Beth Tweddle visits Swallows Gymnastics Club!!!

 

 

 

 

 

On the 12th April 2009 Swallows were thrilled to be visited by Britain's most successful and well known gymnast Beth Tweddle.  

Beth has a huge number of successes to her name and had the previous weekend won two gold medals and the title of European Champion on both Floor and Vault.  

The weeks before the event had seen the youth committee group, The Flickers, take on the organising of the day.  This group of gymnasts aged from 9 to 16 were chaired by Ashleigh Mitchell.  Between them the group organised the design and distribution of the tickets, the running order for the day, arranged the groups with appropriate coaches, organised the lucky dip and raffle, and made banners and cleaned up the gym in readiness for Beth's arrival.  The Flickers showed huge commitment to the day, meeting every Saturday for the preceding weeks, with ever building levels of excitement!!!

On Saturday 11th April, Beth arrived in Cornwall with another coach from her City of Liverpool gym, Suzanne Grice.  We took Beth and Suzanne out for a meal at the Gylly Beach Cafe along with a few of the gymnasts.  There was a real mixture of excitement and nerves from all as Beth arrived!  However, she is a really genuinely lovely person - very down to earth and easy going!

During the meal Beth presented the chair of the Flickers, Ashleigh Mitchell, with a necklace in way of a thank you for all her hard work in the organising of the day!

After the meal Beth stunned us all by very casually opening a bag full of her medals!!!  In amongst them were her most recent European Golds (nicely described by Vanessa as looking like chocolate money!!).  All the gymnasts were thrilled to be able to take turns in wearing them!

 

On the Sunday morning Beth was welcomed to the club by a dance display performed by a number of our gymnasts and choreographed by Pat Hickman.  Beth made a short speech explaining to the gymnasts the level of commitment it took her to get to the very top in the sport, but she also emphasised positives of her hard work.  During her speech Beth also commented on how impressed she was at the Flickers organising the day!

A selection of gymnasts then took to the floor to start training under Beth's guidance.  Beth was able to give some useful tips and ideas for different apparatus and also got all the gymnasts working really hard!  She was also willing to chat with our coaches to explain different techniques for training.

During the afternoon Beth took another group of gymnasts through their warm up.  Again she put everyone at their ease and was willing to get involved with showing them how certain stretches should be done.

Beth showed the same enthusiasm and dedication as she gave coaching tips to all the different ages and abilities.  Once the training sessions had finished Beth happily got involved with posing for photos and signing autographs for everyone.

Swallows would like to extend their thanks to our supporters Ladds Concrete, Meneage Dental, PremierInn and Holland and Long.  We would like to thank our gymnasts and parents for supporting this event.  A quick mention to Pat Hickman for the stunning choreography for the dance display.  A big thank you to the ever helpful Tim Peake at BG for co-ordinating the visit! Special thanks to the Flickers group for their organising of the day - these guys were amazing and a real credit to the club!!!  A huge thank you to our coaches for giving up their Easter Sunday and, of course, to Beth and Suzanne for taking the time out of their schedule to come to Cornwall!!!