Drills & Progressions at Home

[David Birchall]

I go to an adult gymnastics class twice a week for two hours and once a week for an hour.

 

I'm working on the basics and I've got a good idea of this thanks to Blairbob's post here: https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/21111-ideas-for-content-of-an-adult-gymnastics-class/

 

I find that it is a bit of a free for all though and there is no proper instruction, just do it kind of thing.  

 

Does anyone know of any books or online resources that have proper drills and progressions that I could do at home (obviously with limited space and apparatus), outside or during the class for tumbling?

[Alessandro Mainente]

Drills on apparatus without a proper basic strength is a contract with injury. please consider the idea to use the Foundations courses

[John Kiggundu]

Drills on apparatus without a proper basic strength is a contract with injury. please consider the idea to use the Foundations courses

 

One thing that I didn't appreciate prior to starting the Foundations course was how injury-prone a lot of the gymnastics moves are, if not done properly, with the correct progressions. (A lot of the "cool" stuff that people see on youtube and other web channels completely ignores this fact.)

 

So I'd say that take this advice as being the best investment you can make in learning Gymnastic Strength Training™ the right way.

[Blairbob]

Drillsandskills.com Hmm, it's done right now. No idea why. Maybe I'll contact Roger. Hopefully it comes back up though you can find some of the articles on the CFJournal

Books: Champion Gymnastics?

Check out the USAGymnastics webstore and Gymsmarts.com

Without apparatus, you're limited to basically doing tumbling stuff unless you build yourself a circles bucket or a mushroom.

At home, I cannot reccomend you do any flipping skills. No handsprings, no flips/saltos, It would still be better to work on somersaults at the gym but they can be done at home (Still I prefer wedge and panel mat progressions).

That basically leaves Handstands, Cartwheels, and forward rolls. Or maybe finding a bar you can hang on and working multiple grips and 1/2 and full turns into and out of the grips. I guess you could work pullovers if you wanted to.

As for tumbling. It sort of depends on where you are atm.

Master roll back to candlestick and stand up "DeckSquat"
Fwd roll in straddle, then tuck, then pike. Down a cheese, then on a floor. Pretty much the same with a backward roll except you can also work them off a panel mat.
Donkey kicks toward HS
Bridges off a height/big block and pull legs over to ground. This is sort of a bridging and backward somersault progression I use for 3yo and up.
Cartwheel hop overs a panel mat. Both sides. Then one leg at a time. Carl Paoli has a cool Cartwheel tutorial and some others.
Bridges. Bridge wall walks done gradually with STRAIGHT arms. Bridges with feet elevated. Bridges on floor. Eventually this will turn into limbers and prepare you for handsprings with proper handstand development.
Handstand work. 

Another thing to work on at Open Gym that I believe, even if you are a male is Balance Beam. Basic navigation of the beam low and high. FWD, BWD, Sideways walking. Bunny Hops. Holding Side and L/R Releve. Basic leg swings and even jump shapes. And blind walking and pivot/releve turns. Bear walks/Inchworms. Don't wear socks. 

Ohh, and one of the first skills you should get out of a gymnastics class is forward and backward breakfalls.

[David Birchall]

I'm on foundation 1&2.  I do forward rolls, cartwheels, backward rolls etc. however I was looking for the next kind of progression if you will for example a forward roll to move towards saltos.

 

When I said apparatus I didn't mean XR HB UB or anything, I really mean mats, a sprung floor, various soft platform boxes and space to perform cartwheels.

 

Would you advise not going at all?  I'm not trying to do 'cool' stuff here really, I just have the opportunity to go to a club and thought I would begin basic rolls and the like.  I can either start now or wait 2-3 years to finish foundation at which point I will have to learn the basic movement patterns anyway, so that was my thinking.

 

Guess I'll just have to wait for M1 to come out so I can do it correctly.

[Blairbob]

I teach saltos via trampoline drills of George Hery and Joy Umenhofer. It isn't just "let's go flip" from day 1. He has a series on Gymsmarts and I probably have the progressions in one of my handouts from Region 1 Congress. Joy probably has a series via USAG or Gymsmarts as well.

I don't teach a RO till a perfect side CW is mastered, then Front to Back from a Lunge, CW Step-in, CW Step-Thru, HS snap down/thru drills off a box on tumbl-trak and panel mats on floor., CW from knee lunge. I may fudge it a bit for a rec or tumbling class but not for a competitive gymnast.

I didn't figure you had any apparatus at home.   

http://drillsandskills.com/skills/Floor/Drills&Skills is back up. Check the articles section for a few tutorials as well.

Backward roll starts off with bent arm backward rolls down a wedge or off a panel mat and then to floor in straddle, tuck and pike and then to prone with straight arms and HS. Then you relearn it with straight arms

I teach the flyspring first on trampoline or tumbl-trak before ANY front saltos. I also like to teach flyspring before BHS. I also teach the flyspring before front handspring but sort of simultaneously with the headspring.

Headspring I teach:

Headstand variations but need a headstand basically. Triangle base of hands and head.

Headstand to HS with tucked legs and piked legs. Eyes on hands not tucking chin in.

Headstand to bridge over a small barrel from a piked headstand with feet on floor jumping off toes. 

Front limber somewhere in there which requires a solid bridge. Donkey kicks to front limber for example.

Headstand off panel mat

Headstand down wedge 

Headstand on tumbl-trak. Careful with this. We had a pretty stiff tumbl-trak. 

Headstand from a power hurdle.

A really good video series is the tumbling one by Mas Watanabe. I love Mas, he's awesome. 

http://gymsmarts.com/shop/category/floor-exercise/

Jason also has a handful of really good tutorials on floor.

http://gymsmarts.com/shop/category/floor-exercise/

You're at the gym now. Train now while you have the chance. Having the ability to train in a gymnastics gym for 3x/week 5hours a week is pretty nice for an adult. Much better than once a week, maybe twice a week for an hour or 90 minutes. Maybe Open gym. 

When I was training, if I wasn't a coach, I could have trained at most MW for 90minutes and Saturdays for 2hours. That's more than a lot of adults may want to train, but that was fairly optimal. I trained more than this as I was a coach, but basically during the week was MW or TuTH for 90m and maybe open gym for 2hrs on a Saturday. And it would have cost hella $$. Probably $160/month ($120 for 2x/week+$5-15 for open gym dropins [can't remember cost]).



 

[Blairbob]

Err not sure I linked Jason's Youtube Channel correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JAOVideos/videos

[Deins Drengers]

Following this post

[Ryan Libke]

George Hery's DVD is very good.  Starts with very simple moves.  Good teacher.  I would recommend it even if you are taking a class.  

[Blairbob]

 George Hery is the man. I knew he was awesome when he was doing chin levers like eating cake for a bars clinic and the demo girls could barely do them. I used to tell my boys "you gotta be strong like this one grandpa I just met."