Ten year old Jonathan Brown has taken part in several competitions with his local gymnastics and trampoline club Springfit, showing a healthy enthusiasm for the events and challenging himself to perform to the best of his ability. He recently did a project at school on his biggest passion and chose trampolining. He also did a school project on a person that had inspired him and chose his first trampoline coach Adam Reynolds who is now the club manager at Springfit.
He has trained at Oakwood Sports Centre in Horley for over three years and recently moved to the high performance Saturday morning trampoline classes at Oriel school in Maidenbower to further increase his ability levels. He performs front and back somersaults at the age of just 10 and shows great ambition and determination to achieve even greater moves on the apparatus.
In his first Springfit competition in February 2010 Jonathan achieved 3rd place performing at Grade 8 – a great start to his competitive experience. In the next event in June 2010 he missed out on a medal by 0.15 points and worked hard to earn 3rd place at Grade 9 in July 2011. Stepping up further, he won 2nd place at Grade 10 in June 2012 and his appetite for competition grew, so he worked harder to earn the top spot. Amongst the most difficult and closely matched group of gymnasts to date, Jonathan took the gold medal at grade 10 last Saturday, much to his surprise.
Jonathan’s Mum, Nicola, is extremely proud of his achievements and his current coach, Sharley, is looking forward to seeing him perform at the next level up in future competitions. The advanced grades contain twisting somersaults and moves with more than a full rotation, ensuring some spectacular moves are in line for Jonathan to learn in the coming months. He also gets to create his own ‘voluntary’ routine, putting in any moves that he has learnt, including skills with higher difficulty which earn more points for the complexity. This should help whet his appetite for his favourite sport in the world.
Pictured is Jonathan receiving his gold medal at last Saturday’s trampoline competition and a couple of him in action during his routine.
