Expert coaching for Whirlwinds

Trampolinists from the Wellington Whirlinds enjoyed a day of expert coaching this week at the PRSC from one of the UK’s leading coaches.

John Beer, national team coach and coach to Team GB’s trampolining squad at the last three Olympic Games, was in Wellington to offer advice and tips.

As well as one-to-one coaching, John brought along a Dartfish video analysis system and offered his expert opinion on technique and where improvements could be made.

Training Camps Guide launched

Our mission to attract international teams to Wellington ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games is a (small) step closer this week following the launch of the online Pre-Games Training Camps Guide in Beijing.

We are one of 600 sports venues around the UK vying for the privilege of hosting one or more teams as they prepare for the Games in four years time.

Inclusion in the Guide means that we get to showcase the facilities we have available at Wellington School, both nationally and internationally, and for NOC's there is an added incentive, up to £25,000 from London 2012 to cover the costs of hall hire, accommodation and food expenses.

Wrestling, returning soon to Wellington?

But why would athletes choose to train in Somerset? Well, quite apart from the facilities available to teams here at the Princess Royal Sports Complex, we think that the South West offers teams the perfect location away from the media spotlight in which to prepare and focus on the Games.

In the South West, Bristol has already secured an agreement with Kenya and London 2012's Regional Director, Guy Lavender, and Bath University's Ged Roddy are now in Beijing building relationships with National Olympic Committees to attract other teams to base themselves in the region during the run up to the London 2012 Games.

Somerset's Olympic hopefuls

Ahead of the launch of the Pre-Games Training Camps Guide in Beijing, the August edition of Somerset Life has written a feature on some of the county’s top sports facilities and talented athletes looking forward to the London 2012 Games.

Facilities highlighted in the article alongside Wellington School’s Princess Royal Sports Complex include Huish Park Stadium, the home of Yeovil Town Football Club, Somerset County Cricket Club and Bath University.

Somerset Life’s feature ‘Somerset’s Olympic hopefuls’ is also available to read on their website.

Pre-Games Training Camps Guide launches 14 August

The organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games are preparing for the launch of the Pre-Games Training Camps Guide to National Olympic Committees (NOC's) on Thursday in Beijing.

The Guide, which includes the sports facilities at the PRSC and Wellington School, has been put together to help NOC’s find suitable training venues for their top athletes in the weeks and months running up to the London 2012 Games.

Wellington School's facilities been selected to (potentially) host Olympic teams in the sports of handball, judo, fencing, Tae Kwon Do, table tennis, wrestling and archery.

A fantastic opportunity for all of us to get involved in the London 2012 Games. But there’s a lot of hard work ahead, the clock is ticking and we’ve now got the tough job of trying to attract one or more of the 205 Olympic nations to Wellington in four years’ time.

National success for trampolinists

The hard work put in by Wellington’s trampolinists is beginning to pay off as the club begins to enjoy national success.

Four bouncers from the Wellington Whirlwinds recently competed in the British Trampoline and Double Mini Tramp (DMT) Championships at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. Competing in the DMT competition they placed as follows; Darian Strawford- 13, Ellie Gibbs- 16 Becky Cottey- 17, Amy Gillard- 24.

Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) is a relatively new discipline and ever gaining popularity, The DMT is a small, long trampette, which the competitors sprint down a track at and hurdle onto, before performing somersaults with the same technical requirements as on a trampoline.

Darian Strawford, Danielle Clarke and Milo Cole have also been selected to compete for the South West in the English Championships in November. All three will compete in the U15 DMT category.

The club has had a record number of competitors at a national level this year, including eight in DMT and six in trampolining.

At these competitions, Whirlwinds competitors have achieved some fantastic placings; 3rd U13 Boys Trampolining- Milo Cole, 4th U19 Girls Trampolining- Julie Weaver, 3rd U15 Girls DMT- Amy Gillard, 1st U15 Girls Team Medal DMT.

Keep an eye on the blog for regular updates from the Whirlwinds and other clubs at the PRSC.

Celebrating the Cultural Olympiad

Having been selected as a potential Pre-Games Training Camp venue for the London 2012 Olympic Games and with the Beijing Games just around the corner, we're obviously keen to follow the progress and development of the Games as we approach 2012.

Whilst the August Bank holiday weekend sees the conclusion of the 2008 Games and the handover of the Olympic flag, September signals the start of the Cultural Olympiad, a four year celebration of British culture.

The project will be launched on the 26 and 27 September, and the South West will be kicking it all off with a Bandstand Marathon, a series of 50 bandstand concerts on the same day throughout the region.

And the reason for our interest? The whole event is being organised by Paul Smith, who works as a relief Duty Supervisor here at the Sports Complex. His Wellington-based company Superact! will be responsible for organising the event in the region.

There's also an event in Wellington, with Wellington Silver Band playing on 27 September from 2.00 - 4.00 pm in Wellington Park.

We wish Paul and his colleagues the best of luck with the event.

Whirlwinds on Facebook

Wellington Whirwinds, the trampolining and double mini tramp club based at the Princess Royal Sports Complex, has launched it very own Facebook Group.


The Group has been set-up to help promote the trampolining club, which runs on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday mornings at the Sports Complex.

You'll need to set up a profile on Facebook to be able to access the Group.

A summer of hard work and spring cleaning

The summer months are a busy time for the staff of the Princess Royal Sports Complex.

On top of our normal evening and weekend bookings, we also have our programme of children's activities Kids Camps to organise, sports coaching sessions for Etherton Education - a summer school for Chinese students based for the holidays at Wellington School - as well as sports sessions for groups of French students to cater for.

The summer is also a great time to catch up with some spring cleaning and maintenance of facilities ready for the return of staff and pupils in September.

Our cleaning staff have been kept particularly busy this summer, charged with the task of cleaning up our sports hall floor. After six years of constant use day and night, and with an area of over 1000 square metres to cover, this was no easy task.

Thanks to the hard work of our morning cleaners, Sharron and Jan, who have been starting work at 5.30 am to get the job done, now all but one final corner of the hall has been thoroughly stripped and cleaned.

Before and after - just one corner of the sports hall left to finish

Don't worry, we decided to leave the lines on!

Welcome to our new blog

Here at the Princess Royal Sports Complex we're always looking at how we can improve not only how we can promote the great facilities we have on offer here but also the huge range of clubs and activities that use our facilities each week.

Our latest initiative is the introduction of an online blog. A blog, or web log, is basically a regularly updated online journal, and we're going to be using ours to keep you up to date with what is going on at the Sports Complex.

The new blog will complement our official website at www.wellington-sport.org.uk, where you will find information about our facilities, timetables, children's holiday activities and regular news.

Over the next few weeks and months we're also planning on opening up the PRSC blog to the clubs and societies using our facilities so that they can tell you all about what they do and keep you up to date with their achievements.

We hope you like the new blog and will keep coming back for the latest blogs from the PRSC.