Help Rhythmic Gymnast CHRISTINA (10 years old) Compete and Train in Russia

Wow Wow Wow That is the best way I can describe our recent trip to Vladivostok.

We left at 6pm Sunday (stopover in Hong Kong),and arrived Tuesday about 4am (2am local time)

The girls arrived tired and jet lagged and after only a few hours sleep they were taken to their first training session.

Our NZ girls were a bit overwhelmed to start with and could only watch in admiration at the abilities and difficulties that the Russian girls demonstrated with apparent ease – even the performance of the littlies had our girl’s jaws dropping in awe - but once they had warmed up the NZ girls joined in and started running through their routines in preparation for the Competition just two days away.

It was wonderful to see them working alongside their Russian counterparts and understanding that they had a lot to learn from them. It did not take them long to change their thoughts from “Will I win a place in the competition” to “Will I come last” - but it was knowing that their abilities were great for NZ standards but Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics was a whole different standard.

It was a world where 5 and 6 year olds catch their ring and difficulties are taught to them while they are at their most flexible. The classes are bigger – where it was not unusual to see a coach training 15 gymnasts at a time – and where the older girls mentor and help the younger girls during training.

The mood was quite serious but full of enthusiasm and optimism and the Russian girls were quite respectful of their coaches. I did not see any situations of harshness and in fact had the sense that the Russian girls had a lot of fun doing their rhythmic gymnastics training.

After a few days of our gymnasts watching, learning and training I could see their performances lifting and was quite excited how the competition would go.

They really understood the importance of where they were and the opportunity that they had been given. At the end of the day after training they would group together at the hotel and go through some of the techniques and dances they had learned. Although maybe the fact that all TV programs were in Russian helped their motivation ? - regardless the outcome was that they used their time productively and made the most of the time in Russia they had.

The Main competition came around and the opening event was quite spectacular, the Russian girls marched on under the banner of their club. Our girls marched on last, under the NZ banner and came on just behind North Korea which had a small group of highly talented girls competing.

The decorations and costumes were all impressive and made the whole event quite spectacular. The routines were beautiful and I managed to take a lot of video recordings of the event including some beautiful group routines and some of the North Korean routines. I also have recordings of the opening and closing events.

I will upload a lot of these to youtube and will email the links if you are interested.

The NZ girls had been previously taught a dance by the Russian girls during training and at the end of the closing ceremony they joined in on a flash mob dance – it was all very exciting for them.

They did not achieve a placing in the competition (this time) and did not receive any of the wonderful prizes, however they were called up to the podium and were all given gifts for attending the event and travelling such a long way. The girls felt totally included and welcomed throughout their stay.

After the two day competition they went back to the gym for another two days of training followed by a smaller two day competition – another round of gifts were given to them and it was particularly lovely to have the girls choose to stay longer at the gym during the afternoon down time rather than accompany the adults for a two hour shopping trip.

On our return from shopping we arrived back to find them being taught skills from the other girls – they quickly showed off to us what they had learned – Christina was very excited that she could now complete a one handed walk over.

It was sad but there was one day of training left and more video recordings were taken so that they could watch them later and be reminded of the training techniques that they had learned.

It was sad to say goodbye as the effect on the girls training had been short of amazing and the parents and coaches had all worked hard to look after us and give us a very positive experience. The parents had taken us out sightseeing after the first competition and they spent the day being our tour guides and showing us the local sites.

I asked them if they would ever visit us in New Zealand and their response was that they would love to come to our clean green country. They saw NZ as a wonderful place for their children to visit and I felt very excited that they could come and we could repay the kindness we had been shown.

The schedule was very tight but the Russian Ballet was in town and we were able to attend the performance of the nutcracker suite (ticket price was about $15NZ). The people and food were amazing and I felt very safe and comfortable throughout our stay.

Coming back to New Zealand the girls are full of confidence and full of hope about their future aspirations and dreams of representing NZ on a world stage. The NZ competitions are underway and it will be exciting to see the results firsthand and see how much better the girls perform compared to their performances prior to their Russian experience.

Fourth day back and it feels a bit like a dream, but such an amazing experience that I have started saving so that we can go back again next year. Hopefully there will be a bigger NZ group next time!!

Colleen Woodcock