The Polarettes Gymnastic Club brought four athletes to Edmonton to compete in the Gym Power International Cup over the weekend. Hailey Sherman and Bianca Berko-Malvasio competed in the Junior Olympic (JO) 10 category.

Sasha Kozmen competed in JO 7 and Mackenzie Tonner competed in JO 6. Their coach Kimberly Jones joined the team in Edmonton.

For the four gymnasts, it was their first competition of the season, and it happened far earlier in the year than it typically does.

“This was the first competition of the season so typically everyone is trying new skills and trying their new routines so it’s a little more relaxed atmosphere in terms of intensity level,” said Jones. “Usually our competition season ramps up in March and April but because Canada Games is in February we needed to get a competition before that.”

The two JO 10 athletes, Berko-Malvasio and Sherman will be the two gymnasts representing the Yukon at the Games.

The early competition was good preparation for the atmosphere of a big event.

“Especially coming from the Yukon we have lots of in-house competitions to train them as much as possible,” said Jones. “It’s obviously very expensive to get the kids out so we don’t compete as much as clubs in the south. A lot of clubs in the south will do competitions every weekend. It really gets them exposed and used to doing gymnastics in front of 500 people. We don’t get that up here.”

The four athletes competed in the four events, bars, vault, floor and beam which made them eligible for overall scoring.

The team had a lot of success over the weekend and a lot of podium finishes.

Sherman made the podium in all of her events, including first in the vault.

“She competed in the Yukon’s first ever yurchenko vault,” said Jones. “Which is just a style of vault that is fairly complex and no Yukon athlete has competed it before. She competed and won, so it was a pretty big moment for Yukon gymnastics, it was pretty exciting.”

The yurchenko vault is more difficult because instead of running and jumping onto the springboard, the gymnast will first do a back handspring onto the board.

Berko-Malvasio, only 15, was the youngest in her category. She was competing in the older JO 10 category with gymnasts who have already received full-ride scholarships to colleges or universities.

“Bianca, of course, was just entering into this level,” said Jones. “She added a ton of difficulty to her routine and was struggling after Christmas in the gym. She made it to the bar finals because somebody scratched. But when she made it to the finals she got sixth. So that was really exciting when she hit her bar routine. It was a big difficulty increase than last year and against tough competition.”

For Tonner, it was her first time competing at JO 6. Last year she competed at JO 4 so she had moved up two levels in six months. According to Jones, in the JO level system, athletes competing in JO 5 or younger get set floor routines. In JO 6, that is when the gymnast gets to create, along with their coach, their own personal routine.

“Mackenzie did her floor routine and it was her highest score of the day,” said Jones. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to score because she finished choreographing it a month ago. She ended up placing above a nine on that routine and she ended up in fifth.

“On beams she took some falls, the nerves definitely hit. She has only been to one Outside competition before this, so that was quite large to go out, increasing by two levels then also everyone watching her. We definitely learned we need to work with her and simulate that pressure.”

Kozman competed in the JO 7, a level Jones says she is fairly experienced competing at.

“She didn’t have her best meet, she wasn’t super pleased with it,” said Jones. “She had a good day, but she wasn’t pleased. We are going to regroup and look at how she is training her skills and see how she can improve. It is in no way a reflection of her skills and how she works in the gym. It just wasn’t in the cards this weekend.”

The results from the four gymnasts were just a bonus to the bigger picture the club is focusing on.

“This competition; it was never about results,” said Jones. “We definitely weren’t trying to peak and win at this competition. It is always a process. Since there is a new set of rules it was more for us to see how the judges would judge with the new set of rules. They are quite large changes from what we are used to.

“Someone competing in JO 7 like Sasha last season are dealing with a very different, a much harder set of rules. We also had the opportunity to talk to the judges when we were there and ask ‘what are you looking for from our routines?’”

The rules in gymnastics change after Olympic cycles, usually to reflect the difficulty displayed in the Games.

“The code that we compete under, called the code of point, which are followed by all gymnastics in Canada and the U.S. they recently changed in September,” said Jones.

“They change after a couple cycles of the Olympics. The changes made the levels they were competing in extremely hard. So the difficulty increase across the country made everyone go ‘wow, ok, how are we going to achieve this.’ I think a lot of it has to do with the increased difficulty at the Olympics. They are trying to develop kids earlier.”

Luckily the judges are accommodating to the coaches and allow them to ask about the new changes and what is expected from the gymnasts.

“The judges are always willing to help, a lot of them are coaches in the sport as well, so it’s a huge asset to be able to do that,” said Jones. “We are bringing up a judge internally and she is going to give us even more assessment, and all of our coaches will be trained as judges for the Arctic Games next season when we are hosting.”

Jones says travelling Outside is also beneficial as a coach to pick up on and observe what other clubs are doing.

“Sometimes just going out as a coach and seeing what other clubs are doing and how they are using the code because it is very strategic when you get to level six or higher,” said Jones. “So to see, that’s a really good leap combination or side dance, you can kind of see and go ‘I have a kid that would do that really well.’ I’ve already made some changes since we’ve been back to routines so we can make everyone stronger.”

Jones says the message she delivers varies on the athlete. The constant is to trust the process and go out there and do the best gymnastics you can.

“More than anything we are there to have a good time,” said Jones. “It starts to ramp up and get more competitive the older they get. Our sport is generally is very competitive very young. Always we are out there to do the best gymnastics that we can show.”