SPORTS PERFORMANCE
amounts of force, but they also need to be able to produce a lot of force too. For that reason they spend a lot of time working on plyometrics, which allows them to be able to bound from one movement to the next... just a tiny bit more gracefully than you or I doing Box jumps in our local gyms.
“ We do so much extra work for our core strength because Gymnastics alone is just not enough, but when it come to grip strength we get enough of that from all the endurance work we do on the bars”. Amy’ s personal favourite of these core exercises is the V-sit, so for those of you who think it is still not too late for you to make a late surge for the 2020 Olympic squad in Tokyo... grab your leotards and bang out a few hundred V-sits before your 6-hour session on the Pommel Horse and keep your fingers crossed.
Having visited the 2012 Olympics in London as a spectator Amy was inspired by watching the likes of Max Whitlock, Beth Tweddle and Louis Smith all pick up medals.“ Watching those three get their medals, especially Beth as a fellow female gymnast, was a massive inspiration to me and made
PHOTO CREDIT: BRITISH GYMNASTICS me realise that that is exactly what I wanted to do- I wanted to have an Olympic medal”.
From that point on the main change in her approach was the dedication and focus that was placed upon her nutrition.“ As a kid you can pretty much get away with eating whatever you want, but as you get older you need to control that more carefully and be more aware of eating to enhance your performance rather than just eating because you’ re hungry”.
After just a few minutes of speaking to Amy it was clear that she is no ordinary teenager. While other 16-year olds were enjoying their summer holidays she was heading to Rio to compete in the 2016 Olympics. Not only did she compete, but she came home as the youngest medalist in the GB squad, the second British female Olympic Gymnastics medalist and the first British female ever to win an Olympic Gymnastics medal on the floor.
“ It took a long time for all of that to sink in, and it still feels pretty crazy even now. I find it difficult to believe that I am one of only two British female gymnasts to ever win an Olympic medal, it is pretty amazing”.
Having travelled to Rio as an unknown schoolgirl and returning with a bronze medal around her neck Amy was thrust into the limelight, which for such a serene and quietly spoken young girl should have been quite daunting. But, as with everything, she took it all in her stride with aplomb.
“ It was pretty good fun to be fair. You get a lot of attention and I don’ t think anybody would turn a bit of fame down” she said with a hint of a giggle and a grin from ear to ear.“ You get into Gymnastics because you love it, but if the fame comes along you aren’ t going to turn it down. It was pretty cool to be able to walk down the street and for people to recognise me”.
Walking around the Olympic village she was often star-struck, rubbing shoulders on a daily basis with the likes of Tom Daly et al, but the single most memorable moment came very recently at the World Championships when Nadia Comaneci came and said hello.“ She was the first person to get a perfect 10 in Gymnastics and she knew who I was! She just came up to me and spoke to me, she knew my name and I remember thinking‘ oh my god, she knows who I am’, it was surreal”.
Of all the exciting events and award ceremonies she has been invited to, including the Sports Personality of the Year Awards, it says a lot about her character when she explained to me what had been the best thing she had experienced since the Olympics success.
“ Being invited to other Gymnastics clubs and to see how much other youngsters have been inspired by me is really nice to see. It is nice to be able to give something back to my sport and to inspire other gymnasts. Beth( Tweddle- the other British female Olympic Gymnastics medalist) came to my club when I was younger and I remember being proper excited about it so to be able to do the same now is really special for me”.
With the Commonwealth Games
112 MUSCLE & FITNESS / APRIL 2018