Gymnastics: Flying the flag for Britain!

THE coach at Yeovil-based Orchard Gymnastics is proudly flying the flag for British Gymnastics' latest exciting discipline of freestyle gym now known as FreeG.

The club has always had an interest in the discipline since its conception in 2008 when coaches Barry Phelan and his wife Karen became two of the first qualified freestyle coaches in Great Britain.

The award winning club deliver FreeG programmes within the club to members but also work with Yeovil schools, Yeovil College, inclusion students and young offenders.

Barry said: “FreeG is great at giving kids confidence and allows them to excel and gain a sense of achievement in a physical way, it gives some of these young people something to be positive about.“

Orchard Gymnastics were this year selected by British Gymnastics to pilot brand new specialist ‘Modublox’ equipment and provided with £50,000 worth of funding which saw the Yeovil club become the first club in Britain to offer such specialist training facilities.

PHOTO - TOP: Barry and Karen Phelan of Orchard Gymnastics at last year's South Somerset District Council's Gold Star Awards.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Members of Orchard Gymnastics in action.

Barry last month became one of the highest level FreeG Tutors in the country, and was recently invited by British Gymnastics to sit on the national technical review panel, which will steer the future development of the sport.

Barry's wife and co–founder of Orchard Gymnastics, Karen Phelan, said: “We are very proud of Barry’s involvement with the FreeG programme.

"As a club, we are constantly looking to improve, and offer new initiatives to keep teenagers and young adults engaged in the sport of gymnastics.

"We see the development of FreeG as being key to ensuring retention and to have Barry influencing the direction of the discipline at a national level is fantastic not just for the club but also Yeovil.”

Despite being enjoyed largely by teenage boys and young adults the discipline is also available to girls and the club run FreeG classes for all children from the age of 7.

Barry has just returned from delivering a FreeG workshop at the South West Gymnastics Technical Conference held at City of Bristol Gymnastics Centre were he has been spreading the word about this fantastic discipline and all the benefits it can offer to clubs, participants, and coaches.

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