Introduction

Storm 'Elite' Trampoline Club is based at Hall Mead School in Upminster, Essex. We have a modest 20-30 members and three coaches. We run sessions two evenings a week, catering for a range of abilities and ages, starting at 8 years old; our oldest member is 18. We consider ourselves a 'developmental' club, placing emphasis on quality and progress. We would expect most members to enter most available competitions. Members should take training seriously, by jumping in suitable competition attire and by behaving appropriately. That said, we obviously want our members to ENJOY the sport and as such we're not adversed to having fun!

History

Hall Mead School has, for some time, had a reputation for trampolining. In the 70's, Swallow Trampoline Club was based at the school, run by then-teacher, Garry Parsons, in his spare time. As a result, the school itself placed more emphasis on trampolining as a sport and it became a regular component of the PE curriculum. At about the same time, Hall Mead began hosting the annual Havering Schools’ Trampoline Competition, which still runs to this day. Even when Swallow folded and Garry left the school, the legacy was in place and the sport continued to thrive. This legacy became evident to now Head Coach, Gary, when he was a pupil at Coopers’, down the road, and competed yearly at the Havering competitions between 1990 and 1996. As well as jumping for Wings Trampoline Club in Basildon, he became a qualified coach as soon as he was old enough and ended up helping to run the club. Unfortunately it folded in 1996 when he went to university. In 2001, as fate would have it, Gary started working at Hall Mead as a technology teacher and immediately got involved with the extra-curricular trampolining sessions. Through this, he met a PE teacher, Julie, who also had a keen interest in trampolining and it was decided to start a new club. In May 2002, Storm Trampoline Club was born. In the summer of 2009, it was decided to split Storm Trampoline Club into two, resulting in Storm 'Breakers', a purely recreational club and Storm 'Elite', a competitive club.

When the original club first started in 2002, we had three coaches, we trained four hours a week, over two evenings and we only had the use of Hall Mead’s trampolines. One was a full size ‘golliath’ bed and there were three smaller, less bouncy 77a's. By the time the club split, seven years later, we had purchased and since donated to Hall Mead School, three ‘competition’ trampolines, four end-decks and floor matting.

Location

Storm 'Elite' train in the Sports Hall of Hall Mead School, Marlborough Gardens, Upminster, Essex. RM14 1SF

Coaches

All coaches/assistants are members of Trampolining's Governing body, British Gymnastics and either have valid CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks in place, or applications being processed.

Head Coach/Club Manager, Gary is a 'Senior Club Coach' (Level 4)

he is assisted every session by:

Jan, a 'Club Coach' (Level 3) as well as a Special Needs Coach.

Leanna, a 'Club Coach' (Level 3).

 

Equipment

We have use of 4 trampolines every session. One '6x4' Eurotramp and three '6mm' beds (1 x Universal, 1 x Ceetex and 1 x Nissan 'Goliath')

We use 4 Continental 'international' end-decks.

We've recently bought additional floor matting to run along the sides of the trampolines during training also.

We also have use of an over-head rig used for supporting somersaults.

Achievements

Because we are based at Hall Mead School, it’s predictable that many of our members attend the school. This has had a massive influence on the success of Hall Mead in national trampoline competitions. Since 2003, when the school started entering the National Schools Competitions, we have had at least one team reach the National Finals every year since and one particular team of boys WON it three years running (2004, 2005, 2006). The same boys were awarded the 2006 Havering School Sports Team of the Year! All four boys trained at Storm and none of this success would have been possible without the club.

In March 2010, Tyler Woodward, became Storm Elite and Hall Mead School's first ever INDIVIDUAL National Schools' Champion, when he won the Under 13 Boys Novice Catagory at the National Final in Bristol: