Did you know that the new ‘Spi­der­man’ actor Andrew Garfield is a for­mer gym­nast? He won a medal at the NDP’s when he was 13 years old!

Hey, who can beat a gymnast?!

With just over two years to go until the Lon­don 2012 Olympic and Par­a­lympic Games, it is now time for LOCOG to launch the Lon­don 2012 Games Maker pro­gramme. This will start the process to recruit up to 70,000 peo­ple who will make the Lon­don 2012 Games hap­pen. These peo­ple will be called Games Makers.

The Games Maker pro­gramme offi­cially launches on 27^th July, although appli­cants for the major­ity of roles – gen­er­al­ists – will not be able to apply until 15^th Sep­tem­ber. How­ever, LOCOG is invit­ing pre-identified appli­cants for spe­cial­ist roles and spe­cial inter­est groups to apply from 9am GMT on 27^th July. This phased appli­ca­tion is to give mem­bers of the gen­eral pub­lic the whole sum­mer to con­sider their options and find out if this is really for them, whereas many pre-identified appli­cants, includ­ing peo­ple like you, may have vol­un­teered before and are at the heart of the sport.

Every appli­cant will be expected to com­plete an appli­ca­tion form and, if suc­cess­ful, attend a selec­tion event. All appli­cants offered a Games Maker role must also attend three train­ing events prior to the Games.

Eli­gi­bil­ity cri­te­ria
All gen­er­al­ists and spe­cial­ist Games Mak­ers will need to ful­fil the same basic criteria:

− Aged 18 or above on 1^st Jan­u­ary 2012.
− Eli­gi­ble to vol­un­teer in the UK in line with UK immi­gra­tion rules.
− Will­ing to vol­un­teer for at least 10 days of shifts and attend a min­i­mum of three days of train­ing.
− Able to find own accom­mo­da­tion and travel.

Whilst most of our roles require Games Mak­ers to be 18 years old or over by 1^st Jan­u­ary 2012, we do want young peo­ple to get involved too! We will unveil the Young Games Maker pro­gramme for up to 1,500 under 18s in sum­mer 2011. Please refer to www.london2012.com/volunteering for more details.

Apply­ing to be a Games Maker
Through our rela­tion­ship with LOCOG, British Gym­nas­tics mem­bers will be able to apply on 27^th July, as part of the first group of appli­cants. From that date you will be able to find every­thing you need to know about the Games Maker pro­gramme on LOCOG’s offi­cial web­site. Please note, how­ever, that your appli­ca­tion will not be through this site but via a secure page that is not avail­able to the gen­eral public.

More infor­ma­tion on the appli­ca­tion process and to receive a spe­cial code to assist with the appli­ca­tion process BG mem­bers can click here.

As you may have noticed, the school is hav­ing astro turf laid on the foot­ball pitch behind the gym­na­sium. This work will be com­pleted in Octo­ber 2010.

While the work is being under­taken, the gym car park entrance is now at the same side as the gym entrance.

In other words the car park is now a cul de sac and as such cars will be arriv­ing and leav­ing through the same road. Please be care­ful when dri­ving through here.

The good news is that we wont have to share park­ing spaces with the foot­ballers durng the work!

Well done to Con­nor Bart­let (an ex BGC squad mem­ber) who along with Mil­lie Spald­ing became the Acro­batic World Age Group Mixed Pair cham­pi­ons for 2010 over the weekend.

The young British com­peti­tors stormed into the Finals of the 6^th World Age Group Cham­pi­onships in Acro­batic Gym­nas­tics in Poland and before the clo­sure of the day on Mon­day 12^th June 2010, they had already accu­mu­lated 2 Gold and 4 Sil­ver medals. The two cham­pi­ons titles went to the 11–16 Age Group Boy’s Pair Christo­pher Childs and Jake Under­down (King Edmund Acro Gym) and the Mixed Pair Con­nor Bartlett and Mil­lie Spald­ing (Hare­field Gym­nas­tics Academy).

