Reynella Braeview Calisthenics Club

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:41): I have made some amazing friends and connected with some really great community groups during the year. I have always been a huge supporter of all sports and a participant of many. I am fearlessly and fiercely competitive and have found my current pursuits in Night Owls to be very frustrating, but the people of Happy Valley Bowls Club have been sensational and super supportive. I am not too sure if they are laughing at me or with me but, in any case, it has been a great way to get to know a lot of people in the community who I would have only chatted to previously.

I have been a netballer for many years and I do miss it a lot but, to be honest, I would have to say that my best years are behind me. I did a couple of years of gymnastics as a very small child on the back of watching hours of the wonderful Nadia Comaneci, the 15-year-old Romanian superstar of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but I was built more to move the equipment around than to dance, jump or do tricks on it, I am afraid.

Earlier this year, I was introduced through a friend to Reynella Braeview Calisthenics Club. One of my lifelong friends, Nicky, has always been a long-term nagger about the benefits of cali (which is what the cool kids call it) and over wine has boasted about her fist-pumping victories in the graceful girl contest. I am not only not a graceful girl but I also find it an awful chore to put on makeup, so with great trepidation I travelled to watch the cali training for the first time, expecting a room full of fragile little girls wearing makeup. I did not find that at all.

Reynella Braeview, which amalgamated in 1993, have 120 members from ages three to 28 years. There are 16 committee members and 11 very committed coaches, two of whom, Nat Fleming and Jenny Hampton (also referred to by the cool kids as Miss Nat and Miss Jenny), were awarded their 30 years of service at our concert in September. It is an incredible and enduring commitment to the families of our community.

Our sub juniors in this club are the state champions, with all five teams winning the aggregate in August—a sensational achievement and a reason to be excited about the future of the club. All other age groups placed in their sections also. It shows incredible depth and consistency.

In October 2014, six teams travelled to Ballarat to compete in the Royal South Street competition with the sub junior 1s coming away with second place. Then in October 2015, the inters came second.

For the uninitiated, like myself, this is an annual competition that has been held since 1891 when it started as a debating contest. It now showcases, in an eisteddfod format, many types of performing arts. Notable competitors previously have included Denise 'Ding Dong' Drysdale, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the fabulous Joan Kirner, although I am sure, disappointingly, it is unlikely that Joan Kirner competed in calisthenics. Reynella Braeview hosts a camp every January for the girls to bond and get together with girls from other age sections and have fun with the coaches. It is a great way to build club spirit and morale.

A typical cali year consists of midyear contests, May competitions, state championships in August and everyone is working towards these. They have an end-of-year concert in September and there are also two solo competitions in April and November that some of the girls compete in. Every year the girls have the opportunity to represent our state in the Australian calisthenics federal national competition which is happening here in Adelaide next year and I am very excited about this. Over the weekend in July this year, there were seven sub juniors, five juniors and two intermediates selected to represent South Australia from our club.

In 2016, when it is held here it will become such a special thing for them to be selected, with two of the sub junior coaches, Nat Fleming and Robyn Middleton, having been selected to be the 2016 sub-junior national team coaches, a great achievement. Let me share some fun facts about calisthenics where the age groups start from the tinys at the age of three through to the seniors at 16 and over. Girls learn five or six routines that they work on all year to compete at the state competitions. Calisthenics builds friendships that last a lifetime, it builds confidence, and they learn to love exercise and make it a routine part of their life.

Posture and deportment play an important part in their training—and I love that the member for Wright has returned to the chamber because she had told me how much she loves calisthenics. All of these things make for grounded, confident young women. Even for a very successful club, however, there are some challenges which I hope to help them with. Halls for the girls to practice in are difficult to find and very expensive but we must keep supporting our young women to make positive lifestyle choices.