VIDEO: Sask. gymnastics team ready to tumble their way to Finland

Team Saskatchewan Gymnaestrada (TSG) is continuing to prepare for their competition in July, in Helsinki Finland.

This weekend the team was practicing in one of their seven training camps, which last eight to 16 hours each.  

People at the Finland event will see about 500 Canadian performers, around 70 of which are from Saskatchewan, according to provincial assistant coach Kara Thorpe. She’s taken the role on top of being a club coach for the Prince Albert Aerials.

Four of the members from TSG are from Prince Albert, including CKBI’s Athlete of the Year winner Brent Ertman.

Another Prince Albert product, Amanda McHarg says gymnastics was a natural fit for her when she started in Grade 3.

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“I’ve always been really flexible when I was a kid and I liked music,” she said. “I tried dance and that just didn’t really click with me…then when I joined that [gymnastics] I just stuck with it.”

McHarg has been part of TSG for two years now and says being part of the team has given her the chance to expand her horizons.

“P.A. is kind of a smaller town and so to be able to join up with all of these people from great big cities that have such different opportunities then we do. It’s…an honour,” she said.

Thorpe explained Gymnestrada is a world-wide program which takes place every four years on the off-set of the Olympics.

“It’s approximately the same size or bigger than the Olympics so were anticipating about 20,000 participants from 55 countries,” she said. Gymnestrada “is a performance-based program so they create routines and perform and so it’s really quite exciting.”

Thorpe said what’s interesting about performance versus competitive gymnastics is that no matter the personality and skills of each athlete, you have to work together. Not only does it take coordination to work together and make it look seamless, Thorpe said they are also trying to engage several different age groups.

“The uniqueness of our team is the fact that we have athletes from 12 to 60 on the team and so how do you make a routine where not one person sticks out,” she said.

Anyone can join performance or routine gymnastics said Thorpe.

“It’s just a matter of exploring movement and exploring gymnastics at whatever level you can do,” she said. “Celebrate movement, celebrate gymnastics and not for a gold medal but because you just absolutely love what you do.”

This year’s event will be extra special for TSG being that they have been chosen to perform in one of the gala performances.

“The Pan-American countries get together and do a big national evening in front of thousands of people and Saskatchewan was chosen to participate in that event.”

TSG will leave for Finland on July 9, 2015 and perform from the 12th until the 19th.

We’ve linked both this year’s routine to TSG practicing last year, showing just how much they’ve improved.

2015 practice:

2014 practice

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter:@princealbertnow