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