Over the last few months much effort has been made to continually develop the gym space. We work daily to make the gym safer, more progressive and to ensure as always that the space provides the best gymnastics experience that we can bring to our members.
In the last year we have used our hard earnt fundraising money towards some excellent new pieces of equipment, these include new wall bars, many new soft landing mats, a double bar bouncer, panel mats (at last), spring boards, spotting platforms, foam modules….. we would like to thank parents and volunteers for any time, assistance and financial support they gave towards developing our much loved gym space. In addition to the smaller pieces of equipment a larger investment was made into manufacturing our podium area. This is an ongoing project that allows for continuous developments of ‘pitted’ areas as and when fundraising allows and what’s even more impressive is that our podium design is 100% mobile and can in therefore be bought with us in the future should we ever decide to relocate. (Don’t worry we’re not moving… and no it won’t feature in this years gymfest!)
The podium project allows our members to experience soft and modified landing areas, this in turn means any gymnasts performing skills with greater difficulty can also perform larger repetitions with reduced impact on the body during the landing phase. This in turn provides also greater safety, what a great development! We need to thank Tommy Murray and Diarmuid for their excellent craftsmanship here and Rob one of our Volunteer Directors for his persistence in pushing this project, they have helped to transform our work space and advance the skill level of our members safely. This week we improved safety once again by adding the hand rail into the design to ensure pre-school and parent and toddler environments are carefully considered!
The podium design then expanded into the bar area with the arrival of the U-Pit. This seems to be all the coaches new favourite area… it makes teaching bar work and physically handling the gymnasts through more difficult skills much more efficient and hopefully now we have also preserved the health and safety of our staff and helped the gymnasts to also increase the difficulty of their bar work. Not to mention that it’s also just great fun for everyone to have a turn on the U-Pit!
In addition to the developments in the area of equipment John Molloy has moved mountains to make the gym fire safe. We have a full system in place including smoke detectors, fire alarms, a safe evacuation area, and improved access to all fire exits with correct lighting. Great work Director John Molloy, he has pushed that safety in the space is of equal importance to upgrading equipment, quite right too John!!! Lastly Brian McDonagh another Volunteer Director is working closely with coaches Sally Batley and Sam Marciano to constantly assess the work space and carry out all safety checks and continuously upgrade all areas of the gym to ensure that nothing is overlooked. How lucky we are to have such hard working volunteers on board that work with the coaches to not only provide a great gymnastics experience but a safe one too!!! If you feel you have some skills that our club could benefit from, or you would like to get involved with the club in any way please do not sit in silence, we have developed leaps and bounds as both a sports clubs and an organisation in the past much to the time and effort of our volunteers, our future relies on it too so please get involved it’s a very rewarding experience and your help is much appreciated!
And finally here are some pictures of our facility were the magic comes alive!!!
You must log in to post a comment.