AT FLY HIGH FITNESS
This year the Great Britain Men’s Olympic Gymnastics team has secured its third consecutive year of training success with us at the Fly High Fitness Center in Dubai. This training camp here has been a unique opportunity for our local Fly High gymnasts to train alongside the stars and get inspired.
“For me it’s a real motivation to have this team around here. And I think watching them on TV and watching them in real life is very different.” Says Serban Cotirlan, one of the local Fly high Gymnasts, who is currently training for the Romanian junior national team with a goal to reach the Olympics in 2028.” It is very nice because you can see them up close. You can talk to them and you can learn a lot from them”, he concludes.
So for those of you who didn’t have a chance to meet the team in person, we had a little chat with a few of the team members and see if we can get some insight from them on training, on gymnastics and ah…some advice for local gymnasts.
Lee Woolls
We started with a little chat with Lee Woolls, (the team’s coach) :
Hey Lee, back in Dubai again?
It’s our third time now here in Dubai. We love the weather. Its great winter weather training for us so we come away and get a little warm with the training while its very cold back home.
Ok. We get it. The weather. But why Fly High?
We love the facility. We love the people. It’s a fantastic environment to train in.
Did you spot any promising talents here within our local teams?
Some great little kids in the gym.
Any word of advice for them?
I think that if you are looking to be a performance gymnast just remember to keep training hard, listen to your coach and never give up!
JAMES HALL
Meet James Hall, 27 years old, best known as an all-around and team gymnast, having won all-around bronze and team gold and silver in the European Artistic Gymnastic Championships and two team golds and an individual all-round silver in the Commonwealth Games. His signature piece is horizontal bar, in which he has won silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Hey James, can you tell us about yourself a little bit?
Sure. I’m James Hall, a 27-year-old British gymnast and I’m here in Dubai for a training camp.
This is not your first time at Fly High Fitness, is it?
No. this would be my 3rd time.
We came here in 2021 before the Olympic games .This is a brilliant training camp to really get the year kick started and that was my favorite year of my career making my lifelong dream of the Olympic games!
Then, just when I thought it was finished –we came here again the next year 2022 (which is already last year I can’t believe it!) and that became my favorite year of my career. We had European gold. Commonwealth gold. And a world bronze medal, which was my first one, so it was the best in my career
When traveling to Dubai what makes Fly High the right place for your training?
it’s up to date, it has state of the art equipment. Nice & Roomy. I think we are quite lucky because a lot of gyms are quite small and this is a brilliant brilliant facility.
Where Do you usually train?
I’m training in Maidstone in Kent; I’ve been there my whole life. With coach Ionut Trandaburu (originally from Romania but he moved over). He changed my life and I think that hopefully I changed his life too.
Thanks for chatting with us James, we hope 2023 becomes the new favorite year of your career!
COURTNEY TULLOCH
Meet Courtney Tulloch, 27 years old, a specialist in rings and vault, he is the double Commonwealth Games champion on rings in 2018 and 2022, and a silver medallist on vault, all representing England. Tulloch was also part of the gold medal-winning England team at the Commonwealth Games of 2018 and 2022. Representing Great Britain, he was part of the gold medal-winning team at the 2022 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and a three-time European medal winner on rings. In November 2022 he became the first British gymnast ever to win a global medal on rings, a bronze, at the 2022 World Championships, having helped Great Britain to bronze, and Olympic qualification, in the team event days earlier.
So Courtney, how would you define the highlights of your career?
Some of my best highlights is that last year I went to the world championships, and I got a bronze medal on the rings and we got bronze as a team and also double commonwealth champion on the rings as well.
Where do you train in order to reach such high achievements?
I train in south Essex in Basildon. The gym there is incredible, the coach is, the gymnasts there are amazing. They help me. Support me a lot. And we are really a close tight nit group.
So, what do you think about training in Fly High?
I like FHF very much because this facility has everything you need. You’ve got all the equipment and the equipment is incredible. Upstairs you’ve got the weights gym, you’ve got the cross fit area in the entrance floor – so for me is absolutely perfect. I don’t need to travel elsewhere to get
things done. Since we’ve been in Dubai, we start training at 9 o’clock. I try and get everything done. In the first session we train – roughly 3-3.5 hours. There is also good food, so after training I can just grab food in the café as well. It’s just the perfect set up.
After such an impressive session, we think Courtney deserve to grab a bite too.
JOE FRASER
Meet Joe Fraser, 24 years old, he is the 2022 European all-around and parallel bars champion and the 2019 world champion on the parallel bars, the first British gymnast to ever win gold in any of these events. As a member of the British Senior team since 2017, he has also won team gold and silver, and bronze on the pommel horse, in the European Artistic Gymnastic Championships. Representing England in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Fraser won three gold medals in team, pommel horse and parallel bars.
Hey Joe, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?
Here out in Dubai training in Fly High and it’s been amazing so far. It’s my 2nd trip out here.
Why do you keep coming back?
The people are incredible. We were able to train as hard as we can. The equipment is top notch and we’ve really enjoyed our time. With the rest of the team, we loved every minute here. It’s my second trip here so I’m really lucky and I really hope we can have the chance to come back here and train as hard as we can again.
Please tell us about some of your career highlights
I’ve been lucky enough to go to the Olympic games, become world champion, European champion, Commonwealth champion. Managed to reach lots of different levels of the sport and for me it’s the best sport in the world.
Any words of wisdom to the kids training here who want to grow up to be just like you?
Little guys just make sure you train hard and enjoy your gymnastics.
What can we say? Listen to Joe! He knows what he is talking about!
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