World Calisthenics Championship 2022 — Bar Monkey Calisthenics

11/10 experience

This was how Freya described the entire trip for our team, and I think it best sums up the World Championship.

To be the first representatives from Ireland to compete in the Calisthenics World Championship is a huge achievement for myself and Aaron, and we thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. It’s not very often you get the chance to represent your country in a sport you love, and walking out seeing both my name and Aaron’s with the Irish tri-colour is an amazing memory I will keep with me.

In the ten minutes before you start, this for me was a very peaceful and quiet moment. Every person supporting you can help you as much as possible, but in those ten minutes alone, you are with yourself only and it becomes a very ‘spiritual’ time. I don’t mean in a religious sense, but just in a sense where you need to connect with yourself and put yourself in a very present moment. Ten years of training for me has led to this moment, and now I need to be present. I did this by visualising. For me, this has been very powerful and has improved my performance in competitions so much. When you visualise deeply your routine, the feeling of the chalk in your hand, your grip on the bar, what your swing will feel like, you are creating a ‘forward memory’ and not allowing any other thoughts to come in - negative or otherwise. This essentially creates pathways with your brain and allows you to perform the vision. It helps us to block out any ‘what if’ distracting thoughts, and for me this was the most powerful thing I could do before I went on. I felt calm, and when I walked out I was prepared and excited. I have spent ten years training to get to those two minutes.

The biggest achievement for me though over the course of the entire event was being able to bring a young group of our teenage athletes and letting them experience the entire competition. Not just that, but the build-up, seeing what the preparation is like beforehand and being part of the support. Personally being able to look up into the crowd before you are about to compete on a World Stage and see a group of people all wearing Bar Monkey t-shirts and cheering for you is the most rewarding moment. This grounds you in a way, because you realise (in the nicest way possible) despite being on the World Stage in our sport it is only those people that actually care about you in those two minutes. Everyone else that is there is either competing themselves or there to support their own athletes, so they aren’t actually focused on you. This helps you centre yourself and it becomes a much more enjoyable process because you can make yourself feel as though it’s just a training session with those people like any other. They are the main people that want to see you do well, and they know what you are capable of, so you only need to focus your attention on them.

Speaking with Sara in the lead-up to the event, I was more focused on making sure the group as a whole would enjoy the entire experience. If I want them to come back here in the future as an athlete and compete themselves, then it needs to be an experience worth repeating. They have to WANT to come back. Seeing our names with the Irish flag I think is enough motivation for them - they want to do this themselves next year and see their own name in lights.

Competitions, or high pressure situations should not be viewed as anxious moments, they should be seen as a reward for everything you have done previously to get there

I spoke with the group after the event when we got home and I explained that these situations or competitions are not moments to be anxious or nervous - they are a reward for the hard work and culmination of everything you have done to be there. This is your chance to showcase that and justification for every decision you made to get to that moment. This is what it’s all for. Until the group themselves actually got to this competition I don’t think they would have realised this. Seeing the calisthenics community as a whole and realising they are part of this much bigger landscape of people has definitely motivated them. Sometimes we need to see the larger community to realise what our training is for. When we are stuck in our own bubble we sometimes can’t see the point as athletes. Training in the same hall every week, practicing the same movements - there needs to be an outcome. Competitions, and getting an opportunity to travel to other countries because of your sport is the outcome.

Obviously if we are around our mates who are outside of the sport, they may not get why you are training as much as you are. Being able to be part of these types of events helps justify it to others, and maybe helps keep the pressure from them off when it comes to other decisions ( them asking you to go out drinking, stay up late etc.) they may understand it more when you can show them these events or competitions you are preparing for.

I feel that me and Aaron have only laid down the groundwork, the first stepping stone, and now that this has been set, we will see the next generation from the club starting to come through and represent us even better. As a coach, I see this as the start of the conveyor belt and I really hope that this has only laid the first foundation and every year Ireland will get stronger and stronger participating in these competitions. It only takes one to break down the barrier, and the floodgates will open. We had undoubtedly the best support from Ireland, and I know our young athletes want to experience this for themselves - we can’t offer anything higher in terms of motivation for them.

As a coach and owner of the club, I couldn’t have asked for any more, and I am full of optimism going forward as I believe this is only the first step and our next generation of athletes will go on to do even better things and create a proud tradition representing our club in the World Championships - myself and Aaron have started the legacy, and I can’t wait to continue the journey and see the next generation within the club carry it forward.