Well done to Jonathan Nash who passed his Mens Class 1 coach­ing exam on Sunday!

Thanks to the boys who went along with Jon to help out  as well — Tom, Daniel and Cameron.

Awe­some Sum­mer Camps now available…

Tram­polin­ing and Gym­nas­tics short courses…

NEW Multi Activ­ity Camp includ­ing gym, tramp and CHEERLEADING!!!

Check out the Sum­mer camp page for details.

Wow what a year so far for British Gymnastics!

If you’ve been in a closet you might not have heard of the Spel­bound troupe of gym­nasts that won the ‘Britains Got Tal­ent’ com­pe­ti­tion on Sat­ur­day night. Well done Spell­bound and con­grat­u­la­tions to Neil Grif­fiths head coach of the 13-strong gym­nas­tics group, based at Heathrow Gym­nas­tics Club.

Head over to the BBC site for videos and the story of the night.

Also heres the wiki page for the group with lots of info.

Why not join our club and learn if you have what it takes to be a top gymnast!

(If you still  havent had enough of BGT yet you can read the Britain’s Got Tal­ent final — live­blog)

The Club has been asked to do a gym­nas­tics dis­play at Thomas Coram School (Berkham­sted) for their sum­mer fate.

Boys meet at the gym at 11:00. Oth­er­wise 11:15 at the school please. Dis­play is 12:00 on Sat­ur­day 26^th June.

We will be doing a Girls group floor rou­tine and a mixed Tram­pette dis­play and pos­si­bly a pom­mels display.

The Club has been asked to do a gym­nas­tics diplay at St. Marys School (Northcurch) for their sum­mer fate.

Times to be con­firmed but prob­a­bly between 12-2pm on Sat­ur­day 19^th June.

We will be doing a Girls group floor rou­tine and a mixed Tram­pette display.

6 GOLD, 3 SILVER 3 BRONZE.

How many medals does it take before we under­stand that Great Britain’s Men are World Class lead­ers.
In years past we have enjoyed many indi­vid­ual prizes on the Euro­pean, World and Olympic stage. Today we cel­e­brate an unprece­dented suc­cess. Tomor­row we begin again on the jour­ney that will take our team to the Olympic Games in Lon­don 2012 and beyond. To play a good hand we need good cards. Our National Coaches had the best cards to play with. My per­sonal thanks and con­grat­u­la­tions go to the gym­nasts of our teams in the 29^th Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships, to their per­sonal coaches and to their clubs. You are our suc­cess.
Trevor Low, Chair and on behalf of Men’s Tech­ni­cal Com­mit­tee of British Gymnastics.

View the high-lights on BBC iPlayer here…

MAG Senior Euro­pean Finals

Moti­vated by the suc­cess of the British Juniors the GB Seniors had 5 chances to win medals.  They con­verted in spec­tac­u­lar style.
A superb finale for the British Team–

Daniel Keat­ings Pom­mel Horse Gold, Louis Smith Pom­mel Sil­ver, Daniel Purvis Floor Bronze..

Full story here…

MAG Junior Euro­pean Finals

GBR — JUNIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS!!!  — Full story here…

Sam Old­ham is Junior Euro­pean All-around Cham­pion with Max Whit­lock in Silver!!

The Junior Indi­vid­ual All Around final was a com­pe­ti­tion for 3^rd place. Max Whit­lock and Sam Old­ham had their own Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship for Gold and Sil­ver medals.

CONGRATULATIONS Sam and Max,
CONGRATULATIONS coaches — Scott Hann and Sergei Sizhanov,
CONGRATIULATIONS Clubs — Hunt­ing­don and South Essex.

For Men’s Gym­nas­tics in Great Britain the great­est day in a gen­er­a­tion has arrived.

A big day for the British Team with Sam Old­ham and Max Whit­lock, the top two in qual­i­fi­ca­tions, tak­ing part in the Junior All-around Final, fol­lowed by the Senior Team in the Team Final.

Full story here…