Team Future

Team Future is the GA branding of our high performance development program across all Olympic Gymsports. Team Future activities encompass a holistic development program for the young gymnast.

Activities are delivered within two main camps per year for each gymsport. National and senior coaches act as ‘Master Coaches’ to mentor developing junior coaches. The program not only includes technical instruction but includes athlete and coach leadership education and development in the areas of physical development and assessment, psychology, nutrition and physiology. Other areas include contemporary upskilling in areas such as senior athlete mentoring, media skills, public speaking, drug and social media awareness. Developing athlete AND coach competencies will enhance the daily training environment, which is essential to long term development. Click here for more information about the Team Future camps. 

Team Future unites all developing gymnasts around the country who are successfully competing at an appropriate level and whose programs are embracing the IDEAL Skills Assessment program.

Who is Eligible for Team Future Camps?

Invitations to Team Future activities are a reward for the gymnast's hard work and progress. All eligible gymnasts are considered when determining invitations for any Team Future activities. To be eligible for an invitiation to a Team Future activity, the gymnast must: 

• In the current year, must be turning:
• WAG: 9-13 yr Team Future, 13-15 yr Team Future Advance
• MAG: 11-14 yr Team Future, TBA yr Team Future Advance
• TRP: 11-14 yr Team Future, 15-18 yr Team Future Advance
• RG: 10-13 yr Team Future, 13-15 yr Team Future Advance
• Have participated in IDEAL Skills Assessment throughout the year, and
• Utilised the Virtual Athlete Tracker to track progress along the IDEAL Skills Curriculum

• The WAG Team Future and Team Future High Achievers Squad specific eligibility and qualifying scores is available below: 

Team Future Advance Camps

An extension of the Team Future Camps are the Team Future – Advance (TFA) camps. These camps have been running in WAG since 2014 and have launched in MAG, RG and TRP in 2016. The camps will target athletes who have the potential to win medals for Australia at bench mark events in the future. The age group varies between gymsports but fills the gap between Team Future and Senior, to provide a complete camps assisted High Performance pathway. The design of the training camps includes high level gymsport training, continued and extended athlete education and both group and individual meetings to formulate/update the athletes Individual Performance Plans (IPP’s). 

Invitation guidelines for upcoming Team Future Advance camps in the second half of 2016 will be published soon.

For more information regarding TFA Camps in your gymsport, please contact the National Pathways Manager – Alexis Lebedew.

Technical Curriculums

IDEAL Skills Assessment is testing of the gymnasts progress in developing the skills outlined in the IDEAL Skills program. The aim of the IDEAL testing is to expose gymnasts to a comprehensive array of skills at an earlier age, ensuring they have the technical building blocks for future High Performance success. It provides the gymnast and coach with a useful tool – a ‘syllabus’ of skills linked to gymnastic development and age. The name of the program "IDEAL" stands for "Individual Development Element Assessment List" - hence the term "IDEAL".

The program was developed in consultation with many master coaches throughout Australia, as well as internationally renowned experts. 

How do the gymnasts and coaches benefit from utilising the IDEAL Skills Program?

IDEAL skills provide a road map of the ‘Ideal’ skill progressions and development for young gymnasts. Ensuring IDEAL skills is supported by coaches delivers a level of accountability and is the perfect underpinning process to Individual Athlete Plans (suitable for athletes progressing to Junior and Senior National teams).

• The program provides direction, additional to the competitive program,

• The program encourages mastery and retention of basic movement patterns in conjunction with advanced skill learning,

• Clearly outlines a sequential method of skill learning which will eliminate "holes" in the gymnast's future program,

• Provides a strong base for which the most complicated and difficult skills can be learnt in the future, and

• Athletes and coaches can clearly see how each gymnast's skills are tracking; athletes can see how they are improving.

Virtual Athlete Tracker

A custom designed iDevice tool and database named the Virtual Athlete Tracker (VAT) has been built to enable assessment and tracking of each athlete along the gymsport skill curriculum (approximately 600 athletes at any time). There are two main components; handheld skill capture and web based assessment/reporting.

Talented athletes are identified and added to the pathways database up to four Olympic cycles in advance. This assessment process underpins the development of talent identified athletes and ensures that their coaches remain informed about the progress they are making.

For more information on the Virtual Athlete Tracker, or any other aspect of Team Future, please contact the National Pathways Manager - Alexis Lebedew.

Pathways – Leadership of a National contemporary athlete development system; fostering a high performance culture across the country based on excellence, innovation, teamwork, integrity and ethical behaviour.