GV mag high performance
program at Prahran
GV mag high performance
program at Prahran
Meet our Team
Dion Pocklington
Head Coach / Program Manager
Dion is a qualified High Performance coach and qualified primary school teacher who has been coaching at the MAG HPP since mid 2017. Dion was a member of the Senior National Squad. In 2014, Dion moved to the UK for three years where he was the Men’s Head Coach at the City of Manchester Institute of Gymnastics, Dion coached multiple gymnasts onto the British squad and achieved the highest coaching qualification in the UK.
Anthony Weston
Assistant Head Coach
Westy has been involved in gymnastics since the age of 5 and coaching for over 20 years. He was a member of the first Junior Squad at the Victorian Institute of Gymnastics and was Head Coach at Banyule YMCA before joining the GV MAG HPP in 2007. Westy is committed to fostering excellence in the sport of gymnastics and helping each gymnast understand the technical components of consistent performance.
Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons
MAG Technical Lead
As a gymnast, Taqiy was a member of the USA National Team for 4 years. Then as a student at Oklahoma University he led the Sooners to three NCAA team championships (2005, 2006 and 2008) and in 2007 he was the NCAA Rings, Vault, High Bar and the first ever African American All Around Champion. In 2008 he earned the Prentice Gautt Award given to the University’s most outstanding African American student athlete.
He was Assistant Coach at the University of Oklahoma from 2016-2018. In his first season the Sooners completed a second straight unbeaten season and capped it with the program’s 10th NCAA national title. Freshman Yul Moldauer won the national title in the all-around. In 2018 Oklahoma won a historic fourth consecutive national title and the team became the third program in NCAA history to win at four national championships in a row. Yul Moldauer won four individual national titles including the all-around title under his direction and Taqiy earned his third consecutive Assistant Coach of the Year.
Jeff Young
High Performance Coach
A former gymnast and elite circus artist, Jeff has been involved with the MAG High Performance Program since 2016 as a squad coach for junior athletes. He currently holds an Advanced Silver coaching accreditation in both Men's and Women's gymnastics.
As an official, Jeff has represented Victoria nationally and represented Australia at the 2018 World Cup and 2020 Levels tour in Houston, TX.
Arthur Voulgaris
High Performance Coach
Arthur is an Advanced Silver gymnastics coach and a qualified Secondary School Teacher. He has been involved in elite gymnastics since joining the former HPC at the age of 13. As an elite gymnastics Coach Arthur has worked with many talented juniors who have had success at the National Championships and were selected onto the Junior National Squad. Arthur enjoys fostering a positive and professional training culture which aims to enable athletes to strive for excellence.
Simon Gadsden
High Performance Manager
As an athlete, Simon has rowed for numerous state and national teams – representing Australia at the Junior and Senior B level, and Victoria in both the Youth Eight and Kings Cup crew. He also was the winner of numerous National Championship medals, and five titles.
Simon was the head coach of Mercantile Rowing Club following four years as the State Talent Pathway Coordinator for Rowing Australia. In this position, Simon coordinated and oversaw the largest number of Victorian athletes on underage national teams in 2013 and 2014; coached one of the members of the Junior Men’s Double in 2013 to 6th at the Junior World Championships; and also took on the position of Acting Senior Coach at the VIS in 2012.
In 2014, Simon took on the role of National Head Coach of the Australian Under 21 Team, leading them to victory against New Zealand and claiming the Rusty Robertson Trophy. This year, he was coach of the all-Mercantile Australian Under 23 Women’s Pair competing at the Under 23 World Championships in Bulgaria which won bronze.