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Welcome to Off The Mat, the podcast about the people
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behind acrobatic gymnastics. Athletes, coaches and families share their stories,
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the hard work, the passion, the challenges and the joy
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of growing through sport. Because the most important moments don't always.
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Happen on the mat. Welcome everybody, I'm Gianluca Ruh. Welcome
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to Off The Mat, the podcast. We're talking about acrobatic
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gymnastics and how hard it is to just be a practitioner.
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of this kind of discipline, so difficult, so spectacular. We
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have here Kayla, Rachel, Emma, Charlotte and Ella from Ireland.
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So welcome. Has it been a long trip to come here?
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How long did it take for you to come here,
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to arrive?
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The flight was two and a half hours. And then
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we flew into Milan, so we had to get a
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two-hour bus from.
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Milan to here. Not that bad, so... No, so five hours.
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So you arrived this night?
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Last night, yeah.
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Last night. And you have already done your tests of
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your exhibitions?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Is it hard to do the sport? Do you like it?
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I love it. You love it? I love competing. Why
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do you love it?
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Well, like, the training is great fun. Obviously, these people
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are like my family. I see them every day, so...
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It's really nice to get to go away like this
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with them. It's like a holiday with a side of gymnastics.
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It's fun.
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It's exciting.
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How old were you when you started?
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I think I was.
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Eight, maybe.
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I've been in this club for 10 years now. So
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I'm 19 now.
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Now you plan to stay in this sport, in this
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discipline for any more years? As long as I can.
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As long as you can. Maybe you will become a
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coach then.
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Yeah, I'm already on my way to becoming a coach.
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Wow. And when did you realize that you fell in
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love with this discipline? You start, then we'll go around.
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Well, at first it was kind of just an after-school
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activity kind of thing. My older sister did it too,
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so I looked up to her during it. But I
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don't know, when I became a bass player, I think
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I started to just love performing. Like, being on the floor,
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I started actually enjoying it. And I was like, oh,
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this is just really cool.
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I don't know.
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I just started to, like, I'd go into training feeling
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bad and come out feeling better. And then I realized, oh, like,
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I really like this.
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And for you, when was a moment in which you
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fell in love with this?
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Probably the same as Rachel. Like, when it wasn't just, like,
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an after-school thing, when it was, like, every day, like,
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training all the time with the same people every day.
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But does this kind of being a sport, not professional, yeah,
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but like a professional, a professional every day and with
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discipline and lots of training and lots of sweat, you know,
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a lot of pain and muscle. When you train too much,
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when you're training for a competition, for instance, does it
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separate you from the likes of you of your age?
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I mean, you feel different. Yeah. Because you live different, right?
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And you also eat different. What do you need to
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be this strong? Yeah, you're very young. You are the one,
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along with your sister, for those who are watching us,
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you're the twins of the team. So it's nice also
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because we're going to... But what do you need to
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be this strong, this athletic?
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Well, try not to eat too many sweets. In school,
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if other people are, then maybe don't. And... Like lots
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of like protein after training.
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Like a gym sis, you know, those who go to
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the gym, gym bros. They eat, they eat something. And
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like you do, you do also. Can I
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talk to
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your twin? Do you agree with what your sister is saying?
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Do you like sweets too?
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Yeah.
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Yeah, of course, of course. But then what do you
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like to eat the most after you do a lot
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of training? Eat a good thing, I mean, not just sweets.
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Um.
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Like a proper dinner. Like meat, you know.
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And pasta. Do you eat pasta? We eat a lot
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of pasta in Italy. Of course, we are in Italy.
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Do you like pizza?
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No, because I don't like cheese.
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This is interesting. You know, there are also pizza without cheese.
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But I'm not selling you pizza right.
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Now.
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And what do you plan to do here in Italy?
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Is it your first time here? Yes. What do you
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plan to do after the competition? Are you going to
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visit the city?
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Um.
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Go to a water park.
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When are you going? On Sunday?
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Monday.
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Monday, because you plan to stay a couple of days more.
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When do you have your exhibition?
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We do one routine tomorrow, then another one the day after,
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and then the final is on Sunday.
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On Sunday. So really, it is a strong and hard competition.
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Are you thinking you will do some results in this competition?
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You're preparing for it first. For instance, you have this
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kind of competitiveness or just participating is good enough?
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Just try to beat our own scores instead of other people.
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Do it for ourselves.
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Self-improvement. And you, for this kind of discipline, what acrobatic
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gymnastics gave you along these many years you're practicing it?
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Are you more confident in yourself?
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I think so. Like, You have to step out onto
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the floor in front of judges and how many people
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are watching as well. So it does give you that
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bit of confidence that I'd say my classmates don't have.
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It is a different kind of confidence, though. I still
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wouldn't like to talk in front of people, but do
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your maths.
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But you can do a double flip in front of people.
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Not talk that much, but doing some kind of double flips, maybe. Maybe,
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why not? And you, what do you think about this discipline?
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I mean, with.
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the chance of becoming more confident, stronger, or it's just
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the pure pleasure of doing it?
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Well, obviously I really enjoy it, but I think as well,
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a big thing is just the friendships that you get
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along the way and just self-confidence, improving self-confidence.
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And you, you're the one that talked less. Your name is,
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remember me?
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Emma.
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Emma, Emma, Emma. So, Emma... I mean, you're bass too,
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like your group. And so you're three basses and two jumpers.
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Is it the correct name? Tops. Tops, of course. And
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what do you feel when you're on stage?
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Confident, I guess. It's really fun performing, especially when you're
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doing good moves and then you just get a boost
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of confidence afterwards.
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Boost of confidence, dopamine maybe, and very happiness and satisfaction,
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I guess.
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Yeah.
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What do you like to eat the most?
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To eat.
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Yes. It's such a good thing about talking about eating.
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I don't know, maybe because I'm Italian.
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Pasta.
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Pasta.
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Bolognese and like chicken maybe.
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And what are you going to eat in these days?
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What your target is when you finish your competitions? I
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want to go to Italy to eat what?
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Gelato.
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Gelato, of course. Is it true that it's different from
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ice cream? Because they told me so. I usually do
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not buy gelato elsewhere, except in Italy.
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So?
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It's nicer. Why?
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I don't know.
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Gelato, sweets. In the end, you're a young woman. What
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do you think of it? you will keep when you
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will stop doing competition. Maybe you will become a coach.
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Maybe not.
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But what do you think these sports have given you?
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I think it's given like good discipline. So whatever like
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I go on to like study later in life, like
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I'm able to like focus and like work hard.
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Do you go well at school? Is it going well
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for you at school?
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Really?
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You are also good students besides being good athletes. Is
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it true? And you're not lying. All right. I believe
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in you. I believe it. So I'm not insisting. If
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you don't want to share any personal information. But last
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but not least, these are days, special days, I guess,
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when you can travel to another nation to do your thing.
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Are there any differences that you have seen between the
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way to do it, to do this sport, in other nations,
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you know, there are many nations today in these days
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in Turin, but also the difference between the sports and
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the Italian way to do the sports. Is it better,
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you think, there are more, I don't know, you are
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more competitive like that? Who wants to answer? You?
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I think, like, there's, it's weird to see how many
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similarities there actually are, considering, like, we're so far away
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from each other, like, watching like the other teams warm
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up and stuff we do a lot of the things
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like the same but then also there are some differences
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like i don't know the way they warm up certain
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skills we might do it completely differently but i don't
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know we it's pretty similar like all over the world
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it's all kind.
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Of just it's like you find yourself here with so
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many people from different nations and cultures and discover they
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share some kind of common language. Yeah. That's it. Well,
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thank you very much for being here. Thank you to
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the Tops, the Twins. Thank you to the Bases. And
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good luck for your next Hamlet competitions.
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Thank you.