THE Legends Performance Camp on women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) opened on Friday the MVP Sports Foundation (MVSF) National Training Center with top caliber foreign coaches, including a 2004 Athens Olympic Games double silver medalist, in attendance in Intramuros, Manila.
More than 120 coaches and gymnasts from the country, Malaysia and Singapore are taking part in the three-day workshop jointly organized by Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) and the Flip it Forward group led by young national WAG team gymnasts Chiara Mijares and Ian Sy.
“We would like to congratulate Chiara and Ian for organizing this training camp that will certainly boost our own women’s artistic gymnastics program and add more knowhow for our own coaches and athletes,” said GAP president Cynthia Carrion during simple opening ceremony.
“I attended the Legends Performance Camp of coach Cliff Parks in California in 2018 and loved the fun, passion and dedication the coaches in teaching their participants. I wanted our own gymnasts and coaches here to experience that,” said Mijares in organizing the project with Sy.
“We have been looking forward to holding this camp and now it is a reality thanks to Chiara and Ian ,” said Parks, a former US Navy petty officer who was once stationed in Subic, and whose step daughter Mya Kalani Wilson saw action for the Philippines in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in Manila.
“The coaches here will be placing the emphasis on technique because once you have a strong foundation you can build anything. But if your foundation is weak you can’t develop the skills,” said Mary Wright, a 2021 US Artistic Gymnastic Hall of Fame Awardee, who will be one of the instructors during the camp.
“Our job is to make the coaches and the athletes understand that why they are so important and why we are putting the emphasis on them. As the camp goes on we can develop these skills even more,” Wright, a former USA coordinator for the elite program, added.
American coach Terin Humphrey, who won a silver medal each with the US women’s team and uneven bars in the 2004 Athens Olympics, was hopeful that the coaches and particularly the athletes would have “an open mind in learning something knew.
“Maybe somebody telling them other than their coaches the same thing might click with them,” she said. “Just being open and learning something new will help them in everyday gymnastics.”
The former US national team standout, who has a skill “the Humprey” named after her on the balance beam, was a former mentor of Fil-Am Aleah Finnegan, who won a pair of golds and silvers in the 31st Vietnam SEA Games last May.
Rounding out the cast of top coaches is Bob Peterson, the assistant coach of the Arizona State University varsity gymnastics team, and Kerry Huston, a former US champion in the men’s floor exercise event.