The number one thing gymnasts need to do in order to have a successful gymnastics career is to get strong. For a high-level gymnastics career, sufficient gymnastics strength requires that gymnasts can do strength elements like press handstands. For fastest skill progress, gymnasts need to get strong first.
Choose the Right Coaching and Gym
It is important to find the right program, training facility and coach. There are thousands of coaches and gyms in the country and some of them produce high level gymnasts and some do not. You need to find a gym that is equal to your personal gymnastics goals.
Daily Skill Repetition
It usually takes 1,000 to 2,000 repetitions to make a gymnastics movement a natural reaction. The greater the difficulty of the skill the more repetitions it takes to ingrain the movement into muscle memory. That many repetitions will eventually allow you to perform a skill flawlessly and in combination with other skills in a sequence without having to think about it. The key is to make the unusual a routine habit and extraordinary skill combinations natural, common and ordinary for you to do. Correct progression and repetition allow you to do that. Practice methods need to be constantly varied, however, to keep repetitive practice from degenerating into loss of focus and concentration and careless execution.
Progression
Gymnastics skills must be learned in the correct order – from the easiest to the most difficult. Each step must be correctly mastered as a strong base for future skills, which will be built on them. Correct progression and repetition allow you to do that. Practice methods need to be constantly varied, however, to keep repetitive practice from degenerating into loss of focus and concentration and careless execution.
Mastery
In order to perform routines with virtuosity not just make skills in meets, each skill must be mastered individually, in combinations and then in compete routines. Anything less than complete mastery will result in substandard performances.
Be Prepared For Anything at Meets
Gymnasts and coaches need to prepare for any and all situations in competition. Gymnasts are, of course, all too aware that they need sometimes to deal with falls in competition (although we hope your training system minimizes or eliminates this). But gymnasts need to be taught to deal with a large variety of other competition surprises. Surprises can include things like floor music that stops in the middle of a routine (keep going) or a grip that rips in the middle of a routine (have back-up grips ready and you have at least 30 seconds to put them on). Knowledge, training and practice for surprise situations can minimize and problems.
16 Books and Counting
John Howard is the author of 16 books and e-Books about gymnastics, gym design, gymnastics humor and cheerleading. More books are already on the way. He has 25 years experience and has coached State, Regional and National champion gymnasts and international competitors and cheerleaders at the National level in NCAA Division I.
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