DALBY Forest may be full of exciting things to do out in the fresh air and North Yorkshire countryside ... but nothing is more exhilarating for a group of teenagers than throwing themselves off wooden platforms high up in the tree tops..... writes Jo Emmerson
That was exactly what was in store when our party of nine headed for Go Ape! for the day.
Our group - all coaches and performers at Billingham Trampoline Club - comprised two 14-year-olds, Jordan Briggs and Lewis Blakey; two 15-year-olds, Becky Lavelle and Sean Barnes; 16-year-old Alex Reed; two 18-year-old coaches, Megan Roberts and Natalie Wood; 22-year-old coach
Adam Rear; and me, Jo Emmerson, 32, head coach at the club.
All the under-18s were known as baboons for the day, and the over-18s, gorillas.
The trip was a “well done” treat for the teenagers who had just competed well at their first international competition in Sweden. The younger ones had to be supervised by the adults as they completed the high wire forest adventure course of rope bridges, Tarzan swings and zip slides - all set high up in the tree tops.
Being the older one, I was more nervous of the course than the others and, not being one for heights, I felt very brave jumping off the safety of the platforms and hurtling myself down the zip slide. Before any of us were allowed to brave the course, we underwent some safety training to make sure we knew how to fasten ourselves to each tree and each zip wire safely. I was naive to hope that the wires would not get any higher than 6ft off the ground like the training one!
Half an hour later and we were up, up and away as we fumbled our way across rope bridges and scrambled up cargo nets. Despite being firmly attached to the safety lines, I still took some
coaxing to come down some zip-wires - and others I felt were a step too far. Maybe next time.
The teenagers and other coaches had a blast, though, as they challenged each other to the harder crossings from platform to platform. Jordan chose to try the black-labelled extreme crossings, while Sean decided to tackle the less difficult but still tricky green route. As for Becky, she’s never been one to let boys beat her, so she followed close behind. The course was great fun and, as I concentrated hard on making sure I was fastened on properly, I could hear shrieks of laughter behind me as some of the kids would happily let themselves fall knowing that the safety cords would stop any death-defying plunges to the ground.
At one point I had to be encouraged to jump off one platform down a zip-wire.
The encouragement came in three forms... star Lewis Blakey is on cloud nine after finishing third in
the National Schools’ Trampoline Finals. - contribution by Jo Emmerson
The 14-year-old travelled to Birmingham for the event last Sunday - his first national final. The Red House School pupil qualified for the event after finishing second in the regional heats and third in the zonal round. He was one of only nine Under-15 boys across the country who qualified to compete.
Lewis’ PE teacher, John Crewe said: “It is a wonderful achievement for Lewis and I am sure he is really proud. “We knew he spent a lot of his spare time training, but we had no idea he was hiding this talent.”
After his first round, Lewis, who is also a member of Billingham Trampoline Club, was in joint fourth place with three other bouncers and another was snapping at their heels.
With all to play for in the second round, Lewis performed the most difficult routine he has ever done, which included double somersaults for the first time. Despite crashing out in some of his warm-ups, the teenager shone during the competition, to ensure he brought the bronze trophy back to Teesside.
It’s been a busy few weeks for Lewis, who also competed at a regional grade four competition in Ashington, where he won his event and qualified to move up to grade three. Fellow clubmate Adam Starovla also celebrated success and qualified for grade three in the Under-15s category. Club members Rachel Anderson, Steven Sutcliffe, Peter Mallon and Alex White also scooped gold medals. Antonia Twizell, Shaun Malcolm, Shane Barnes, Jonathan Sutcliffe and Jordan Briggs took home silvers, and Sean Barnes and Luke Donnelly took bronze. Antonia Twizell was joined by Claire McKenna, Eleanor Bowman and Sarah Maddison in the team event, where the girls took silver.
Six of the club members have also enjoyed their first taste of international competition, with Becky Lavelle, Sean Barnes, Lewis Blakey, Adam Starovla, Jordan Briggs and Alex Reed travelling to Herrljunga, near Gothenburg in Sweden, for the Frivolten Cup.
