Bar Monkey Calisthenics App Has Launched!

We are delighted to announce the launch of our Brand New Calisthenics App!

This is something we have worked very hard on over the past couple of months, first developing the concept, how it could be used, the best way we could introduce the sport in this way. Our head coach Jamie Geraghty wanted to create this app because he felt there weren’t enough opportunities in Ireland to help people start calisthenics. Due to a lack of facilities/locations, not enough people have the chance to learn the sport or don’t know where to begin if they do. This app helps us introduce the sport to many more people across the country and give them the freedom to do so in a location and time that suits them! All while providing an educational resource with a guided framework from our experienced coaches!

This has been a really enjoyable process seeing the app develop and grow, and it will continue to do so, but at the minute we are delighted to bring to you our FREE 30 Day Challenge!

Our 30 Day Programme will help you to:

• Start learning how to move your body in new ways with over 160 exercises, 16 workouts, all broken down and structured using guided strength and conditioning principles.

This is your base to start calisthenics and give yourself a strong foundation to build from. Get started today!

Click the link below for more information:

Jamie Geraghty Qualifies for the WSWCF World Cup Super Final

On Saturday August 17th our Head Coach and creator of Bar Monkey Jamie Geraghty became the first Irish Person to qualify for the WSWCF World Cup Super Final.

This takes place in Hong Kong on November 23rd and Jamie qualified by taking third place at the Royalbarzz World Cup Stage in Veldhoven, Holland. Jamie taking a place on the podium represents a huge moment for the sport in this country, helping our club and also the calisthenics community across Ireland gain International recognition.

The structure of the competition saw 20 athletes competing from across Europe hoping to earn a spot on the podium and represent their country in the Super Final.

First Round

The first round of the event saw all twenty athletes being given three minutes to perform as best as they could. Judges were then given the responsibility of judging Statics, Dynamics and Combinations. The best ten would then make it through to the second round.

Jamie performed a huge amount of static holds in the three minutes allocated to him. Each athlete showcased their own individual styles, and in the end like any sport it was down to who held their nerve and made as little mistakes as possible. There was tension throughout everyone’s routine but in the end Jamie was able to qualify to the second round, while ten athletes were finished and their hopes of qualifying were dashed.

Jamie’s three minutes saw him perform a 19 move combination on the high bar in his first routine, followed by a static set on the parallel bars and a planche routine on the floor. This would be the start of what would follow as Jamie relied on his statics throughout the competition. In the end he performed well enough to qualify for the second round.

Second Round

The second round was a 1v1 Battle format. Each athlete was given two rounds and each round lasted one minute thirty seconds.

Jamie was drawn against Rico Mesa, a name a lot of people in Ireland will be familiar with as Rico has been in Ireland before as a judge at competitions in the Irish Calisthenics Academy.

Rico had only been given four days notice that he was in the competition so he didn’t have a huge amount of time to prepare for this, but he is a phenomenal athlete and pushed Jamie all the way. Rico is very much an athlete that excites a crowd and is a difficult opponent because he is very unpredictable, you never know what crazy move he might throw out on the day!

There is huge respect for Rico in the calisthenics community and the Irish one in particular, so it was a nice battle between him and Jamie and both showed each other respect and admiration throughout.

One minute and thirty seconds for two rounds is a really difficult test of endurance, particularly for calisthenics and so both Jamie and Rico had to perform as strongly as they could, and in the end the victory went to Jamie. Looking back we think this was mainly due to his strength in static holds and planche in particular.

Jamie had made it to the final five.

Final

The final consisted of the five winners from the 1v1 battles. This was structured so that each athlete performed one minute rounds three times.

At this stage it comes down to endurance and mental fatigue. Throughout the competition a lot of it came down to who held their nerves the best. In warm ups people were throwing crazy moves and then when it came to the actual competition they were missing basic 360s. So by the time the final came around for the final five athletes it got to a stage were they were really conscious of not failing anything.

At this stage, and looking back on performance analysis by our coach Aaron Fitzpatrick, Jamie really relied on his static strength. By the final round he was still able to perform full planche nine times overall, and his statics remained at a really high level. However, it was his dynamics that began to slow down. This just indicates to us something we need to work on for the next competition. Other athletes go the other way, statics die down and dynamics take over. When it gets to this stage it just highlights where an athletes strengths are, or where they consider their strengths to be, because it is such a mental game at this point.

This is when judges begin to have a seriously tough decision, because they know for these final five how much it means to get to that place on the podium for each athlete.

Again Jamie performed consistently throughout with his static holds, again in particular with planche - this was held nine times overall in these final three rounds. This was the move that helped him stand out and earn a place on the podium.

