Gymnastics Ireland announces 2018 Performance Consultants & National Performance Coaches

Irish Sport HQ, Dublin; Gymnastics Ireland is proud to announce the Performance Consultants and the National Performance Coaches (NPCs) who will be leading and working with the National Squads under the direction of Performance & Technical Manager Sally Johnson.

The Performance Consultants are as follows… 

Paul Hall - Men’s Artistic Gymnastics 

• Personal Coach to 4 time Olympic Medallist, Louis Smith and All Around World Silver Medallist, Daniel Keatings. 
• FIG Academy lecturer and expert, and Brevetted Coach.
• GB Coach at 2 Olympic Games and 5 World Championships.

Sam James - Women’s Artistic Gymnastics 

• Qualified High Performance Coach (Level 5)
• Team Ireland Coach at the Rio 2016 Olympics and personal coach to Ellis O’Reilly who was the first ever female Irish gymnast to compete at an Olympic Games
• Team Ireland Coach at several internationals including the first European Games, European Championships and World Championships

David Woods - Women’s Artistic Gymnastics 

• Current Great Britain National pathway Coach. 
• Former GB Men’s International Tumbler 
• Men’s and Women’s qualified high performance Coach.

The National Performance Coaches are as follows…

Paul Greaves - Trampoline 

• Olympic Medallist Coach - Personal Coach to Olympic Silver Medallist Bryony Page
• Master Coach & Union of European Gymnastics Technical Expert
• Lecturer of Sport, Specialism in Sport Coaching - Sheffield Hallam University

Kristina Rangelova - Rhythmic Gymnastics 

• Olympic bronze medallist, World Champion & European champion
• Participant in two Olympic games Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004
• Bachelor's degree of rhythmic gymnastics coach and PE teacher 

Sally Batley - Women’s Artistic Gymnastics 

•  Head Coach at Renmore Gymnastics Club - Galway
• Team Ireland Head Coach for EYOF 2017 & National Performance coach since 2014
•  Irish delegation selection for 8 different International events to date

Luke Carson - Men’s Artistic Gymnastics 

• Represented Ireland at 5 World Championships and 6 European Championships as a gymnast.
• Personal coach to Rhys McClenaghan, Ireland's first European medallist in Artistic gymnastics.
• Personal coach to multiple Irish National champions across a range of age-groups.

Elaine Ryan - Tumbling 

• Level 4 qualified tumbling coach
• Coach to numerous national champions over the past 17years 
• School teacher with specialisation in physical education.

While the above NPCs are returning for 2018 we would like to welcome Victoria Pattison as our new NPC for Acro, below is an introduction to our newest NPC...

Victoria had a very successful career as a Sports Acrobatics gymnast. She competed at 4 World Championships and 2 European Championships representing Great Britain between 1995 and 2004. After retiring at the World Championships with a team bronze medal she immediately went into coaching, thus continuing to be involved in the sport she loves most.

She is a High performance coach and choreographer and has coached and choreographed for Wakefield and South Tyneside gymnastics clubs and helped produce World and European champions as well as numerous World, European and International medallists for Great Britain. Victoria is a Brevet category 2 International Judge and feels this role is necessary to keep up to date with the continuous clarifications and changes within acrobatics.

Taking on the role of National Performance Coach for Ireland is exciting for her and she is eager to work alongside the team as she feels Ireland can progress and move on to the next level and contend for medals on the World stage.

Victoria is looking forward to spending more time in such a beautiful country and to meeting the team over the next few months.

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