to finals.

Beatrice and Corissa started us off in the first flight. Both had struggled in training with their DMT routines a bit.

Bea's training and warm-up got better and better. Beatrice did a nice 41/ to 8-2o that was meant to be straight but was quite clean and confident. Her second pass was to be a 8-1o to 8--o but the 8-1o was not as strong as usual for Bea and the routine was unfortunately cut short. We know exactly what to do in training in the coming weeks to correct the problem.

Cori likewise had difficulty showing her usual excellence and is saving it for Trampoline tomorrow.

Caitlin B looked great in warm-up and showed her best 43/ to 8--p ever. She did two in warm-up that were awesome so we had great expectations and then the competed pass was even better! Her second pass 8-1o to 8--o was also excellent and only lacked a kick out to be stellar.

Janelle and Caitlin D were in the last flight. Janelle was super-de-dooper and rocked her 8--o to 812/ in warm-up (better than EVER) and the one she competed was also great. Stuck out of the box (possibly out of the continent) but otherwise very nice. Her second pass was a very solid 8-1p to 8--p that lifted nicely and dropped juuuuuust inside the box.

Caitlin D had a stellar 42/ to 8-1o that stuck in the box with good form. Her second pass was a 41/ to 8--/ that was a little scrunched in the double straight but lifted nicely and dropped her down in the box so she made the absolute most of the pass despite the awkward line in the double lay.

In the end Janelle is currently ranked 3rd and Caitlin B is currently ranked 8th going into finals day after tomorrow. Caitlin D just missed by 0.5.

Tomorrow is an easy start (we don't have to be at the gym until 2:30pm) and we intend to look around Trois-Rivieres a bit before rocking on tramp!

GO Corissa!

GO Caitlin!

GO..... other Caitlin!

Stay Strong,

Jamie

ps Video to come next post!

Elite Canada!

We are here in beautiful Trois-Rivieres Quebec at the Elite Canada Trampoline and Tumbling Championships.

Corissa Boychuk, Janelle Desmarais-Moen, Beatrice Prcic, Caitlin Brown and Caitlin Dube are all here and ready to Rock!

Our hotel is very nice, the flight was easy and the venue is enormous!

Quebec is holding a provincial competition at the same time as Elite Canada and they are literally holding two competitions in the same gym! There is no sharing of equipment. This one enormous room has two full tumbling floors, two DMTs and 8 trampolines! Two different departments take care of scoring even. Definitely different.

We have had our 2 hour training and have gotten used to the equipment (the trampolines are quite different from ours). In an hour or so Beatrice and Cori will start us off on DMT followed by Caitlin Brown in the 2nd flight and both Janelle and Caitlin D in the 3rd.

Wish them luck!

Stay Strong,

Jamie

More South Africa To Come!

We never had real access to internet again (as you will see from the photos we weren't in downtown Calgary).

However there are tons of photos and stories to tell so we WILL SHOW IT ALL. But first we will enjoy our Elite Canada Aventure.

Stay Strong,

Jamie

Alexandra Township Trampoline Club

We spent the afternoon in Alexandra just outside of Johannesburg. After piling into our bus we were driven for an hour and a half, or so, to a dilapidated hall where we met some truly great little people and their coaches.

We did a little intro where Stephan spoke to everyone and then each athlete spoke a little about themselves and some of their accomplishments. You could tell most of them are a little uncomfortable tooting their own horn. On the other hand you could also tell that Jason has done this many times before! It's interesting when you hear the list. These are some accomplished athletes.

The athletes were split into groups and trained for around 40 min with our athletes coaching them.

Up until recently they had virtually no equipment. The trampoline you see below is around the size of a single bed and those are blankets wrapped around the springs for padding. They also had a mini-tramp. Not long ago the club was gifted with two brand new Eurotramp Trampolines with end-decks and mats as well as a brand new DMT and landing area. This is beautiful equipment and these coaches and kids sure love it all!

Alex and Emily coached on the mini-tramp. Emily is one big cheering section all by herself! She and Alex did a great job and the kids clearly loved them. Rosie and Jason took one tramp each. They were awesome too. Cori, Julie and Denis coached at the DMT. They were focusing on sticking and Cori had them do a burpee for each step they took on landing. Some of them were terribly excited to learn and get better. They were so, so pleased to have the attention of these Elite Athletes for an afternoon.

After the first round we took a 5 minute "Coke Break". They have been sponsored by Coke and they proceeded to pass around 600 ml bottles of Coke to everyone and we posed for a photo before the kids downed it all. Some of these kids weighed 50lbs and they sucked back the whole bottle and then tried to train again. It was less than successful for most. Not a recommended mid-training snack! (Additionally there was Coke everywhere. Many of the kids had been bouncing on the DMT with their bottle and then they opened them here, there and everywhere.)

We helped put all of the equipment away and then headed out on our bus back to the University. On the way I caught this photo of a lady carrying her goods in a box balanced on her head. Great skills! (Note the razor wire in the background).

Well time to head to bed. We compete tomorrow mid-day. Julie, Cori, Alex and Denis have DMT prelims and later on Jason and Rosie will have Tramp prelims. There are very few athletes in the Senior level but I am excited to see the Age Group South Africans as well as the Namibians and Zim's (people from Zimbabwe).

I'll write again tomorrow.

Stay Strong,

Jamie

Training Day 1

Here is a panoramic photo of the venue as we walk up to it. Very pretty.

The venue inside. Here's where the action will take place.

