January

The first event of the year - GBSA training day for our Tot, Mini and Espoir Pro Team!

Our athletes participated in sessions both on skates and off skates with some of GBSA's dance and free coaching teams. All out skaters throroghly enjoyed their day, learning lots of new skills, practicing basics and catching up with their skating friends from other clubs. A big well done to our three tots who completed their first training day. And a huge thanks to GBSA for putting on the event!

Stanley had the fantastic opportunity of playing a major role in a short film following his successful audition last year. He was flown to Ireland to shoot the film and had to learn how to skate on vintage roller skates. Jamie Hawkesworth is the Grandson of Harry and wrote produced this film with the help of his editing team and great actors. The story is about a boy called Harry who was a messenger boy for the Air Raid Patrol in Gloucestershire during the Blitz in World War Two. The film is titled 'Marmalade' and will be premiering in Curzon Soho. Here are some action shots of Stanley!

Stanley's film Premier

BBC Radio Gloucestershire

GBSA Training Day

This week, Elite Head Coach and Choreographer, Lauren Jarvis, did her first ever radio interview at BBC Radio Gloucestershire!

The radio station were keen to find out about Lauren’s successful solo skating career, what it is like to skate for Team GB, her experience coaching top Athletes and what she is doing behind the scenes to make artistic roller skating more accessible for the communities around Gloucestershire.

Thank you too all my friends and family who listened in and sent me such supportive messages. I was very nervous but enjoyed every second. I’m hoping to inspire more people to get wheels on in 2025 so they can experience this fantastic sport!

To listen back use the BBC Sounds app - 20/01/2025 Lauren is on around 12:00 with Nicky.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0kh4hhn

February

February saw Elite athlete Rubee Rainbow being an advocate for the NAS. She was selected as one of the NAS' 'Brilliant People 2025' and was asked to be involved in the filming for their 'Spell' and 'Early Birds' Training Programs. She was named as a real asset to the project. In the filming process, both Rubee and Lauren were filmed live action in a training session and in a sit down interview.

It is very exciting to be involved in such a meaningful project and we are looking forwards to seeing the end results.

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MARCH

1. Portugal Training Camp

2. GBSA Spring Solos Competition

Portugal

Team Elite took a huge team of athletes to the Portugal camp this year - the entire Mini-Senior team were present. It was so exciting to take such a talented and hardworking group of athletes.

This was the second time Team Elite were invited to attend this amazing event. For Ellie and Beatrix, this was their first international training experience. It is safe to say all of the athletes thoroughly enjoyed their time in Portugal and soaked up all of the new knowledge ready to implement into their training.

It was an intense two days of training. The skaters had a lot of activities both on and off skates throughout the camp. The trainers were focussing on technique, Key points, execution, expression, fitness, strength, mobility, performance and much more.

For the third day of training, Elite and Hugo did a private session at the rink so we could work on more personalised feedback.

We were lucky enough to have some time to work on couples - Ellie and Stanley really took onboard all of the new ideas Hugo brought to the table and worked very well as a team to show how adaptable they are. They learned several new lifts, lift technique, turn technique and hold clusters.

At the end of the camp, the skaters took to the floor to give the audience a performance showing off the routines they have learned in the dance classes. It was a musical medley! The skaters all looked so amazing! After this, the skaters received certificates of their participation in the camp and a good bag!

Some of the highlights of the trip were

seeing the friendships forming between the Portuguese and Elite skaters - especially the lunch time football matches and learning each other's languages
Hugo noticing and commenting on how much the Elite skaters had improved since he saw them at the camp in 2024 - especially Ella!
A few of the Elite skaters were used as good examples! Eartha - Travelling. Beatrix - Cross rolls, Cluster and Mohawks. Rubee - Travelling. Saffron - Cluster. Ellie - Cluster.
The final performance and getting certificates.
Saying goodbye for another year to all of our friends

Spring Solos

The first competiton of 2025! Team Elite were super excited to take a small selection of skaters to the GBSA competition at Breydon Arena. Five of which were competing for the first time ever!

Ella skated up to Roller Cup for the first time, skating the olympic foxtrot and her freedance - Tim Burton inspired.
Eliza skated up to Non-medallist. Se skated the And Foxtrot and her first ever freedance to 'Come Little Children' from Hocus pocus.

Our five newcomers skated the arabesque and edges for solo dance and the Samba routine for their freedance.

On Saturday evening, the whole team joined for a team meal. It was great to get together and celebrate the successes of the day and for everyone to socialise.
Our Team Captain for the weekend was Eartha. She and her mum, Jo, were a great help with the backstage aspects of the weekend. Eartha made sure all the skaters were warmed up and ready to go on time. Jo took some fabulous pictures and helped with hair and makeup.

Stephen, our photographer, also took some amazing action shots both on and off the rink. It was great to capture the team spirit and amazing skating!

We are so glad all of our skaters and parents had a lovely weekend full of accomplishments, proud moments and team support.

We had some great results over the weekend! All of our skaters finished in the top 10 which is amazing!

Results highlights: