Human rubber band

Super fitness, flexibility and a good memory for artistic routines is a North Shore aerobic champ's winning formula, reports Valerie Schuler.
Winning a national aerobics title four years in a row isn't enough for a young North
Shore student who plans to be a world champion in what her friends call "80s' jump-jam''.
Erin Loader won the national sports aerobics title at the School Aerobic and Hip-hop Competition in Christchurch last month - again.
"It's a really big deal defending and keeping the title, so it's still just as exciting as winning it the first time around,'' says the 16-year-old Rangitoto College student.
Erin wowed the judges with her intricate routine of push-ups, jumps and leaps.
She springs about like a human rubber band, performing almost unbelievable moves that have elaborate names such as wolf jumps and shushinovas. All this on a wooden floor with no bounce, in tune to Billy Idol's 80s' hit Mony Mony.
Sports aerobics is a choreographed, high-intensity fitness routine that encompasses complex gymnastic moves and jumps. Routines of about two minutes are judged on the level of fitness and strength they require, flexibility and artistic content. Erin, who lives in Rothesay Bay, took up the sport when she was 10 and has been going hard at it ever since.
"I quit gymnastics because I wanted a sport that was a bit less challenging - it's not as intense as gymnastics and much more fun,'' she says.
Because it is a fairly new sport, Erin often has to explain to her pals what exactly it is she does.
"People don't know anything about it. I tell them I do sports aerobics and they think it's 80s' jump-jam with fluffy leg warmers. It would be good to raise the sport's profile. People with a dancing background would really love it.''
The fancy get-ups are fun, too. Erin wears sparkly leotards, flesh-coloured shimmer tights and lots of make-up.
Erin is in Auckland's development squad for the 2011 world championships at the Gold Coast in Australia.
She practises six times a week at North Harbour Gymnastics Centre, under the careful supervision of coach Meredith Donnelly and choreographer Kirsten Palmer.
Miss Donnelly, who has coached Erin for five years, says: "My goal for her is to make the top six at the senior worlds. Erin has tunnel vision as far as that's concerned. We are aiming for 2011 because it's a young sport in New Zealand and we want to develop it, so we can send a really good team over to Australia.''
addenda
Other North Shore girls who also competed at the School Aerobic and Hip-hop Competition in Christchurch are:
Holly Hing - 1st Primary Individual (Carmel College)
Tessa Mullins - 1st Intermediate Individual (Carmel College)
Tessa Mullins/Frankie Pasley - 4th Intermediate Teams (Carmel College)
Jessica Power - 3rd Junior Novice Individual (Northcote College)
Rebecca Power - 3rd Junior Open Novice Individual (Northcote College)
Vittoria Nevin/Sophie Parker - 7th Novice Teams (Northcote College)
Lizzie Trotman - 7th Senior Open Novice Individual (Carmel College)
Sophie Overend-Clark - 8th Senior Open Individual (Westlake Girls)