Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Agile learning
The Blenheim Gymnasium Club is like a large family where everyone helps each other out, says a mother, Jill Winstanley. Her daughter Millie Winstanley, 10, swapped her ballet shoes for gymnastic tights three years ago and coach Greg Pask was there to guide her into the new discipline. Children all love him, Jill says. ‘‘When they arrive, the kids all run to Greg and give him a hug. ‘‘He has such a lovely way with the kids – and the only thing they get told off for is not smiling. ‘‘It’s all about having fun.’’ Millie is among the club’s 200 ‘‘recreational gymnasts’’ working their way through the iron, bronze, silver, gold and elite grades. Sessions are typically one hour a week and those who excel at elite level might be invited to enter the competitive grades.
Gymnasts in those grades train six hours a week so the commitment is intense, says Geoff. He expects a little perseverance from children in his classes but the main emphasis is on everyone having fun.
This is his 15th year as a club coach and the role started when his own daughter Melissa was having lessons.
‘‘In her second year the coach asked me to give her a hand. The next year I was told I could coach a team.’’
Initially that meant turning up to the gym for an hour every week. Then his responsibilities expanded and Greg is there eight to 10 hours a week these days, coaching 80 girls.
‘‘And I remember all their names,’’ he says proudly. ‘‘I love it, I love seeing the kids achieve and extend themselves.’’
He was never a gymnast but has attended a couple of coaching courses and helped another instructor in a competitive class.
Girls in his recreational gym classes are taught how to hand-stand, backward roll, cartwheel, do the splits and are introduced to vault, bar and beam moves.
Gym is a good confidence builder, he says.
‘‘One girl couldn’t do a handstand when she started in my group three years ago. But last year she was in the national team.’’
The Blenheim coaches are joined in their classes by assistants and, like Greg, all are volunteers.
It is a commitment seen in few other gymnastic clubs around the country, he says.
Not many have the high standard equipment in their gymnasiums that Blenheim does, he adds.
‘‘You either pay the coaches and have not very good gear – or you have really good gear,’’ Greg says, bouncing a little on the club room’s $60,000 padded floor.
Recreational gym class fees (which are $85 a term) are used to keep the club running.
‘‘The more children who do gym, the more money we can raise in fees and the less fundraising we have to do,’’ Greg says.