Fundamental Flexibility Elements In Gymnastics

What are they and does anyone know the progressions?

Thanks in advance.

Do you mean as in, splits, walkovers etc?

Pike, straddle pike, and bridge are your major stretches, because a whole lot of things go through them, and many other elements require this level of mobility in order to properly execute.

Kit Laughlin has the best material for your flexibility, grab his book Stretching and Flexibility.

Oh, and a proper handstand, with fully open shoulders. H1 is your best resource for that.

Charm said:

Do you mean as in, splits, walkovers etc?

Yes

Joshua Naterman said:

Pike, straddle pike, and bridge are your major stretches, because a whole lot of things go through them, and many other elements require this level of mobility in order to properly execute.

 

Kit Laughlin has the best material for your flexibility, grab his book Stretching and Flexibility.

 

Oh, and a proper handstand, with fully open shoulders. H1 is your best resource for that.

Thanks I appreciate that.

 Coach Sommer released an old article on bridge progressions on the old forum so it's probably somewhere around here.

 Bare in mind having a good active split makes walkovers a lot easier. If you have a crappy one like me, it's not as easy. Fortunately my bridge is/was alright ( I haven't done a BWO in a long time though I occasionally do some bridges and kickovers).

 I'm sure there are a lot of progressions and videos on youtube.

 Basically work an elevated bridge focusing on shoulders over hands if not past hands. Until you can get your shoulders over your hands, working a kickover is not a good idea. I've had some kids able to do it with poor shoulder and split flexibility but it ain't pretty.

 If you had access to a cheese/wedge mat, you would start doing bridge kickovers on one of those or a big block. Lay on block, do bridge and kickover. Like a spotting block roughly 3 feet high that can be on its side 2 feet.

 Once your bridge is decent on floor, do one with your feet near a wall, walk up and kick over.

 Walking bridges with a wall should be in there somewhere. Stand with your back to a wall and reach upwards and with straight arms start walking away from the wall. Your feet will have to walk forward or start a few feet away from the wall.

 Once you can do a bridge kickover on floor and can do a standing back bend, you can start working on connecting them. These are  typically spotted and there really isn't any way to self spot these. You can work the motion over a gymnastics barrel/boulder. Sometimes you can start doing back bend kickovers with the feet staggered.

Very informative! Thank you.

Joshua Naterman said:

Pike, straddle pike, and bridge are your major stretches, because a whole lot of things go through them, and many other elements require this level of mobility in order to properly execute.

 

Kit Laughlin has the best material for your flexibility, grab his book Stretching and Flexibility.

 

Oh, and a proper handstand, with fully open shoulders. H1 is your best resource for that.

I always take Josh's book recommendations seriously, decided to look on amazon.co.uk for kit laughlin's book.

There is currently a new paperback copy available from one seller for £2,546.15...  ...must be a pretty good book!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0731806026/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new

You can't find it there, you'll have to find it at Kit's page. I am not sure why he doesn't sell on Amazon, but he currently does not.

http://pandf.com.au/store/cart.php

Joshua Naterman said:

You can't find it there, you'll have to find it at Kit's page. I am not sure why he doesn't sell on Amazon, but he currently does not.

 

http://pandf.com.au/store/cart.php

Thanks for the link decided I couldn't justify the cost of shipping on his site either, just wanted to share the above link because it was kind of funny

Looks like they reduced the price to 1068 pounds!