According to an article in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post newspaper, funding for the ISC – which distributes government funds to member organisations – has dropped 5 per cent year-on-year to €46.7 million. The fears are that continued cuts to the budget will begin to take affect on the great work the sports governing bodies have done so far. The article is a great read, for those in Ireland and also to those who are not.

Those who are familiar with Irish Gymnastics will agree that the governing body has undergone a huge amount of developmental change in the last few years. Notably that the long awaited newly developed coaching courses have been rolled out over the  last three years thus increasing the coaches knowledge significantly which in turn has a major impact on the gymnasts talent. The coaching ladder structure has changed again over the last year, although the information is currently not available on the website. There are also other factors that have contributed to changes within the sport,the amount of full time gymnastics facilities has increased hugely in the last few years, something that most clubs could only dream of for years. With approximately 2,000 newly qualified coaches within the last two years and the talent is gradually rising to meet other European standards. Irelands Luke Carson and Charlotte McKenna competed well at the 2010 Dehli Commonwealth Games, Kieran Behan placed 8th on floor at the Cottbus Cup,  Charlotte Mc Kenna, Chris O’Connor and Anthony McDonnell all competed at the 2011 European Championships.  This helps to show why Irish Gymnastics was one of only eight sports to have it’s funding increased in 2011. The demand for gymnastics in Ireland is high, many clubs have long waiting lists of children waiting to join.

There are nine disciplines covered by the organisation and, in the last two years, around 2,000 coaches have qualified and been certified by Irish Gymnastics. Gallagher said that a new administration system had been developed, along with a welfare policy and education programme. Next year, a marketing and events department, along with high performance policy, will be developed.

‘‘We have created some new initiatives such as Springboard and GymStart [for coaching gymnastics], and are in the final stages of rebranding the organisation,” he said.

‘‘The three core basic of gymnastics – strength, flexibility and spatial awareness – can be used in most codes of sport, and we have trained coaches to implement these in GAA and IRFU clubs. We are also partnered with the University of Ulster School of Sports Science and are involved in the local sports partnerships programme,” he said.

‘‘We are currently in negotiations with British Gymnastics about a collaboration with the North, which would see our membership jump to 20,000. Next year we will also look at the area of high performance, and we are in discussions with a major sports clothing company about generating income for the organisation from sales of its sportswear,” Gallagher said.

As the article says, state funding will always be vital for Irish Sports, which is partially the reason why the Why Irish Sport Matters initiative was launched in the run up to the general election. Funding is received by clubs through fundraising events, National Lottery Grants and Local Council / Sports Partnership grants.  Success stories in sports other than rugby and football are on the rise in Ireland. For example, Irelands cricket team recently competed extremely well at the 2011 cricket world cup, Ireland has many talented athletes across a number of athletic events and Irish swimmers have had 27 swims ranked in the FINA World Masters Ranking  for 2010. Sarah O’Connor, CEO of the ISC says that each sport needs to begin to think together, not just to highlight their own success but to highlight the success of Irish sport.

‘‘All sports organisations here – including the major ones – could not survive without government funding, but I think they need to be more innovative now about how they generate that income,”.

‘‘Sports organisations need to come together themselves to highlight their achievements, instead of perhaps focusing singly on their own specific goals.”

I  agree with Sarah, sports should highlight the success of Irish Sports and look to companies and firms to sponsor them. Irish Gymnastics is on the up, lets hope it keeps that way. It’d be great to see an Irish gymnast competing high up in Worlds or Europeans. Funding is a must for gymnastics in Ireland. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made when Irish Gymnastics is rebranded and relaunched in Ireland in the coming months.

Irish Gymnastics has been given an increase in funding for 2011. This is particularly fantastic because IG is one of 8 out of 57 sports funded by the Irish Sports Council which received and increase, with the majority of the rest of sports receiving a cut in the current difficult economic climate. Ciaran Gallagher, CEO for Irish Gymnastics says;

In the most difficult economic climate of our times this can only be viewed as an endorsement of all the good work and accelerated development Irish Gymnastics has undertaken in the past number of years and highlights the ISC’s support for the strategic direction Irish Gymnastics is following as laid out in our Strategic Plan 2009 – 2012.

The increase of approx €55,000, along with internal investment, is dedicated towards developing the Events, Public Relations (PR) and Marketing programme as laid out in the strategic plan as the main development target for 2011.

This crucial programme will see Irish Gymnastics undertake a vital rebranding process, develop new events, PR, marketing and sponsorship strategies and appoint a new member of staff to drive the programme forward.

Congratulations to Irish Gymnastics, hopefully it means we will see more Irish gymnasts doing well on the international scene.  MAG gymnasts Luke Carson and Kieran Behan will compete at the Cottbus Cup in March.

