The American Vaulting Association (AVA) will celebrate its 40th anniversary at its Annual Convention, February 26-March 1, in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

The four-day convention, themed “Reaching Out, Reaching Up!” will feature a special full-day workshop by members of the Pilobolus Dance Company, who have thrilled millions around the world with their own take on the imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration. Well-known equestrian and author Daniel Stewart will also lead two clinics: “Balance and Symmetry” and “Sports Psychology” for athletes and coaches.

More than a dozen other sessions will take place for coaches, athletes, parents and judges, including a special “best practices” panel for coaches, a business session for coaches and stable managers/owners on how to better manage and grow vaulting programs, and a series of “Thru the Eyes of the Judges” sessions for coaches, competitors and parents, where vaulting judges take attendees through a series of competition videos, showing them how and why a series of athletes received their particular scores.

In addition, the convention will offer hands-on vaulting clinics for individual athletes, featuring World Equestrian Games 2006 Women’s World Vaulting Champion Megan Benjamin and multi-time world vaulting medalist Kerith Lemon. The AVA will also offer a special therapeutic/adaptive vaulting clinic for equestrian centers wanting to add adaptive vaulting to their riding programs.

For more information on the AVA’s annual convention, go to www.americanvaulting.org/news/convention09. For more information on equestrian vaulting, visit www.americanvaulting.org.