Increasing Circle Volume and more

[Rajesh Bhat]

Hi, 

My 11 year old son is doing gymnastics. He can, when he's lucky, do 3-5 circles on mushroom. His coach for level 3 says he's the best in level 3 at the extension, etc.

 

A couple questions:

How can he get his body raised higher? Right now it's pretty low. We were thinking a bucket+mushroom+diy EGE setup, but we wanted the community's input.

 

How can he increase volume? His main problem is that his hands move weirdly across the mushroom and he basically like flies/falls off. he's not fast, I don't think speed is the problem. What upper body conditioning is there to stabilize this hand movement and keep it controlled?
 

Help is appreciated

Thanks

 

 

 

[Alessandro Mainente]

You need to focus basically on build up a decent volume on mushroom , meanwhile work on basic body alignment reached by active mobility.

The foundations work perfectly here. Manna development gives the exercise to increase shoulders extension and active hips raise, also side lever work is highly recommended , here in italy coaches look over side lever only as a "visually impact skill" but all the preparation exercises seems to be very good to improve lateral body raise!

then I would work on low mushroom and after work on horse without pommels on the different edges. this should be all-life work to maintain correct bodyshape. Usually with my kids I did no specific work for high circles until 20-25 circles on high mushroom, but the alignment on front and back part is always required. then after this number they move to variation I previously cited and then specific skills.

[Blairbob]

 At 3-5 circles, he is sitll working on his basic circle. good for a L3.

 

 hand movement is literally just practice makes perfect and developing rhythm.

you could set up the at-home stuff. especially if he's only training 2-3x/week, 1-2x/week on PH/MR. be careful about too much too soon or forearm splints can happen (especially if "slaps" the mushroom during his circles).

forearm circles in a bucket. just like it sounds. cues extension

 

as for basic strength. plank holds and ag walks work well.

 

low buck if you have one which is similar to an ege trainer. a lot of the time we used to lay a "sting" mat on top to cushion the wrists.