When the decision was made and there was a tie announced for fourth and fifth, there was that moment of elation and realisation of what had just happened. Jamie had placed in the top three. We were going to the World Cup. We had to remain calm until the names were actually called and then it was just pure elation.

An amazing achievement for us as a club, and for everyone involved in the calisthenics community all across Ireland. This represents the most exciting period for Calisthenics in Ireland and we can’t wait to continue to see the development of the sport across the country and where this journey takes us.

Next Stop Hong Kong!

Highlight Video below edited by the excellent Rutger Franke:

For anyone interested in partnership with us and becoming involved in our sport at the most exciting stage of it’s development we have sponsorship packages available in the build up to the World Cup Final in Hong Kong. We have different packages tailored towards business and fitness facilities. Please check the link below or for other collaboration projects please email us: info@barmonkeycalisthenics.com

Bar Monkey Sponsorship

August Update

Hi guys,

I hope you are all having a great summer!

This is just a quick update going out to let you all know about our plans for the summer and carrying on into September.

If you have any questions on the following just let us know.

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SUMMER CAMPS

We have had a great time on our Summer Camps!

We now only have FIVE places remaining for the rest of the summer, this is for Week Six August 6th - 9th so if you are interested in signing up please do so now as this is the last week with availability!

Summer Camp Registration Form

We have had a great few weeks, I have been delighted personally with the turnout and engagement each week. Our groups have really taken to the bars as you would expect and it has also been great to see a lot of new faces and the interaction between all groups. We look forward to seeing everyone else over the rest of the summer!

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SEPTEMBER CLASSES

Just to clarify as people have been asking about our classes for September. People who are already registered with us do not need to worry about their place. You are already registered and everyone will just come back to the class they were in as normal - unless we have spoken about moving etc.

For anyone who has just joined over the summer and you are looking to register for September we will be releasing our registration forms mid way through August. It has been great to see the response from new participants over the summer and we are delighted to see that people are looking to continue learning with us.
In the next week or so we will be sending another email and this will have the registration form for classes in September*.

*If you are already a member, I.E in the classes before the summer break, you do not need to re-register.

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PARENTS GUIDE

This is also just to inform everyone involved that in September we will be sending all of you a guidebook that will give specific information with regards to the class your child is in.

This guidebook will specifically show you what we are working at each stage or class so that you can see what we are trying to develop with each member of our club. I think this will be really useful and give you all, hopefully, a slightly better understanding of the sport and that you can see what we are trying to develop at each stage and show you our pathway towards developing each person in the sport.

As always if anyone has any questions on the above please just let us know.

Thanks,
Jamie

Principles around Athlete Development

Hey guys,

With the introduction of our FUNdamentals Coaching Programme this year we have started having discussions with coaches across the country around the concept of Athlete Development.

After this I thought it would be relevant to showcase our principles around this concept and the idea of assessment.

Within our club we have different stages of our Athlete Development Pathway. We have our structure of classes the following way:

-        FUNdamentals

-        Learning to Train

-        Training to Train

-        Training to Compete

-        Training to Win

-        Retention

In other terms they look like this:

-        4-6 Programme

-        7-10 Junior Calisthenics Programme

-        11-14 Teen Programme

-        Level 2 Group

-        Competition Group

-        Adult Programme

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While there are age groups within this structure, after having this discussion with coaches I think it is important to note that age is not the only barometer of assessment or deciding what group a person should go in. Age does not define where an athlete or young child is on their journey or what stage of this pathway they are on. We all develop at different rates and we are all unique. We all also have different aims whether young or adult around physical training. Some kids want to be world champions, others want to have fun with their friends.

What I think as coaches and also parents we need to understand is that somebody should not just be assessed by their age. Age is only one aspect to look at when potentially assessing an athlete or young person.

When we are looking at a child and deciding what class they should potentially go into yes the first thing a parent might do is look for the age group that suits their child and place them into that class. That is fine and completely understandable and logical. This might be how we initially group our kids, but what is important as coaches to then look at is the athlete’s development overall.

So what do we mean by this?

Calisthenics Athlete

When we begin to look at a child and deciding what stage of the pathway they are on, or what is most suitable to their needs, we are not just looking at their physical development or age.

There are a huge amount of variables that need to be taken into consideration:

Physical

Physically are they at the right stage of development to be considered to move up into the next stage of our development pathway?

In the examples we give for our class we have our FUNdamentals Assessment Chart in our 4-6 groups and our Levels 1-3 Movement Charts in our 7-10 groups.