For every gymnast turning hoops celebrating a funding boost, there’s an athlete in a tutu and skates whose dreams have been shattered

Each sport was awarded the financial boost due to their strong performances this year. Out of the £2.6 milllion surplus gymnastics will receive £625,000. Whilst I’m glad that British Gymnastics has received this extra funding, I really feel for the athletes from other sports who have had their funding cut or even withdrawn. You can read more about the extra funding awarded to each sport (or what money has been withdrawn) in Ollie Williams article on the BBC Sport website

Jane Allen CEO of British Gymnastics said about the increase; 

“British Gymnastics is delighted with the news today that UK Sport has increased their investment in our World Class Programme. We believe that this is a direct result of the outstanding achievements our World Class Programme has accomplished to date and we are grateful for the increased funding, as this will, not only, strengthen the athlete support for 2012, but will also provide a stronger legacy in the World Class Programme going forward to 2016″

Speaking of London 2012, now is your last chance to enter the competition to win a commemorative London 2012 gymnastics coin on Full Twist.

If you’d like to read more about the current situation and everything that has happened over the last few days in the country from protests to what Ireland should expect from the bailout,  The Journal has been great in offering reports and explanations of everything.  I find it very easy to read, otherwise when I hear politicians on tv or read in the nationa newspapers I often find it all hard to understand.

Today the current governments (coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party) 4 Year Plan to reduce the budget deficit was announced. Opposition parties in the government have criticised the Taoiseachs 4 year plan as they feel it does little to encourage economic growth. One of the main points of the 4 year plan is that tax rates are being re-based back to 2006 levels.  The minimum wage will be cut by €1 with those on it now being taxed. You can read all the details in the 4 Year Plan link above.  Among the plan was the announcement that there will be a reduction in funding to sporting bodies and grants to local sports organizations. In total €50 million will be reduced from the current funding total.  This will also effect the Arts Council. Opposition parties in the government have criticized the Taoiseach’s 4 year plan as they feel it does little to encourage economic growth.

As discussed before, Irish Gymnastics receives significantly less funding from the government than other sports in Ireland. In 2010, IG received a total  funding allocation of €238,545. Gymnastics in Ireland was one of only 11 sports out of 59 funded that maintained their funding levels in 2010 where the Irish Sports Council’s budget was cut by 4%. There was also a cut of €20,000 in the “Women In Sport” allocation for 2010, with IG receiving €69,000 from the total fund, not bad considering it was ranked 8th out of the 27 sports allocated funding.

The sport in Ireland is getting more and more popular these days. A lot of full time gyms are popping up, compared to 5 or so years ago there were very few, most clubs could only dream of owning a full time gym. It’s fantastic that over the last few years a lot of clubs have begun training in a full time facility. Who knows how much funding IG will receive for 2011? How much will that be reduced up to 2012? And what affect will that have on the sports development? Last year a total of €49.6 million in tax payer’s money was invested in the development of all Irish sport. Last week the Irish Sports Council made a submission to Minister for Sport, Mary Hanafin highlighting the following points;

• Submission to Minister for Sport Highlights Vital Role of Government Investment in the Development of Sport in Ireland
• Cuts Today Will Set Back Sport For Decades to Come
• Sports Funding Already Down by 62% since 2008

The submission document to Government fully acknowledges the difficult economic climate and the challenges for Government in where to invest taxpayer’s money in the next budget. It does make the point, however, that the money invested in sport works at many different levels and has impacts for everyone whether that be in terms of health, the economy, tourism or the very fabric of the community in Ireland.

The submission lists all of the activities made possible by Government funding each year and it also points out that any reduction in such funding is likely to have major effects right across the sporting spectrum.

It also notes strongly that at a time when Ireland’s stock has never been lower internationally that our sports stars continue to be an immense source of pride to Irish people all over the world. It notes that without exception those individual teams that the country is so proud of have all benefited from the funding that the Government has put into Irish sport down through the years. It also notes that the impact of any cuts in funding will not necessarily be felt immediately but will impact on Ireland’s international successes in the decades to come.

Fingers crossed that gymnastics won’t take a big hit as a result of the reduced funding in the 4 year plan. Understandably the country must get back on its feet so cuts are being made from everywhere possible but people often look to sport to keep them going during tough times, parents often have to pull their kids from the sport they love to save money. Without the funding and support it will be more difficult for Irish Gymnasts to be recognised on the International stage. The Men’s Team did well at the Worlds but unfortunately did not qualify into the finals. Luke Carson also competed very well at the Commonwealth Games in October and 3 female gymnasts took part in the London 2009 World Championships. The girls also competed in the Northern Europeans lately. Hopefully the reduced funding will not hinder Ireland’s top gymnasts from excelling internationally in the future. Another point raised was that London 2012 will possibly help the country’s  finances, with international teams using Ireland as training venues, the USA Synchronised swimming team have will be using the National Aquatic Centre as their training facility. Other venues of interest as University College Dublin and the University of Limerick. Hopefully more countries will want to use Ireland as their location when competing in 2012, thus showing that all sports need the funding provided by the Government to support these requests.

If you’re interested you can read the summary leaflet of the 4 Year Plan here.

What are your opinions? How has gymnastics in your country coped with reduced funding since the global recession? If you have anything to share, please leave a comment below.