Alex, 16, put up a brave performance to finish 12th in his age group, despite injuring his back in training the day before the competition. His teammates finished in the top eight and went through to the finals. Unfortunately Jordan broke his toe in the swimming pool the evening before the finals and was forced to withdraw from the competition. Sean finished fourth, Adam and Becky seventh, and Lewis eighth. All six bouncers are also members of newly-formed double-mini-tramp club Momentum - set up recently by two of their trampoline coaches Adam Rear and Jo Emmerson.
It is a new sport, which combines tumbling, trampolining and sprinting. Competing at their first ever DMT competition the club took all podium places in the 15 to 16-year-olds group, as Sean won, Alex was second, and Lewis third.
Adam took the bronze medal in 13 to 14-year-old boys, and Becky was devastated to finish fifth after leading the competition until her final run, when her foot brushed the side matting.
Firstly from all the teenagers, who had already taken the leap and were cheering me on from the bottom.
The second was from our excellent guide, Matt, who was standing on the ground talking me through what to do - I am sure he didn’t look that small when we were all at the base.
The third source of encouragement came from coach, Adam. “Shall I just gently push you off?” he asked.
More concerned that he might go through with it, I took a deep breath, sat back in my harness and lifted my feet off the platform. That was it, there was no going back as I zipped along the wire with the wind in my hair and my heart in my mouth.
It was great fun, however, and I enjoyed the ride - at least I did once I could look back from the safety of terra firma.
I was also delighted not to land in a crumpled heap at the end of the run, and managed to land on my feet and hang onto the rope to stop my back hitting the wood chippings, designed to soften the landing. It was great to see everyone working as a team and encouraging each other along.
“There was something satisfying about strapping the kids to a metal wire then watching them disappear across the valley,” said Adam. “Some of the children found the course challenging but, with the encouragement of the rest of the group, most of them made it to the end.” As confidence grew, so did the leaps off the platforms. The scenery was stunning as the weather worsened and snow began to fall. As the team made their way down the final zip-wire some three hours after we began our adventure, Jordan said: “That was the last one - can we do it
again?” After heading back to base to get the safety harnesses and wires taken off, there was only one thing left to do - head to the cafe for a hot chocolate and cake as we watched the snow set in thick and fast.
All together a great day in beautiful surroundings.
SOMERSAULTING
National School Finals – 9th March 2008 -contribution by Lewis Blakey
As the familiar voice of Jo shouting “Right that’s it guys,” rang across the sports hall I knew the journey to Birmingham had officially begun. Seven weeks had gone like seven minutes and after a few mere tweaks to my vol – just the small matter of a double and a rudi to contend with – I was just about as relaxed as I’d hoped. Even so, my target still remained: a complete full twist; after my disastrous semi side sumi at the Northern Championships the previous season.
As we climbed into the car I knew we had three hours of motorway bliss (?) ahead of us. Thus forming the trio of Jo, my Mum and myself for the next 36 hours. With Jo’s trusty sat-Nav, and my mum’s old – fashioned black and white map we set off with the Travelodge in our sights. We simply hoped to end up in the proximity of Kev from Sedgefield who had set off earlier in the day.
Upon arrival, our prayers were answered, and, after a few phone calls, we established Kev had been two car park spaces down all along. After settling into our rooms we climbed into our night gear and went out to find somewhere to eat. After a quick tour of downtown Tamworth we got directions to the nearby Frankie N Benny’s for something to eat. After the returning leg back to the car park it was off to bed for the competition the following day.
Morning arrived. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local Welcome Break, and set off for Cocks Moors Leisure. As we arrived, the car park was spilling over into the nearby streets as many people hadn’t anticipated the scale of the competition’s finals. My mum dropped Jo and myself off to get signed in and ready whilst she continued the quest to find the increasingly elusive parking space!
As we entered the competition hall the full magnitude of this stage of the competition had sunk in. With only about half and hour left there wasn’t enough time to panic so I simply sat down and tried to focus on doing my best. After a quick scribble on the tariff the warm-ups began.
My sets were going well and my feet were just starting to adapt to the beds – which were quite scarily soft! After my controlled warm-up I was much more relaxed yet that didn’t quite overcome every bit of my anticipation. My name was called, and I climbed onto the bed just wishing to do my best. My front sumi travelled a little bit and my controlled stop was just a bit short of being controlled. I climbed off and turned to look at my scores: a mixture of 7.4s and 7.5s. They seemed low but after seeing a few near perfect routines get 7.2s I realised I’d done really quite well.
