My first blog post...

So, this isn't exactly my first ever blog post.. I just spent the best part of the last 2 hours writing the first ever blog post... and the computer ate it. Lost and gone forever. It was was an awesome blog post too... I was super proud of it. URGH.

Ah well.... maybe now I'm an expert blogger that'll mean entry two will be better than my first post!

The mug shot up there (with all of the filters!) that's me, I'm Aimee and I am the President of the British Pole and Aerial Sport Federation. One of the new, trendy, hip and cool young members of the committee suggested that we need to start blogging, so here it goes. It hasn't gone too well so far, so at least the situation can only improve.

Things I have learnt so far whilst blogging;
SAVE EVERY SENTENCE AS YOU TYPE IT.

On the previous entry (now lost somewhere in cyber space) I had somehow gotten myself on to talking about how some of the best routines I have had the pleasure to watch were by Oona Kivela ( 2014 & 2018 ) and Heidi Coker ( 2014 ). Whilst everyone's routines are always fantastic, these two in 2014 showed what it was to really understand the Code of Points. They understood and knew exactly how to read the code and to put it onto the stage to score well. I think for me, they were the first athletes to really get on stage and perform the Code of Points in a way that showed how it should be done. I seem to remember watching it on the livesteam (as I was just about to have my second child!) and commenting on facebook something along the lines of "YAAAAAS, now THATS how you do it folks!"

I don't really remember how the first blog post got me along on to that subject in the first place, I just started to type and went with where it took me to... Its a shame I can't remember it now!

While we're along the theme of getting it right and understanding the code... I guess I should make a mention to the Mexican athlete Maria Eugenia Plaza Ortega who is another one who understands the code - she is currently ranked as the Pole Sports World Record holder with a score of 69.4. I was lucky enough to be at the World Championship in Canada when she broke the record, the Mexican team and their support teams went absolutely mad with delight, it was great! They showed a huge amount of support for all of their athletes and came as a strong crowd with flags and noisy clacky things, it really boosted the atmosphere.

Talking of World Records, did you know that we have our own World Record holder here in the UK? ParaPole athlete Andrew Gregory competes in the PPD4 category. He originally listed a World Record in the Netherlands at the open championship in June, 2019. He qualified and competed again in Montreal, Canada in October of that same year and absolutely smacked in out of the park! He smashed his own world record and is currently the world number 1 in his category with a score of 38.4

Let me be clear though, every single athlete who gets up there and performs is a champion. It is not just about the Elite athletes for us here in the UK. Yeah sure, the World Champion Elite athletes are amazing, sure they are! But for us here at the British Pole & Aerial Sport Federation we are delighted to watch our athletes starting out at grassroots level. Whether they be a tiny 6 year old pre-novice or whether they one of our 70+ athletes, each and every one of them are a champion to us.

We often hear that people are too scared to join the Federation because it is just for 'really good people' - I want to set the record straight here and say NO IT IS NOT! The very Elite athletes are few and far between, it is out grassroots and amateur athletes who make up our federation and we need more of you to get involved. I hope that many of you will come along to some of our weekly informal chats in order to learn more about how to work with the committee. Hopefully you will see that our championship weekend will be for all people of all levels.

Speaking of which... It will be the weekend of 23-24th July 2022 at Thornbury Leisure Centre, Bristol.

Entries are already coming in from the athletes who were stopped from competing in 2019/2020 due to covid-19. We ae opening applications in the next day so we are hoping to get plenty of support. Did you know that absolutely anyone can apply to take part in the Nationals? Every athlete in the UK will be given the opportunity to compete during this weekend of competitions. We hope that many many people will support us and take part in this, without athletes and their cheerleaders we cannot make it happen. It is a super expensive risk for the federation to take, so we hope that we can do enough fundraising between now and then - fundraising is an ongoing task for the Federation. We are lucky to have attracted 4 new members to the committee this week and they have come with lots of fresh ideas and plenty of enthusiasm. So we all hope to be able to succeed in 2022.

With the addition of the four new committee members our team now comprises of the following people;

Myself (President)
Paul Bradley (Vice-President)
Kathy Buller (Secretary)
Irenna Wildridge (Treasurer)

and although they are yet to be given an offical title or role, our new members and general committee assistants are;
Rachael Storey
Robin de Meyere
Iris Esener
Diana Jia Wan

Welcome and thank you to everyone for being on this journey with the Federation.

I think I'll wrap up this blog post now, seeing as I have been on with it for most of the day now thanks to being a techno-fool and losing the first post. I'll speak to you all again next time when I work out what I'm doing, I'm off to research 'how to blog' in advance of the next post!

Aimee