Team Rhino Cheer! You might notice that we've figured out that their horns are on their noses. In Washington we seemed to think their horns were on their foreheads.

Today started out with breakfast (the food has been great!) and training in the competition venue.

The equipment is quite good and the venue excellent. The building has a park and pond out front that is chock full of all kinds of egrets, odd long-legged ducks and the odd kayak. Everyone's legs were a little dead but still accomplished a lot. A good intro to the space and the equipment.

Denis looks great at his first international meet since 2007. He laid down all 4 passes at this practice as well as both his tumbling passes. Alex got to know the equipment and did some of his passes on each event. Emily looks strong and is flying down the very powerful floor. Jason and Rosie took the day to get used to the Eurotramp 4x4 tramp (they are powerful but a little less stable than what we are used to.) Julie and Cori did their two easier passes and all of their mounts.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch (good again) and played some Beach Volley-Ball in the court beside the residence before heading to our first outreach experience.

Julie receives the Ball in the epic Corissa and Alex vs Julie and Alex game.

Cori ready for anything!

Cori's reaction after a close one. (I know she looks like the ball bopped her in the forehead but she's okay).

We're having a blast and learning a lot about this fantastic country. Still at the same time I wish I could also be at home and there for the Phoenix Meet this weekend!

You guys are going to Rock!

Stay Strong,

Jamie

Travel Photos

Hello All,

Internet is sporadic here so I'm a little behind but I wanted to post some photos from the travel!

Here's us in the Calgary airport loading up on coffee at 4:30am.

In Chicago we were still perky and tried to spell "CHICAGO" (you have to use your imagination and the "O" is Julie's mouth)

Here we are in Washington, DC getting onto the plane and looking forward to seeing Rhinos (I think Stephan is an Elephant).

In Senegal we were sad that we couldn't get off the plane just to walk around a bit.

We finally landed in South Africa and checked our firearms (?!!)

More to come,

Jamie

We're Here!

The travel was looooong.

But good.

We had no hiccups or difficulties and every step was smooth. All the luggage got where it was supposed to etc.

It's funny how much we've gotten used to those little seat-back tv's. None of our flights had them (although the long ones had the big shared tv's with one movie). Additionally South African Airlines does not allow Ipods etc. to be used even for listening to music and playing little games. Even my Kindle (e-book thing) was not allowed during take-offs and landings.

Still it just gave us all a reason to chat and visit even more than usual. This is a great group of people to be with. Jason, Rosie, Alex, Denis, Emily and our girls are all pretty awesome. Our team therapist is Stephen King (great name hey?) and our intrepid GCG leader Stephan Duchesne was my seating companion for the 17 hours from Washington to Johannesburg. We didn't even get off the plane in Dakar we were literally on the plane for that long. Definitely a first for all of us! We were met at the airport and quickly bussed to the University of Pretoria where we are staying and competing for these first days. GCG staff person Traci House met us here to round out our group (she's been here for a week already and is nut brown).

South Africa is incredibly beautiful. The weather is balmy and everyone has been very friendly so far. The residence rooms are very nice and the food last night and this morning has been excellent. This is not always true when we travel and is much appreciated! It's going to be 32 degrees and sunny so we'll have to slather on the sun screen but certainly no one is complaining. We are about to walk to the gym for our first training. It's apparently only a 1/2 km away. After lunch we will be heading out to a township to visit a local club and interact with the coaches and athletes there.

I'll talk about it when I get back tonight.

Enjoy training,

Dream Big Dreams,

Stay Strong,

Jamie

Last Day in Airdrie

We trained today for a couple of hours to fine tune things and stay limber before our epic travel over the next couple of days.

Both Julie and Corissa trained awesome! All 4 routines sweet, clean and high. Both look in excellent form and stuck more than one in the box. Laughing, smiling and anticipating the trip to come (maybe not the flights though).

It feels positively hot outside at -17 degrees with the sun shining and it's a beautiful day with the snow sparkling. Odd to think that it will be 28 degrees tomorrow in South Africa. I might melt!

We are meeting at the airport tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning in case anyone wants to come say goodbye.

Just kidding. Definitely just text the girls your best wishes sometime.

Stay strong,

Jamie

South African Adventure!

We leave Monday for South Africa!

It's going to be an awesome trip.

The FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) is supporting the development of the various continents in the sport. As result they gave funding to bring some of the top athletes in the world to Africa for a sport development initiative.

The Select Canadian Team will consist of:

Denis Vachon, Alex Seifert, Corissa, and the amazing and incredible Julie on DMT

Denis, Alex and Emily Smith on TUM

Jason Burnett, Karen Cockburn and Rosie MacLennan on TRI

Me coaching.

This group of 8 athletes have all been top 3 in the World at World Cups, World Championships, and the Olympics. Quite a group!

We are travelling on the 7th and 8th (21 hrs and 10 min IN THE AIR) to Johannesburg.

We then will move on to Pretoria (Tshwane) to train and compete for 4 days.

For the 4 days following we will be participating in clinics, training camps, and shows for local athletes and coaches as well as demos at a village school.

I'm sure we'll also fit in some touristy time as well. We know that we're doing a day trip to Sun City (check out the website http://www.sun-city-south-africa.com/). Cori, Julie and I are hoping to see wildlife especially.

Keep an eye on this spot for photos, videos and anecdotes.

Stay Strong,

Jamie

(23 hrs and 50 min in the air on the way back)