For 2020 we are mixing it up a bit and will no longer produce a quarterly newsletter. We will be producing a monthly blog newsletter for your reading pleasure.
iClassPro
In January we moved from our old class management system, Jackrabbit to a fantastic new system, iClassPro. It has been a long haul getting through the change over.
With the new system you have a lot more control of your account:
- You may have noticed that when your child is absent from a class, you receive an email allocating you a make up token. Tokens can be used in the app to book a make up class for your child, to a maximum of 6 make ups in a calendar year.
- If you know your child is going to be absent from an upcoming class, you can use the app to record a future absence without needing to send us an email or call.
- If you need to change your child’s class day or time you can go through the app and request this change and request for your old class to be dropped.
We are putting more control into your hands!
Our admin staff are still working furiously to input all of your child’s current and historical skill information. As you can imagine this is a HUGE undertaking. We are inputting past members skills information too which means it is over 4,000 kids to input. You should be able to log in and see your child’s progress by the end of March.
We love this new system and are learning more every day, we hope you love it too!
2020 Membership Packs
By now you have received your 2020 Membership Pack. We hope you enjoy some of the member benefits that we have provided. If your child’s t-shirt is the wrong size please bring it in and our friendly customer service staff will help you swap it over.
It has been great looking out over the gym and seeing so many kids proudly displaying their allegiance to Twisters!
Drink Bottles
Our coaches carry around drink bottles in buckets. Our reason for this is that with such tight rotation times we do not want to waste any class time waiting for children to line up at a drink fountain. This also prevents potential for injury when children have to make their way from one side of the gym to the other just to get a drink.
We highly encourage parents to send your child with a NAMED drink bottle so that we can give your child maximum amount of time on the equipment.
If your child does happen to leave their drink bottle at the gym and it is named. Our office staff will send you an email and let you know that it has been left and you can come and collect it the following week. We hold on to bottles for a month before unfortunately having to throw them out.
Drink breaks are important but getting max gymnastics is the most important thing to us!
Hair
A reminder if your child has chin length or longer hair it needs to be tied up for gymnastics. The kids spend a lot of time upside down and rolling, if they have flowing hair it doesn’t work very well. I can’t tell you the amount of big clumps of hair we have seen yanked out at the roots as a child rolls over and pulls their own hair out….ouch!
New Website
Twisters has just released our brand new website! This has been a labour of love by our Operations Manager and design extraordinaire Allison. We think it looks brilliant and has improved the user experience. When you have a chance, go and check it out!
Gymnast of the Month
We will be celebrating our Gymnasts of the month each month in these blogs. We are a little late to get the blogs going whilst the focus has been on developing our brand new website.
Here are our January and February Gymnasts of the Month from Northcote and Showgrounds.
January Northcote GoM: Mia
Coach Lucy says, Mia has been working incredibly hard on all of her skills this last term, especially her handstands and her cartwheels. Mia has progressed and improved immensely since the start of the term, never-mind the start of the year!
Every lesson Mia has an awesome attitude; she takes on corrections and applies them consistently, is always looking for a challenge and is always supportive of her teammates.
Mia is by far, one of the most hardworking, dedicated, kind and resilient gymnasts I’ve ever taught and it is such a pleasure to coach her!
The tough questions:
- When did you start gymnastics? When I was 3
- What is your favourite thing about gym? It’s just fun
- Do you do any other activities? Swimming
- What is your favourite movie? I don’t have a favourite but I like Hop
- What is your favourite food? Ice-cream
- Favourite gymnastics skill? Cartwheel
- What gymnastics skill have you always wanted to learn? Backflip
- If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Fly
- What do you want to do when you are older? Help animals
January Showgrounds GoM: Isabelle
Coach Rachel says, Isabelle has been working extremely hard since moving into the Club Badges class in 2019. Despite being fairly new to the group she has excelled in the class and improved so much since she joined.
Isabelle has such an amazing attitude towards training and always tries her best! She has been able to accomplish skills such as backwards rolls with straight arms and backhip circles on the bars.
It has been such a pleasure having Isabelle in my class. I am blown away by her positivity, perseverance and amazing work ethic!
The tough questions:
- When did you start gymnastics? 2018
- What is your favourite thing about gym? Doing sports
- Do you do any other activities? Swimming
- What is your favourite movie? Pocahontas
- What is your favourite food? Sour Sop
- Favourite gymnastics skill? Backwards roll
- What gymnastics skill have you always wanted to learn? Flip
- If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Reading
- What do you want to be when you are older? Illustrator
Feburary Northcote GoM: Alisa
Coach Felicia says, Alisa is a very deserving Gymnast of the Month! She is incredibly dedicated and rarely misses a class and always works super hard on her technique. Alisa has an exceptional attitude; she’s enthusiastic, positive, eager and a good team mate. She gives 110% to every single class and is always willing to try new skills. Alisa’s front and back tumbling has improved out of sight, especially her layouts and twisting. Her back handspring is becoming more consistent and her work on the bars has also improved as she is working more efficiently and completing her program on time. Alisa has also shown great improvement in the quality of her leaps and jumps including knees, toes, height of the leap and a bigger split. I wasn’t surprised by her wonderful performance at the Victorian Championships placing 6th on beam! Keep up the incredible work Alisa!
The tough questions:
- When did you start gymnastics? 2014
- What is your favourite thing about gym? Learning new skills and competing
- Do you do any other activities? Tennis
- What is your favourite movie? Mrs Doubtfire
- What is your favourite food? Lamb
- Favourite gymnastics skill? Layout twisting
- What gymnastics skill have you always wanted to learn? Giants on wooden bars
- If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Invisibility
- What do you want to be when you are older? Gymnastics coach
February Showgrounds GoM: Mia
Coach Gen says, Alannah has shown great commitment to gymnastics and is improving every class. Alannah is a great asset to her class and she shows compassion and care constantly! Alannah encourages her friends to be their best and is respectful to everyone in the gym. She shows determination and resilience, both of which are really paying off. Alannah is currently working on mastering her handstands and cartwheels and she never gives up. She is willing to try new things and push her self to become an even better gymnast. Alannah’s bubbly personality shines in the gym and she is a great role model for the younger kids. Great work Alannah, the coaches are very proud of you and we are looking forward to coaching you in the future.
The tough questions:
- When did you start gymnastics? May 2018
- What is your favourite thing about gym? Learning new things while having fun!
- Do you do any other activities? Netball and swimming
- What is your favourite movie? Descendants 3
- What is your favourite food? Hot ships (chicken salt) and lasagna
- Favourite gymnastics skill? Anything on bars
- What gymnastics skill have you always wanted to learn? Front hip
- If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Invisibility
- What do you want to be when you are older? Fashion designer