Can they complete these movements? If they can, does age play a part in ticking this aspect off? Not really. A six year old could tick everything off on the FUNdamentals Chart, even five potentially. Would it make sense to move them? Again, potentially depending on other aspects that are not just physical. Another example would be a twelve year old that potentially can’t tick off everything on the FUNdamentals Chart. If they can’t does it make sense to place them in our FUNdamentals Programme? Physically? Yes. Socially? No. This is why physical development is not our only gauge for assessment or athlete development.

Emotional

Emotional development. If we are trying to actually help the development of a child or young athlete then we are not just looking at physical components when it comes to our programmes.

As mentioned, a five year old may tick off every movement on our FUNdamentals chart, but socially would it benefit them to interact with an older group who are potentially physically stronger. If they are currently in a group that they have a lot of confidence in and good social interaction does it make sense to take them out of that environment where the other group are potentially more physically capable and we risk losing the confidence we have worked hard to build up. In our experience through that short sighted way of thinking we have lost kids from our own programmes.

Under the emotional heading when we are looking at athlete assessment is probably the most significant. There are a huge amount of variables under that heading that we consider when placing a child in a certain stage of our pathway.

Confidence – Building or losing?

Will moving them into another group or the next stage of the pathway help build their confidence up or is it risking losing confidence? This is the first question we have to look at and answer before we consider it. They may be ready physically but if the answer to this is no then there is no reason to move them because in our experience this will not keep them in the sport long-term. It destabilises them and causes them to regress emotionally, and this is the opposite of what we are trying to develop with anyone involved in our club or any athlete in our sport.

If we are not going to develop their confidence by moving them, then why do it?

I probably keep someone in a certain group for longer but that is for this reason. I am in no rush to move them up just for the sake of it. If someone has turned seven but does not want to move up yet, what am I gaining by pushing them into an entirely new group of people and creating uncertainty for them? I am not building confidence in an athlete, I am losing it. Age is not the determining factor when we move people into certain groups, the idea of building or losing confidence is one of the biggest and definitely more important than their age.

On the flip side to that, you can have someone who is technically five or six and emotionally ready to move into the next stage of development. In my opinion it is about us developing a positive relationship with each individual so that we understand whether they are emotionally ready to move into another group or not.

Cognitive

From a cognitive understanding we need to look at whether socially they would interact well with another group or not. We need to look at their social maturity and whether or not it will benefit them moving into another group. Their developmental age from a social maturity aspect can be very different to their relative age. All parents have heard or said this before about certain kids becoming teenagers before they actually are for example!

For us this is an important aspect to gauge. We need to be able to assess and understand if socially they will interact well with another group and enjoy being part of that group. Will they be able to engage in conversation with the next group and have fun with them, or will they be a bit lost? It’s a huge aspect of deciding whether or not a child should stay where they are or be moved.

This is why as part of our club it is so important that we get to know the kids and everyone involved. What do they like, what are their interests outside of the club? This transpires when they interact with other kids. We need to ensure for their sake that they won’t be lost when moving into another group.

An example could be that a child at six has a huge interest in Pokémon. However if we moved them up into a group predominantly full of 9 year olds what they are interested in and talk about could be completely different. Then they have a completely different experience of our club in that group because they can’t relate to others like they could previously. This is such an important aspect to consider. As we have already said, it is not just about physical skills.

Calisthenics Athlete

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As coaches we have to ensure that all these things link together. If we can answer yes to all of the questions above only then can we actually consider moving someone up to another group. If one aspect doesn’t link up, then from our point of view it doesn’t make sense to move them.

This is all part of our long term athlete development plan. We are taking a long term view of each athlete and we have the specific aim of each person becoming physically literate and active for life. I think this can only happen if there is a structured and long term view at we how we develop each person that comes into our club and not looking short term.

As always feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Jamie

2018 Timetable

Hey everyone, 

A big Happy New Year from us all at Bar Monkey! 

We are really excited to start the new year and can't wait to welcome everyone back to classes!

With that in mind we just wanted to update everyone on the timetable and when we will be back with all our individual classes.

Saturday January 6th is our official return to classes, so anyone involved in our Saturday Groups we look forward to welcoming you all back then! 

Monday January 8th is our return to our normal schedule for everyone in our regular classes. 

There is currently a small amount of spaces available in our Thursday 7-10 age group, so if anyone is interested or knows somebody interested in getting involved please just get in touch with us at jamie@barmonkeycalisthenics.com. 

We can't wait to get 2018 started and hope that everyone is looking forward to getting back up and running! 

If anyone has any questions in the meantime please just let us know.

Thanks,

Jamie

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