This Saturday, six members of Bath Rhythmic Gymnastics Club will be performing live on the BBC1 National Lottery Show. Helen Christie, Annabelle Bartlett, Lynne Hutchinson, Sarah Dennis, Hannah Waite and  Francesca Fox are among a number of groups showing off skills developed using Lottery grants. The National Lottery is underway searching to find the country’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

Read more This Is Bath.Co.Uk

Read more on GetBracknell.co.uk

If you or your company are in a position to help, please call Fundraising Officer Mo Davies on (0118) 988 5090 or 07715990976.

Check the full article out here.

Is it self-funding?  How much of a problem is sports funding for Irish gymnastics in your opinion?

We are a non-profit company meaning we’re eligible for grants. However, as gymnastics is still such an unknown sport in Ireland, we’re constantly fighting to get any money at all as it all goes to the more well known sports such as Gaelic Football.

Every year, we have a goal to fundraise a certain amount which we do lots of ways such as a sponsored tumble (where the kids get people to sponsor them in tumbling for a certain amount of time), a public display (we set up some mats in the middle of the pedestrian streets in Galway and the kids have fun performing), among other more traditional ways. However, funding is definitely our biggest challenge.

How hard/easy is it stay on top of coaching education in Ireland?

Right now, very easy!! However, that is only very very very recent as the coaching education office in this country has taken a serious interest in bringing Irish (and foreigners living in Ireland) coaches up to speed with coaching qualifications.

While the final level available for a coaching course is still quite low in comparison to other countries, the main concern has been bringing current coaches up to date and raising the overall level. People who have only ever coached or done gymnastics in Ireland wouldn’t be as familiar with a lot of big skills because the level has only significantly increased in the last couple of years.

At Renmore, we’re lucky enough to have a very international coaching staff (I’m from America, Sally is from England, and we also have a men’s coach from Germany, a rythmic coach from Latvia, and another American coach), so our education about coaching gymnastics covers a wide part of the world. I think this also helps the coaches who wouldn’t have the background of high level gymnastics to get into it a bit more.

With that in mind, it makes me think about funding in gymnastics. I was reading this article from the BBC Sport website yesterday which includes a small section about the amount of funding given to gymnastics and what it means to the sport. Sport England has allocated £11,388,481 to gymnastic national governing bodies for 2009 until 2013, with the hope that the numbers increase and gymnasts perform better although gymnasts such as Daniel Keatings and Louis Smith are still waiting for their gyms to be refurbished, with the Olympics coming closer and closer, they’d want to secure funding very soon to move passed the initial phase.

Admittedly, I haven’t looked too much into it but how much funding does gymnastics receive from governments / sports bodies in your country? We can see above what BBC Sport have reported, I’m sure there is more to find out. In a previous post, Irish Gymnastics secured an allocation for 2010  of €169,545 for the sport – encouraging as gymnastics was one of only 11 sports out of 59 funded that maintained their funding levels this year in a year where the Irish Sports Council’s budget was cut by 4%. In Ireland, gymnastics is considering more of a minority sport as the country has it’s main sports rugby, football and the GAA sports (Gaelic and Hurling). It would be interesting to see how much more successful Irish gymnasts could be if more money was pumped in, providing better training facilities and national support etc. I’d love to know how much funding USA Gymnastics, Australian Gymnastics etc receives and how the money is spent.

So it leaves me asking:

How much funding does gymnastics receive in your country?

What difference do you think more funding could make to gymnastics in your country?

Do you feel that the allocated money is being wasted and could be used more resourcefully?

If it was you who makes the decisions, what would you spend more money on? better coaches? better facilities?

I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts.

• Womens Artistic (WAG)
• Mens Artistic (MAG)
• Tumbling
• Acrobatics
• Special Needs
• All Disciplines
• Aerobics
• Trampolining
• Rhythmic

2. There are eight different regions throughout the country in IG. In these eight regions, there are currently 92 clubs registered with IG, the governing body.

3. While Ireland is not renowned for producing gymnasts to the standard required for Olympic competition, Barry MacDonald became the first and only Irish Gymnast to compete in the Olympic Games when he performed at the 1996 Atlanta Games

4. In Ireland, Salto Gymnastics Club in Lisburn, Co Antrim is the country’s only dedicated gymnastics academy, one of only two full time gymnastics facilities. Every other club must hire time in a sports hall and put their equipment in and out every time they use it.

5. Earlier this year, IG received a core grant from the Irish Sports Council of €169,545 ($220,610.87 ) with an additional €89,000 ($115,806.23) under the Women In Sport grant scheme. Gymnastics is considered a minority sport compared to our national sports, Gaelic Football and Hurling, and other sports such as football, rugby and boxing.  These sports gain substantial grants from the Irish Sports Council.

How does this compare to your country?

Note that these facts may have changed since publishing this post as the interest in sport is becoming more popular.

 You can read here how the Irish Sports bodies are calling on the government to protect the remaining sports budgets. Hopefully it will work out as Irish Gymnastics gains significantly less funding from the government as other sports do.