国士舘新体操部 English

2018/06/28

■Expedition to Finland 2018: Day Six

Today, we will give our final workshop on this expedition and perform in the Gala.

 

The workshop started with a brief explanation of Men’s RG rules. Then, the participants experienced the process of choreographing a group routine and tried performing it. Most of them were gymnastics coaches. Some of them were middle-aged or older, but it was inspiring for me and my students to see them moving so actively.

 

I felt that the two hours of the workshop were over in a flash. I had been preparing for this workshop since I was asked to do it about one and a half years before. When it was over, I felt like I was missing it already but at the same time relieved that it ended successfully.

 

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After the workshop, we focused on the Gala in which we would give our last performance on this expedition. The Gala is a show consisting of high-quality performers for this event. There were 19 performances in total and our turns were the 3rd and 19th. This was not our first time to be the last performers of the day, but we were so proud to perform in the grand finale again. The show started at 19:00 in a crowded venue filled with anticipation.

 

Our first performance was a group routine. It was a special version we made for this show so that the audience could enjoy the synchronized movements of the team as well as the originality of each gymnast.  Group routines of Men’s RG are 3 minutes long for official competitions, but this time we performed a slightly shorter version of 2 minutes and half.

 

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The moment our team appeared on the stage, there was huge applause and cheers from the audience. However, once the music started, the audience became silent so as not to miss a moment of the performance and only the sound of their breathing reverberated through the venue. The silence was broken with shouts of joy when acrobatic lifts and crossover tumbling succeeded one after another. The venue was filled with a sense of unity and the two-and-a half minute performance was over so quickly. The applause of the audience was so wild as if they didn’t want us to finish performing, but that was it for our first turn.

 

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While we were taking a one-hour break until our next turn, other teams fired up the audience with their wonderful performances.

 

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At 20:30, our final turn came. It was a combination of individual routines and a group routine using a long jumprope. 3 of the 6 gymnasts on our team specialize in individual routines. The other 3 are specialized in group routines now, but some of them also performed individual routines even at All Japan RG Championship when they were high school students. Because of this, we were able to give a nice performance that took advantage of their high skills.

 

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Lastly, we showed a long jumprope performance.

This is a kind of tradition of Kokushikan University and is a very entertaining performance. It was originally made for a larger group, so we changed the choreography a little bit to make it a six-gymnast version this time.

 

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Each of them demonstrated their abilities so well and captivated the audience.

 

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After the performance, they received thunderous applause and the grand finale of the Gala started without a break. The venue was filled with a sense of unity from all the performers of the day.

 

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After finishing the Gala, we took photographs with other performers and left the venue at about 9:30 p.m. It was still bright and there was a party outside the venue, which was a typical thing for this time of the year in Finland.

 

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Not getting dark even at 22:00

 

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Even at this party, I saw my gymnasts were asked for photos by many people and it reaffirmed my belief that Men’s RG has great potential to be accepted widely outside Japan as an international sport.

 

Our long expedition was almost over. It must have been such a great experience, especially for the members who had never been on an overseas trip before. If we are invited to Finland again, we would like to show a much greater performance of Kokushikan next time!

 

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This is at 2:00 in the morning...

 

 

 

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