More than 35 coaches attended the annual High-Performance Symposium conducted over two days, 25 November for Artistic and 28 November for Rhythmic gymnastics. The symposium is closely linked to the SGDP Camps and is part of the ongoing education SG provides to coaches in clubs working with athletes in the High-Performance Symposium.

Participants were fortunate to have the expertise of four international guest speakers:

• Stacey Umeh (Artistic only)
• Paul Farmer
• Sho Ito
• Rika Yamamoto (Rhythmic only)

The symposium covered off on topics around mental imagery for athletes, preparing robust and resilience bodies for gymnastics, artistic preparation and unpacking the RG code of points for coaches.

Some key takeaways from the some of the sessions were:

Rika Yamamoto – “The basic idea is to match the movement of the body and the Apparatus to the artistry of the music. ………………… From the start to the end of the routine, you have to express "what you want to convey" using your body and Apparatus.”

Paul Farmer – “Warm up – Can be used to work on dynamic mobility, activation, running mechanics, foot strength, ankle balance.”

The 2023 High Performance Symposium will be conducted in November 2023 in conjunction with the 2023 SGDP camps and SG will be looking to lock in some exciting international guests again.