- September 12, 2024
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The Summer Olympic Games may have come to an end for another four years on Aug. 11, but there are still opportunities for training in Olympic disciplines in Sarasota — if you know where to look.
In addition to fencing and synchronized swimming, here are two more ways to train like an Olympian, right here at home.
While growing up in Idaho, Ryan Weston often jumped on his neighbor’s trampoline.
Now, as an instructor at the Circus Arts Conservatory, he’s showing kids and adults the skills and fun the sport and performance art offers.
As a 2000 Olympic alternate, an eight-time national trampoline champion, USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame inductee and a former member of Cirque du Soleil, he has the expertise to share.
“It’s very enjoyable,” he said. “It’s fun. It’s an amazing feeling to be jumping. It’s like you’re flying.”
In addition to the fun, trampoline is also an activity that straddles the divide between sports and art form.
“Trampoline is just an awesome tool for learning any type of flipping or twisting element whether it's trapeze, gymnastics, tumbling, diving,” Weston said.
Currently, Weston said, Cirque du Soleil prefers to hire ex-Olympians, as athletes make the best circus artists.
“They’ve already got the strength, they have the flexibility, they have the body awareness. They have all the foundation necessary to be a great circus artist,” Weston said.
However, joining the circus wasn't always been Weston’s plan.
When he first started in trampoline, he didn't have any desire to move beyond competition.
After his parents enrolled him in gymnastics, he started competing internationally at age 10, winning the world age group tumbling championships at 10 and 12 years old.
However, when the chance to compete in the Olympics just barely escaped his reach, he decided to change course.
As one of two athletes representing the U.S. at the 2000 Olympics, amid a limited total number of spots, he was dropped to an alternate spot so that Africa could be represented in the competition, he said.
Later, he turned in a video to Cirque du Soleil, joining the company in 2008.
Soon, after a two-week hyper-training in Montreal, he was performing in “La Nouba” at Walt Disney World.
“I actually love Cirque way more than I ever did competing, because you don't know what you don't know until you know it, right?” he said.
He performed in thousands of shows over 10 years, until about 2018, then moved to Montreal and became a head coach, before becoming a stage artist again and performing in “The Beatles LOVE" and “Michael Jackson: One" in Las Vegas.
After that, he was seeking freelance work, and set his sights on the Circus Arts Conservatory, what he says is the only such school among Sarasota and all surrounding areas.
He said he was drawn by “the great opportunity here, just to really help develop this program, because there's so much potential here.”
Weston teaches both kids and adults, using a competitive Olympic trampoline which has the ability to send its users soaring 30 to 35 feet in the air due to its specialized beds, springs and frames.
As a coach, first and foremost, his concern is always safety.
“You’ve got to treat trampolines like swimming pools,” he said. “You have to go to a place where it's a controlled environment, with someone that knows what they’re doing, so that they can learn the proper technique, learn how to flip and twist, learn the body awareness, have the strength and flexibility necessary to be safe and to mitigate injury,” he said.
Once those features are in place, he hopes to see students soar.
Sensei André Vitorino de Lima Neto started judo when he was bullied in school while growing up in Brazil.
Although Neto never used judo to fight with bullies, it changed his way of thinking, and soon, there was no need to fight in the street.
“I started to respect myself, then other people started to respect me, too, because judo is not about violence, judo is about our confidence, it’s about the people, about partnerships, about friendship, so it’s changed my life, and now this is my mission,” he said.
The martial art, the fighting style from which Brazilian jiu-jitsu sprung, is popular in many countries around the world, but is only just taking off in the U.S., Neto said.
Fortunately, he finds the country’s environment conducive to sharing his love of judo.
Five months ago, he opened JuDojo, which is now Sarasota’s premier judo location.
“I’m excited to come to the U.S., because the U.S. is an Olympic country,” he said. “It’s more opportunity for my martial art and for my kids to grow up and fight ... I know the United States has a lot of problems, like every country in the world, but for us, working in the martial arts, it’s the best place.”
He said starting a business in the U.S. is much easier than in his former home of Brazil, while he also saw an absence of judo in Sarasota, to be filled.
A black belt in judo, Neto has been training for more than 25 years.
After one year in the martial art, he went to his first tournament, in which he won a silver medal. He didn’t stop competing after that, enjoying a long career in Brazil.
He said judo is “for anybody.” He calls it easier to learn than other martial arts and said it is not specific to any age or body shape.
Judo is similar to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but Neto describes the main difference as being that in judo, an effective takedown will end a fight.
Judo doesn’t involve kicks or punches, he said, noting that what it does involve is lots of repetition.
Classes begin with the repetition of moves learned during previous classes.
“You just repeat it over and over and over again,” said Ali Arthur, 19.
Classes are held from Monday to Friday, and Neto emphasizes that students can't come just one day a week and expect to pick up the skills.
"Judo is about discipline. Judo is a lot of discipline," he said.
Arthur said she enjoys the discipline of the classes, and felt compelled to join a gym since becoming involved in judo.
"This place, it's very structured," she said. "There's a lot of building blocks that you have to go through... It's not just about being able to defend yourself. It's coming to the classes almost every day, as long as he holds them, and going through, sometimes, a very diverse practice that he holds. It's all about betterment of yourself."
"In judo, we believe repetition make perfect, so in judo you need to respect the body, and take your time and keep training," Neto said. "That's it."
Minh Tong, 20, is another student finding fulfillment in the classes.
"Definitely, this is a good sport. As long as I'm healthy, I'll go for it," he said.
