The Kym-nastics way of doing things

Kym Dowdell

In a bid to make the country a gymnastics force, Kym Dowdell, member and former vice-president, International Gymnastics Federation Technical Committee, is in Mumbai to put in place a competitive framework for Indian gymnastics, which can act as springboard for the nation's great LEAP of faith to gymnastics glory. Dowdell stressed putting down a multi-pronged base, from where India can start producing gymnasts of calibre. She spoke to the press on Friday at Worli's LEAP Gymnastics facility. LEAP is a JSW Group initiative.

Dowdell said, "The newly developed competitive framework aims to increase participation, performance levels and assist new clubs to develop a gymnastic curriculum. We have something called the compulsories, which is about progressive development and consistent evaluation for all gymnasts in competition. The optional program will allow Indian gymnasts to further develop and demonstrate their skills in optional routines at three different grades. The final high-performance program is for the development of high-performance gymnasts who at an appropriate time, transition from either the compulsory or optional grades to high-performance."

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A gymnast demonstrates a ring routine at the LEAP facility

Dowdell spoke about the "massive Indian population, which itself is a good base and a rich resource for gymnasts. We also develop coaches and judges programmes in this framework. As you produce more gymnasts, you also need more coaches to keep pace. You need trained judges for competition. This is looking at the whole picture, a holistic approach."

The Brisbane professional added, "when you increase participation in gymnastics, talent will rise naturally through the system. One will not need to go out and select that, it will happen naturally." As gymnasts training at the LEAP centre demonstrated their skills on the rings, balance beam, the vault and did ground routines, Dowdell underscored the wisdom of patience and taking small steps towards the larger goal. She stated that India has to look at, "becoming a strong gymnastics nation in Asia first and then, aim for global glory."