IT might be easy to think that young trampoliner Kaidyn Lane would be training at his local gym, competing regionally and aspiring to take on the world.
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But at only 17-years-old, he has already chalked up six years in the sport, taken out titles on the national level and flown the flag for Australia at the world championships.
The Champion caught up with Lane last week as he began making preparations to return the US and the trampoline after a year in hiatus.
Lane said it was the backyard trampoline that first keyed his interest in the sport, but after six years on the road between state and national competitions, and two years living in the United States, it was time to take a break.
“He hasn’t touched a trampoline in 12 months,” Lane’s mum Tracey said.
“He had to take a break. Over there it is much more disciplined than over here.
“It has just taken a toll on him. He came home and said, ‘Mum, I don’t want to go back. I want to be a kid for once in my life’.”
The young contender returned to boarding school last year and until almost a fortnight ago was still keeping his distance from the gymnastics world.
“I needed a break and then a few weeks ago, I was watching Worlds and I saw a couple of people who I beat at nationals and they got up in the top ranking in the world in my age group and I thought, I beat them,” he said.
“I’m thinking, okay I can go back to this and actually beat them.”
“He rang me at two o’clock in the morning and he says, ‘Mum, I want to go back’,” Tracey said.
Lane will be looking to reclaim his standing among the world’s best gymnastics athletes and said it was the same ambition that took him to the US on his first tour around 2012.
“I wanted to get better,” he said.
“I made nationals here and then I said, ‘Mum, I want to be better’, so I asked her if I could go to the US.”
In his two-year stint around Texas, he said he found a previously untapped level of competition among the top athletes around the globe that demanded a certain discipline.
“You have to be willing to train every day,” he said.
“You have to be really strong in the core. You have to do a lot of strength training - (be) flexible, not scared of height.”
Tracey said stepping back for a year had proven to be of great benefit.
“I think he has just grown up a lot and mentally, I think he is ready for it now,” she said.
And the break has done nothing to dull his ambition.
“I’m going to try to go for nationals and hopefully the world team this year, or to know for certain that I’ll make the world team next year and hopefully in the future, the Olympics,” Lane said.
“There are two routines (in competition). The first routine is easy, that’s the really clean routine you are hoping for - to get awesome execution.
“The second routine, that’s the bigger skills and the more difficulty you have, the bigger the routine is and the judges will put that difficulty into the score.”
Lane will be heading back to the US on January 20 and said the support of the Moree community had been incredible throughout his sporting career.