Year 2017 in Review
2017
What a year we have had!
As I am sitting down to write this and thinking back over the last twelve months I am extremely proud at what we achieved this year and so excited as to what we have to look forward to next year!
The best comment I have heard from someone is that if you don't think you are making progress with something then look back on the position you where in this time last year. If I look back on what we are doing now, what our plans are compared to last year we have made an amazing amount of progress.
Class Development
We have developed a full Athlete Development Pathway from the ages of four right up to adults. We have classes six days a week with over 180 involved in those, which is a huge leap up from where we were last year. We were only starting our 4-6 programme and there was obviously no guarantee of it being succesful. Since then we have established two groups and kids have been promoted into our 7-10 group, which is great to see everyone progressing. We have a full pathway of classes, from 4-6, 7-10, 11-14 and Adults, with different levels within those classes. This also includes after-school programmes throughout a variety of different schools, obviously our evening classes, and we are also now involved with dlr sports-partnership, having officially become the only recognised Calisthenics Sports Club in the country!
We now have within our club a full set of Athletes who have competed nationally at the Bar Monkey Festival, which was a fantastic achievement for them and I am still very proud of all of them. They are the first set of kids to compete in an underage Calisthenics Competition in Ireland and that is a phenomenal achievement!
Bar Monkey Festival
Obviously organising the Bar Monkey Festival, which feels like a lifetime ago now, was another fantastic achievement for us, and another fantastic event which opened more people's eyes to Calisthenics and the fantastic level of Athletes that are in Ireland! I am very proud that we have managed to organise something as large scale as the Bar Monkey Festival and it can only get bigger each year. We have extremely exciting plans for next years, and I am sure each year we will just continue to learn more and more, and the level of athletes will continue to improve. When you look at the age demographic of the Athletes involved, not to mention all our underage kids who are improving all the time, then it is only going to be more exciting each year as the standard of everyone continues to improve so quickly!
Bar Monkey Bash
Everyone involved in our club I am proud to say has improved in some way or other, whether that is just through improving their confidence or learning a small skill, I am really proud of everyone who has been involved.
We finished the year off essentially with the Bar Monkey Bash, a fantastic day where the kids that were there got to show everyone who brought them how much they have learned since joining Bar Monkey. It was an extremely proud day for me seeing how much everyone enjoyed showing the skills they have learned and reminding myself that this all started with me training alone in a park!
Again, going from the Bar Monkey Festival in July to the Bar Monkey Bash in December, it was amazing to see the progress of everyone and the increase we had in terms of people participating at competition level! I'm sure everyone who was there would agree that the guys really done themselves proud. It was also a fantastic day for they guys that watched as they got to see another level they can aspire to.
International Calisthenics Cup
Obviously I would have to mention our experience at The International Calisthenics Cup in Eindhoven, where I won! One of the biggest highlights of our year initially just to go over, but then to go on and win was an incredible feeling. It was a surreal out of body experience during the competition and the adrenaline running through you just takes over. But it was an amazing experience and especially with it being our first international competition I don't think there will be one as special. It was a brand new experience, and all it has done is increase our interest in going on and competing again at other international events. This event helped us to put Bar Monkey on the map and it genuinely was an amazing feeling being able to show everyone at the Bar Monkey Bash the trophy. This gives everyone involved belief that they can go and do something like that too and this is why, as I say all the time, I am always so excited about the future. It is amazing for me to say that we as a club have the first three Irish International Athletes as coaches and I know it means we are doing things right and our members are learning from some of the best athletes in the country, which to me is an amazing achievement for all of us involved. I know how much work myself, Aaron and Jamie put in to coaching and our training and it just amazing to see so many others sharing the same interest as us.
What's the plan for 2018 then?
As always, I am excited by the future. Excited by it's possibilites and what we can achieve this year.
As I said, looking back on where we are now compared to last year we are in a stronger position. I want to be able to do the same again next year, I want to look back and see that we have made more progress again. I am now a sports leadership tutor with dlr sports partnership, meaning I will be teaching in secondary schools and hopefully developing more coaches, with the aim that next year we will have more people involved in the coaching side of the sport. Currently we have three full time coaches and two part time.
I am currently deveoping Coaching Programmes that are in conjunction with our Athlete Development Pathway so that this will hopefully lead to more clubs across the country as they are shown how we currently structure our programmes.
We have plas to enter more international competitions and train more internationally next year to gain more experience and bring that back to the club and improve our own teaching by learning different methods and styles of movement.
We have so much to look forward to with regards to our classes as the kids are only improving all the time, and it is obviously hugely exciting to have another year working with them and seeing how far they can progress.
We hope to have more National Competitions for our groups to be involved with and part of, but also not too many so that they can also just focus on training as opposed to just training for competitions. Two completely different styles of training and they have to be balanced accordingly, especially at a young age.
