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
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
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