Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the SUMMER term. What? How?! Yes… exactly my sentiment. 2024 is racing past at lightning speed but that does mean we are only a short way from the return of one of our favourite Affinity things…

The AFFINVITATIONAL.

SAVE THE DATE
Sunday 30th June 2024
Wodson Park Sports Centre, Ware.

I must explain… the ‘Affinvitational’ is our Affinity Invitational event. And the name is the result of me tripping over my words in a meeting once combining the two and yes, the name stuck.

It’s our very own in-house competition event that brings our fun and inclusive Affinity ethos. We encourage all our members to take part, either competing or spectating, to feel the excitement of competition and to build confidence through shared experiences. It truly is our favourite time of the year. Gymnasts will perform on floor and trampette (floor and vault for Parkour) with their own coaches there to help, support and encourage them. It’s a low pressure, safe, but comfort-zone expanding environment.

We started running this event many years ago, before a break in the pandemic. We previously invited other local clubs to take part but in 2022 ran this just for our athletes, and that’s what we’re going to do again this time. A day just for us all. Since we ended up having to cancel our 2023 event due to our move to the new larger HQ gym, we are definitely ready for our Affinvitational fix in 2024!!

This year, here’s the deal:

You will be invited to compete if you are in a Gymnastics or Parkour class age 7-9yrs, 10-12yrs or 13+ years.

Squad gymnasts – as you have other external events you are working towards, we won’t have this as a competition for you, but will invite you to come and perform a display.

Cheerleaders – similarly! You’ll be deep in competition season at this time, but if you fancy coming to display some skills do let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

Those in classes 6yrs and younger and those in tumble only, we invite you to come and watch and see what all the fuss is about.

More information to come, entries will open in early May. In the meantime, here’s a couple of comments from our previous Invitationals:

” All gymnasts embraced the spirit of the competition. It was really friendly. My daughter came out talking about her new friends. It’s an excellent introduction to competitive gymnastics for both the gymnasts and the parents. Coaches were incredibly reassuring. “

” My son had a great time. I think this competition is an excellent idea to give the beginners a chance to compete and show how great they are. “

” Thank you so much a fabulous day on Sunday. Of course now my daughter really has the bug and wants to do more gymnastics!…it was so lovely to see all the children having such a great time and she glowed all afternoon. It’s really given her a much needed confidence boost. “

I can’t wait.

Otherwise… hope you are enjoying class! We’ve a LOT on the schedule this term. Our squad gymnasts have just returned (with a huge amount of medals and trophies and smiles) from an Easter themed competition in the holidays and are off to another event in Bishops Stortford in June. Our silver and gold cheerleading teams have had two events so far, with the biggest events of the season still to go. Our class coaches for Gym and Parkour have been up-skilling their skills and those of our athletes and we’ve all got a lot more to teach this term. Our admin and leadership team are putting plans in place for our September timetable, oh and don’t forget the May and summer holiday camp seasons too. Plus its our one year New-HQ-iversary soon in July* AND the weather is getting better.

Wishing you a good week and term.

Jennifer Page – Affinity Founder

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*Yes, I made up another new word. Yes I agree, Affinvitational is much better.