We have plans to improve upon the Bar Monkey Festival again next year, I am sure that the standard will be extremely high and exciting again. We also have plans to introduce team competitions for adult sections, creating more team ethics surrounding training, as opposed to just individual competitions.
All in all, it is just another year to get excited about, another year of working hard, making progress and being excited by what the possibilities are.
I hope you all had a great Christmas and you are as excited about the New Year as I am.
Happy New Year!
Jamie
Bar Monkey Bash Recap
Bar Monkey Bash
What a day!
We had the Bar Monkey Bash yesterday and delighted to say it was a fantastic event.
Just want to say a big thanks to everyone who came along and a big congratulations to everyone who took part and to everyone who participated in the competitions, a huge well done for the fantastic displays that you put on! Everyone involved should be really proud of themselves.
I want to say a big thanks to all of you who were involved yesterday for creating such a positive atmosphere for all the kids involved, it was great to hear them being cheered on and it was fantastic for them to experience that. I thought all of the kids who watched the competitions were terrific and really supportive to all the kids that got involved. I'm sure there were plenty of nerves for the kids competing so it was really great just to see such a positive atmosphere for them.
I'm sure everyone who was involved yesterday will agree there was some amazing talent on show!
What is great about Calisthenics is the variety and individuality of everyone. There isn't one person in our group similar to another, they all have their own style of movements and preferential routines, and I really like that. I think it's important to note that everyone involved has been coached by the same people, and yet they all have such different styles, which is what calisthenics is all about, being able to express yourself through movement.
The full photo album from yesterday can be found in the blue box to your right if reading this on a pc, or at the bottom if on a mobile, it is well worth checking out!
Just to also let people know, we have classes as normal this week up until Thursday. Apologies if you are in our Greystones group reading this, there will be no class this week as the school closes at 11am.
I felt yesterday was a fantastic display for everyone, especially all of the kids, to show you what they have learned throughout the year and to see what else they can learn as they go on. I hope it gave all of the people watching the inspiration to want to continue making progress.
For us seeing how much the guys have improved since the Bar Monkey Festival in July was really rewarding. Seeing more kids step up to competition level since then has also been really exciting for us. We only introduced our Level 2 group essentially a couple of weeks ago and the guys were already confident enough to want to step up in front of a crowd to perform. That is really encouraging for us.
As always, an event like this and with going so well, it has us excited about the future. There was so much talent evident in the room yesterday and it truly does get everyone excited about what we can continue to build.
A massive well done must also go out to the winners of both of our competitions, Luke Murphy in our Under 10s, and Leon Moran in our Over 10s categories. Two great displays from both! A special mention also to our Bar Monkey of The Year Award Winners - Ella Fell, Luke Bailey, Zach McAteer and Riley Colley. All well deserved as the progress made from all of them this year has been amazing!
I really hope everyone who was there yesterday enjoyed themselves and got to see why we are all so excited for the future, and delighted to see so many people part of the Bar Monkey Crew! We have always said that we want everyone to feel like they are a part of something with Bar Monkey, that it is not just a class they show up to but something they associate with, socialize in, and truly feel part of something and share special moments with each other. We have had many this year and it only fills us with more optimism about next year and making everything bigger again!
A big thanks again to everyone for showing up, we hope you enjoyed it, thanks for creating such a great atmosphere and I can't wait to see everyone this week and in the New Year.
Hope you all have a great Christmas!
Thanks,
Jamie
Bar Monkey Bash
We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting an end of year event for all our members!
This will be a fantastic day for everyone involved with us to get the chance to come along, mix with other groups, show their skills, learn some new ones and watch some competitions that will inspire each other to continue improving!
Taking place in our usual location of Scoil Cholmcille, this will be a great day out and a fantastic way to celebrate everything that has been achieved by everyone this year!
As well as open time for people to try their skills on the bars there will be displays, and two in-house competitions in the under 10 and over 10 categories. These will come from a select group of people from our level two group and Competition class, and we know they will showcase all their fantastic skills excellently and will be a great example for the other kids to see!
This will also take place a week after our coaches Jamie, Aaron and Jamie will have competed in the Royalbarzz International Calisthenics Cup in Eindhoven, Amsterdam, so we will hopefully be coming with trophies to show the group! Our coaches will also put on a demonstration for the group on the day.
It promises to be a great day out for all our members and we can't wait to see everyone there!
The schedule for the day will be as follows :
12:00 - 2:00 OPEN SESSIONS
This session will be open to all members to come along and take part. This gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills and learn some new ones with each other. Because of the numbers of participants we will require parents to remain and to be involved with their kids as the coaches will be looking after each separate station. Full supervision from parents/guardians is needed at the event to ensure we have a safe environment throughout the day.
2:00 - 3:00 UNDER 10 COMPETITION
At 2:00 we will begin our under ten competition. This will feature a select group of athletes from our level two group and our competition class. This is an in-house competition to give the group an opportunity to showcase their skills in a more comfortable environment for them that gets them used to the idea of competing.
