Cue 1 - Spotlight - GO!
1st Row – 1st on the left
Meredith Jackson – Participant and Coach.
Meredith – a participant and coach from the ACT – is described by her own coach as “a fantastic role mode in terms of sportsmanship, hard work, and dedication.”. Meredith has been involved in calisthenics since she was 5 – and 28 years later she believes what keeps her so engaged in the sport is the deep friendships and life lessons she has learned.
Meredith is one of calisthenics’ quiet – but determined – achievers. As an Intermediate Meredith decided to “sort out her clumsy technique” by watching the ACF Skills Syllabus videos and copying the movements. The hard work paid off – and she says one of her “best days ever” was when she received her Cali ACT State Team acceptance letter. “I love cali because while natural ability can help you in this sport, you can excel at so many of our disciplines through sheer hard work. Clubs, Rods, March, Aesthetic – you can become very, very good at those items if you’re willing to sink the time into them.
At this stage of her calisthenics career her goals have shifted to mentoring the next generation of talented coaches – as she was so generously mentored. Mentoring comes through as the most valuable impact of calisthenics for Meredith. The best advice she ever received from one of her mentors was to “make sure that at every training I make the time to chat to every one of my participants”. She finds this extremely helpful as a coach as she can keep track of her participants welfare as well as engaged and part of the team.
When asked about how being a part of the calisthenics community has impacted her life, Meredith replied “I don’t even think I could put into words the impact cali has had on my life. I’ve had ups and downs, successes and failures, learned a lot, cried an immeasurable amount of times and altogether had a ball. Cali as a sport builds this incredible community within clubs and within states that you just don’t find anywhere else.”
