Warwick Forbes

Warwick Ian Forbes OAM[1] (born 10 December 1951 in Sydney)[2] is a former Australian men's gymnast and national gymnastics coach. He was the Head Coach of the Australian Men's Artistic Team and Australian Institute of Sport Men's Artistic Gymnastics program from 1983 to 2014.

Gymnastics Career

Portrait of Warwick Forbes in 1991

Forbes commenced his gymnastics career at the Sydney YMCA.[3] Forbes moved to Germany in 1971 to be coached by Lazslo Szakacsi, a previous Hungarian coach in Australia.[3] After failing to qualify for the Australian team at the 1972 Munich Olympics team, he remained in Germany to study and train at the Deutsche Turnschule in Frankfurt. In 1975, he moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he commenced a bachelor degree in Human Biology and Anatomy at the University of Western Australia but in 1976 changed to Physical Education to continue his interest in exercise physiology and biomechanics.[3] He failed to qualify for the Australian team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics team.[3] In September 1977, he was awarded at scholarship at the University of California, Berkley and he competed for the University of California Berkeley in the NCAA circuit from 1977 to 1979 and part of 1980. He completed a master's degree in 1981 in Kinesiology and Neuromotor Control. Whilst at the University, and after completing his NCAA competitive eligibility he worked as an assistant coach and an academic teaching assistant.[3]

Forbes was an Australian men's gymnastics team member from 1975 to 1980 and during this period he represented Australia at the 1977 Summer Universiade in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1978 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Strasbourg, France, 1979 Summer Universiade in Mexico City and 1979 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.[4] At the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada]], he won a bronze medal in the men's team competition.[5]

Coaching Career

From 1981 to 1982, Forbes was employed as a senior tutor in biomechanics and exercise physiology at the Footscray Institute of Technology when approached to take over from Peter Lloyd as Head Coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Men's Artistic Gymnastics program.[3] Forbes was appointed in 1983 and held this position until 2004. In addition, from 1983 to 2004, he was Gymnastics Australia National Men's Artistic Gymnastics Head Coach.

Australian Team's performances at major competitions whilst Forbes was Head Coach were:

.

Gymnasts coached by Forbes at the Australian Institute of Sport include: Robbie Edmonds, Ken Meredith, Werner Birnbaum, Brennon Dowrick, Shaw Bing, Peter Hogan, Bret Hudson, Andrei Kravtsov and Philippe Rizzo,[7]

Rizzo under the individual coaching of Vladmir Vatkin went on to win the Silver Medal on the Horizontal bar at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium and the Gold Medal on the Horizontal bar at the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aahus, Denmark.[8]

Sports Administration

After retiring as a gymnastics coach in 2004, Forbes has held several high performance sport management positions with the Australia Institute of Sport, including managing from 2007-2011 the final negotiations with the Province of Varese, the construction of the building and staffing and running of the Australian Institute of Sport, European Training Centre (AIS-ETC) in Varese, Italy.[9] In 2014 he returned to the AIS-ETC a Head of AIS Europe and Director of the ETC.

Recognition

  • 1984 - Gymnastics Australia Coach of The Year
  • 1994 - Gymnastics Australia Coach of The Year
  • 1995 - Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to the sport of gymnastics.[1]
  • 2000 - Australian Sports Medal[1]
  • Gymnastics Australia Hall of Fame - for National Coach/AIS Head Coach 1983-2004 and 10 years outstanding service dedicated to developing and improving Australia’s international ranking.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Warwick Ian Forbes". It's An Honour. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  2. ↑ Australian Team Handbook - 1986 Olympic Games, Atlanta. Sydney: Australian Olympic Committee. 1996.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Phillips, Shaton (2002). "Forbes' balancing act pays off". Sports Coach. 24 (4): 3–4.
  4. ↑ Australian team handbook: 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona Spain. Sydney: Australian Olympic Committee. 1992.
  5. ↑ Australia at the Commonwealth Games 1911-2002. Sydney: Australian Commonwealth Games Association. 2002.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Australian Historical Results & Representation". Pandora Archive - Gymnastics Australia. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Gymnastics at the Australian Institute of Sport". Pandora Archive - Australian Sports Commission. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "Philippe Rizzo". Gymnastics Australia. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  9. ↑ Guiness, Rupert (14 May 2011). "Big things tipped of tiny corner of Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "Hall of Fame". Gymnastics Australia. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
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