3:00 - 4:00 OVER 10 COMPETITION
At 3:00 then we will begin our over 10 competition. This again will feature a group of athletes from both our level 2 group and Competition Group to help them get used to the competition environment and for the to get the opportunity to showcase their skills to the rest of the other groups!
We really hope people can come along and stick around for the competitions, to show their support to both groups, I think it is fantastic for the other groups to see what the guys are doing as it will inspire to want to push on and work on the same things. One of the biggest things we push towards each group is to encourage each other, I do like to think that what we are building as a club is a very supportive environment and it would be great for the entire group if there was others there supporting and cheering them on. This is a day that celebrates everything about Bar Monkey and what we have achieved this year, so it will promise to be a fantastic day and I hope to see everyone there!
As always, if you need any further information just contact jamie at jamie@barmonkeycalisthenics.com. Terms and conditions of the event can be found below.
Thanks,
Jamie
Terms and conditions of the event
- Full Supervision from parents/guardians of each attendant is required. This is to ensure the safety of everyone at the event and cooperation of this is much appreciated as our coaches will be stationed at different locations throughout the day. No child under any circumstances can be left unattended because of the nature of the day.
- Photography and videography will be taken at the event only for promotional purposes. If for any reason you do not want to have photos or videos taken of your child please inform us. While you have already filled this out in our members form there may be alternate reasons for an event like this so if there is any issues please let us know so we can inform photographers etc.
- We ask for full cooperation and supportive behaviour at the event. Especially when both groups are performing in the competition. Any negative or unsupportive comments will not be tolerated and may lead to people being asked to leave. We ask for your support in this matter as we know how much a negative comment in a competition environement can have an adverse affect on people.
- If you have any further questions please contact Jamie at jamie@barmonkeycalisthenics.com
Mid-Term Activity
Hey Everyone,
We hope you all enjoyed the Mid-Term Break!
We had a great week and got up to a lot of different activities that kept our monkeys busy!
Belfast Trip
On Sunday our Competition Group went on their first trip with each other up to The Playground in Belfast, a Ninja Warrior Training Facility owned by Paul Allen, the winner of The Irish National Calisthenics Competition for the past two years.
This was a fantastic trip for everyone, and we got a great chance for the group to practice some new skills in an amazing facility, as well as them getting to experience another part of the country together.
From the drive up to Belfast we got great fun out of everyone and I think they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I hope it will lead to more trips like this in the future and the group can continue to impress and display their skills!
Check out the video below for some highlights from the trip!
Halloween Camp
We had a great week on our Halloween Camp, in particular the Friday when we got to have a fancy dress costume, and I got to be Batman for the day! Apparently this is the only time of the year it's acceptable for me to wear a cape!
It was great to see new faces and to see them get the chance to interact with others in the groups and for them to develop friendships with each other. This is always the aspect that I enjoy the most about the camps. It gives the kids much more time to interact and develop friendships and seeing how they establish better friendships with each other and for us to get to know the kids better too is always the most rewarding aspect of the camps. I am glad to say that this week was no different and we had a great time, even if I figured out the hard way I can't handstand in a cape! Our fancy dress had all kinds of characters, from Superman to crazy cats, it was great to see all the kids come over in their favourite costume!
It was great to welcome new faces to the group and I look forward to welcoming them into our scheduled classes.
Level 2 Group
We are also delighted to announce we are now establishing a level two group within our 7-10 age category!
With our numbers growing all the time and the interest in Calisthenics developing so quickly, we are delighted to be in a position to establish a level 2 group.
This group is fantastic because it has been developed specifically due to the progress being made by the kids moving into this group. They have worked really well, and have been with us for a long time that we now feel the time is right to establish a level two group to let them continue to make progress. This class will have smaller numbers and give them more time to practice skills.
This is also a gateway into our competition group, as it allows us to work closer with this group and see if the difference in the style of class will suit them. I am delighted that we are continually seeing progress with our kids that it has put us in a position to establish this class and I look forward to starting this next week!
We hope that you all enjoyed Halloween, done plenty of trick or treating and we look forward to seeing everyone next week as we return to our normal schedule!
As always, if you need anything just email jamie@barmonkeycalisthenics.com
Thanks,
Jamie
Halloween Camp
Where: Scoil Cholmcille Ballybrack
When: Tuesday October 31st - Friday November 3rd
Time: 10:00 - 2:00 Each Day
Cost: €40
We are delighted to be running a Halloween Camp!
Our camps are designed to be fun in a safe environment, for ages 7-10.
With an emphasis on developing Calisthenics Movements at a level suitable to the group, we also encorporate a mix of games for all involved to enjoy. We have variety within the camp to keep interest levels fresh, and we always enjoy the camps as we get a better opportunity to work on more skills with the group as we have a longer amount of time with them.
We have limited availability to ensure we provide the right service. if interested please fill out the application form below.
Places cannot be guaranteed until payment has been made.
For any further information please just contact jamie at barmonkeyevents@gmail.com