Best way to develop gymnastics apparatus skills as an adult?

My case might be a little unique, and at the same time it might not. I'm 20 years old, a sophomore in college, 6' 2" with an ape index of +4 (long arms), ~160 pounds (so around/just under 10% body fat). I've wanted to do gymnastics from a young age, and would have definitely done it had a facility been available to me earlier (I trained for a year in 3rd grade but then my family moved and I had to switch to rock climbing). My sports background is some competitive rock climbing (with a team), a little parkour, wrestling, track and 5 years competitive rowing (4 in high school, 1 in college).

 

I made a pretty tough decision to quit crew at the beginning of this year, since I've always wanted to try gymnastics and wanted to take the only chance that might turn up. So starting at the beginning of this year, I've been going to my college's club gymnastics practices (6 x 2.5 hrs / week), and sometimes staying late for conditioning/stretching/a bit of extra work during the cheerleading practices which follow the gymnastics practice. So on a really good week, I get around 18-20 hours a week in the gym; on average ones, it's closer to 12-15hrs. 

 

I made a decision to compete this year on the NAIGC circuit with the club, mostly for the experience; however, I really want to see how much I can advance in gymnastics (I have a bit over 2 years until graduation, and hopefully more after that, assuming that I find a place to practice). Right now I train mostly floor & parallel bars, since having good basics on floor seems to be a prerequisite for most apparatus work, and parallel bars seemed to have a slightly easier learning curve than the other apparatus. I've been at this since September, and I can put together really basic (A-level skills) routines on both.

 

A lot of gymnastics movements seem to be linked, and there's a natural sort of "progression" from one step to the next - however, I've found that there are some keystone elements that are foundational for a well-rounded gymnast: a proper handstand, for example, a stalder roll and a strong back extension roll are examples that immediately come to mind. I'm following the Foundation 1 programming for strength and mobility, but I'm not sure what the best way to proceed in order to advance my skill proficiency at individual apparatuses: I have a fairly large chunk of time in the gym each week, but it seems like I don't get everything that I could out of it. Hence, the question:

 

Suppose you had a lot of time in the gym, were a beginner at most of the apparatuses, and wanted to compete the best routines that you could (level 9 if I'm extremely lucky) on all of the apparatuses in 2 and a half years (or at least try to - the journey is more important than the result). What is the best way to spend the time in the gym? Repetition of basics - swinging, pommel circles, basic tumbling over and over? Training basic routines or attempt to put skills together and show something? Focus on strengthening / stretching joints to possibly support an increase in the amount of skill work later on?

 

I'm curious to hear your opinions.

 

 

P.S. I posted a similar question to reddit.com/r/gymnastics, and was told that because of my height, I should have a stringent focus on execution of skills rather than difficulty per se, since it's easier to see form breaks. It was an insightful suggestion - I've gone back to work on the very basics with perfect form and consistency, and it's not as easy as it appears.

 

P.P.S. Oops, I meant to post this in the Getting Started forum. If a mod thinks this post belongs there instead, could you please move it? Thanks!

Slowly.

 

You will probably want to buy the book Championship Gymnastics, because it gets into a lot of the training for swings and the basic things that must be put together if you actually want to learn decent skills.

 

You will not have the same work capacity as a kid, these things are proportionally much harder on your tissues, so you are going to have to take it slow, but you can get pretty decent. You will also need a good coach. Failing that, you need a smart phone or iPad with one of those neat coaching apps that allows you to slow down video, so that you can watch each set and make corrections.

 

At your height, you will absolutely need to focus on competing skills that are perfect, and not worrying about layouts at all. There was a guy that won bronze at worlds on floor at 6'1" tall, but he focused on truly perfect double tucks and dive rolls and whatnot.

 

I highly, highly, highly x10 recommend that you get started on the Foundation series, if you have not already done so. Do not copy what you see at the gym, follow Foundation for your conditioning work.

That's akin to what I expected to hear, thanks.

 

Luckily, there is a coach that comes in 3x a week, and there are a few level 10 / former competitive gymnasts who train who can watch for form mistakes and errors, so I'm definitely taking advantage of that. I have gotten and started the Foundation 1 series as I mentioned above - a lot of the exercises in it have had a really good carryover to the apparatus/floor work that I do. 

 

By the 6' 1" guy I'm assuming you're referring to Alex Shatilov - he is indeed an inspiring example - mostly because he competes all-around at that height. Most others near there are specialists (although I think Kristian Thomas, at 5' 11" is an all-arounder as well). I really like Russel Czeschin's floor routines - his execution is impeccable, and he has scored in the mid 15's on the routines at the NCAA level and won the NCAA championship on floor - he's a former University of Oklahoma (I think?) gymnast, who's 6' 3" and a vault/floor specialist. He's very slow and deliberate in his movements, but very clean on execution, so it's quite a pleasure to watch him compete.

 

I haven't heard of Championship Gymnastics - I will definitely check it out. Thanks!

Your primary focus right now needs to building a solid foundation of the basics. You need to drill down all kinds of basic swings and basic tumbling, strongly pattern the fundamental body positions (hollow, arch, tuck, pike, etc), build up a solid base of gymnastics strength, and develop good flexibility in critical areas. Since you're already following foundation, the most of third one should come easily if you just stick with it; you will however want to add some supplementary work to strengthen wrists and ankles. 

 

If you think you'd like to learn other apparatuses eventually, now is the time to start learning the swing. The swing is the mechanism on which nearly all skills are based. Swings take a long time to become good at, and it is of paramount importance to become proficient in the swing as quickly as possible if you wish to develop skills. 

I found myself asking this same question last October. I started skills from scratch but had a decent basis of strength due to the gymnastic bodies training schedule. I compete with Georgia Tech's club team in NAIGC now and it is a blast. I am 23 btw and am 5'10 at 150 pounds.

I'd suggest you start training all the aparatuses unless you are certain you want to specialize in a few. Get a good training schedule nailed down to ensure you get a good amount of time on each. Like hari said learn swings first. Then work on uprises, kips, and the like. This will allow you to start thinking about putting together a routine. Pommel horse in particular will require more attention. I practice swings on pommel during my basics refinement almost everyday. For now getting the basics perfect will be more important than constructing your routine. You should then start to link the basic skills in practice. Learning perfect technique is very important. I obviously can't go into the progressions for every apparatus but a good coach will be able to tell you where to start and what to improve on.

Foundation work is great for the strength conditioning and gives the basic conditioning that most gymnasts develop as kids. You will also need to spend a ton of time on handstands. Getting a perfect handstand is very important and has huge carry over. Then on top of that do some stretching. I spend about 30-40 min per event and divide the rest of my time to conditioning and stretching/mobility.

You will also need grips to start breaking them in. If you have an iPhone then you should download ubersense to analyze your form.

Good luck! Maybe ill see you at nationals.