25 y/o 8 months into gymnastics, questions about F1.

Hi everybody I am new to Gymnastic Bodies and I have a few questions about the F1 and H1 courses.  After reading through the forums it seems the general consensus is that F1 is a definite yes for beginners but just to be thorough I'd like to seek advice from the community.  Here below are my questions and  background to give context to my situation.

1) Does the F1 courses provide information on progressions leading to specific skills and strength development integral to learning gymnastics as an adult? 

2) What skills does the F1 program teach and is it right for my situation?

I started gymnastics September 2012 going back and forth between training with the competitive boys and mens teams depending on what skills I can do.  As a result my training is very sporadic and the coaches are limited so I often have to wait long intervals for spotting availability.  Most of the events I spend time on are rings and P-bars, and the least on floor.  I learned quickly that due to my age and skill I have to train differently than the kids and the teens, so as a result I have trouble with a lot of the foundation skills, like muscle up, handstand, press to handstand, fear when tumbling ie round off back tuck, back handspring and general flexibility.  

25 years old 135~ lbs 5'7" Martial artist / boxer / weight lifter now training gymnastics.

Started gymnastics at my local gym September 2012 training 9 + hours a week.

Currently attained skills: 

Front lever

Back lever

10 + Circles on mushroom (working on straightening out more)

Back tuck

Working on scissors / swings on pommel horse

L-sit 

Back uprise on P-bars

Front uprise on P-bars (50% success rate)

Kip on high bar

Press hand stand on rings (legs wrapped around cables)

Sorry for the long read and thank you in advanced for anyone that replies.

1- yes.

2- yes. the skills are well documented all over the forum; find them. The course will give you the foundation you say you need.

FredInChina said:

1- yes.

2- yes. the skills are well documented all over the forum; find them. The course will give you the foundation you say you need.

Thank you!, I forgot to ask if I should just start with the F1 and H1 courses or should I purchase the entire F series? Simply because of they deal GB offers if you purchase all the F series at once. 

klasse said:

Thank you!, I forgot to ask if I should just start with the F1 and H1 courses or should I purchase the entire F series? Simply because of they deal GB offers if you purchase all the F series at once. 

Since you're in structured gymnastics training, if you have the opportunity, getting the series would be a better deal for you. You may find you move through F1 fairly quickly, and as you said you save money on the pack.

Note that F1 is focused solely on strength skills. It does not teach tumbling or swinging skills. 

I am ok with the strength skills, my coaches will help me with the tumbling and swinging skills.  I do need strength skills to improve on since my skills that I have are kind of all over the place.  The basic skill I see a lot in my class is having hand stand and press to hand stand, which I cannot do.  Flexibility is also another thing I am working on in order to make everything cleaner.  Half the time in my gymnastic classes I am training alone due to my circumstances, so I'm hoping the Foundation courses offered here will help me systematize my training so I can focus on progressions to skills etc.  So far after browsing the forums, it looks like I should go through all the foundation courses and the H1 course.  I appreciate the feed back from everyone so far, definitely helping me make an informed decision.   Hari_seldon, given my situation do you think the F1 and H1 courses should sustain me for a long time or would it be a better bang for my buck to just get all the foundation courses now?

Hey man in 8 months you attained a full Back Lever and Front Lever?

If so, how?

SuperMan said:

Hey man in 8 months you attained a full Back Lever and Front Lever?

If so, how?

I started practicing on rings, both positions I practiced with a tuck.  So back lever I would go into a skin the cat position then try to get into the position where I would be if I was in a back lever while holding it in a tucked position.  Eventually after being comfortable in this position I would stick one leg out, switch legs, then work my up to a Y scale then eventually try a back lever straight leg, arched back and try to be as straight as possible. I would recommend strengthening the lower back  and abs.    

** practice hollowing your chest when doing back lever, it engages the larger muscles to help you sustain the hold.

Front lever is more difficult for me because it is a little tricky trying to be straight and not pike.  On good days I can get a good front lever no problem, other days it proves more difficult.  I follow the same process as back lever for my front lever.

Here is a quick break down 

Back lever

1) Practice holding the Tucked position, and position your body the same way you would if it was a full back lever, your chest should still be in the position tucked as if it were in a full lever.  Hollow your chest** This engages larger muscles to hold you up.

2) Alternate holding single legs and go back to tucked position, work your way up to holding each position while maintaining the hollow body position and arched back.

3) Try Y scale, pull back to tuck if you feel like you are going to drop.

4) Try full back lever, pull back to tuck if you feel like you are going to drop

5) Strengthen your lower back and abs and also warm up very well before attempting levers.

I did this sporadically sets of 3-4 during my conditioning time at gymnastics.  I was able to get it in about 2 weeks, and then continued to practice making it cleaner and transitioning from back to front, front to back levers.   Hope this helps!

Wait Wait Wait, I misunderstood or you got Full Back Lever in merely 2 weeks?

And great explanation I will use your tips man!

Keep in mind that previous fitness experience 

klasse said:

Hari_seldon, given my situation do you think the F1 and H1 courses should sustain me for a long time or would it be a better bang for my buck to just get all the foundation courses now?

H1 will sustain you for a *long* time. 

F1 will definitely take you a few months to get through; some parts of it may take longer depending on how well-rounded your strength is. My advice would be to get F1, try it out for a while, and if you think it is helpful, ask Cory if you can upgrade to the full series. 

SuperMan said:

Wait Wait Wait, I misunderstood or you got Full Back Lever in merely 2 weeks?

And great explanation I will use your tips man!

There's no magic recipe for getting a back lever in two weeks. If the OP achieved on in 2 weeks, it's because he was already strong enough to do it and simply needed to practice the skill for a little while. Duplicating the OP's training will not get you a back lever in two weeks unless you have already built up the strength to do a back lever. 

My bad, I forgot to take into consideration my strength.  Hari is right.  I'm not 100% certain what would be good pre-req strength would be required to do front and back lever.  I can only say for myself I was doing a lot of ring dips and turning out the rings at the top, ab work, low back strength exercises in conjunction with training for back and front lever.  This is probably the quickest skill I attained and it was only because I have a shoulder injury from Feb which prevented me from doing swings on rings.  So all I did was random strength skills during class.  Everything else in gymnastics so far has been painstakingly slow with a lot of days where my body wouldn't perform well and the rare days where I would finally get a skill, but I just try to do better than I did the previous day, or at least do one good skill and then work on something else.

Hari: Thank you, I'll try out the F1 course and I'll see if I can upgrade it after trying it out.