Vols. To many the plague of a competition routine and yet I wondered why I couldn’t wait to start mine. After a boost from my sets I decided to go for it in my warm-ups and so nearly ended up doing double back to seat in my warm-ups! Nevertheless, after my name was called for yet another time, I climbed on and began. It was hard to judge your height at first but I decided to focus and just get on with it. My double back came out right at the right place and my rudi was lifted and straight and all my moves were far slower than usual. I got off expecting low sixes due to the very harsh judging but turned and saw , 6.7 (harsh judge!!), 7.1, 7.3, 7.1 and 6.9 ! I couldn’t believe it! And with my tariff I’d done exceptionally well for my first time in the schools competition. I hoped I’d come 6th and any higher would be a massive bonus! After barricading me from reaching the wall with the results on the wall The Trio + Pam! Ran over to the score-sheet to see I’d come third!! I was so happy I thought I was going to burst but then I remembered I had the graded (urgghh!) the following week!
The afternoon passed quickly as we took a tour of the local supermarket before the presentation at the end of the day. As we lined up for the walk-on, the music began playing and the flags were brought out. It seemed really cheesy but it added to the atmosphere of the occasion. As we walked out to Cascada everyone clapped in synch and stopped just as we arrived at the podium. As my name was called out Jo and my mum screamed so loudly and I went nearly as red as our logo, and still, I couldn’t stop smiling! As we walked away I realised I’d come third in the entire United Kingdom and the boost in confidence was indescribable.
That moment and in fact the entire schools competitions this year has been nothing less than an experience. An experience which most certainly won’t be forgotten for many, many competitions to come…
I’d like to thank Jo, my Mum, Kev and Andrew and his family for making the weekend seem more like an excuse to go away than to compete. Especially to my coach Jo for her support, actually coming with us and helping me to reach this level in the first place!
Billingham Trampoline Club now has it's first grade 2 trophy- and it's new grade 1 and 2 kit! Adam Rear somersaulted into second place at the grade 2 competition in Newry, Northern Ireland at the weekend. Adam, 22, who is usually seen coaching at the club, managed to shake off a heavy cold which had stopped him training for most of the week. Both he and Becky Lavelle, 15, who was jumping in her first official grade 2 competition managed to reach the retaining score - securing their future at that grade for next year. After competing his vol, head coach, Jo Emmerson was frantically doing the maths to see if Adam had not only retained, but also qualified for National Finals. After a tense few minutes, by her reckoning he was an agonising 0.1 away from the score he needed. Hoping her maths was wrong, the team waited for the official results - and she was right... 0.1 away and everything to go for in the next grade 2 competition at Hull on March 30. Becky also managed to hit her retaining score of 50.0, but was 0.8 away from national finals, finishing seventh overall. "These grade 2 competitions are really hard," declared Becky as she pulled her jeans on after her event. Of course they are Becky - that's why it's the national circuit! The duo were both wearing their new grade 2 kit, which neither knew had arrived until we landed in Ireland and were in their hotel - despite everyone in training having a good look at them on Saturday while Adam and Becky were away! Well done for retaining both of you and good luck in Hull! 
Billingham Trampoline Club's 4th Birthday Celebration - contribution by John Lavelle.
Billingham Trampoline Club's 4th birthday party took place on 10th November in the Salutation function room.
Most of the club members turned up and quite a few of the parents, the party being on licensed premises may have had some bearing on the latter.
Everyone was asked to bring a little something for the buffet which resulted in enough food to fill everyone including Sean, Jordan and Adam (eventually).
The disco proved especially popular, nobody realised we had such enthusiastic dancers in the club, Peter looked as though he was auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing, Meg and Nat didn't actually sit down the whole evening and Lewis was dragged up somewhat reluctantly but you can't argue with your coaches. Adam treated us all to a spot of breakdancing towards the end of the evening.
Shane decided to show his muscles and tattoos, just like a mini Popeye.
The evening was declared a great success and hopefully we can do it all again next year, perhaps combining it with a Halloween party, so we can all wear our spooky costumes.
The time in Billingham is now...........
Page last updated 21st April 2008