Apparatus practice schedule

I'm 24, 6'1", 205lbs, following foundation for a couple months now. I'm learning basics on the apparatus but I'm having a hard time figuring out what to work on and when. What is a good split to use for skill work on the men's apparatus? Currently, I work on floor (best event), p bars, rings, and high bar. Sometimes I do pommel, but I feel it's just a strength thing I need to develop first, even for basic swings. Of course, I need to develop strength for everything. Our club team meets 4x a week (mon-thurs). I usually go Mon, Tues, and Thurs. We have 2 hrs to practice. With warmup/messing around, I have about 1.5 hrs or less realistically each day of practice. The last 30 min (of the 1.5hrs) I usually dedicate to foundation/prehab/strength work, otherwise I do foundation work before at our university lifting gym or at home. So, really, I have about an hour for skill work. I think floor basics are very important and should have a slightly higher chunk of time devoted to it than the other events since all other skills build off of floor basics. What is a good way to break up practice time for my schedule for each apparatus? Ie. Rings/high bar Mon, 20min work on each. Floor/p bars Tues for 20min each, Rings/high bar again Thurs, etc.

I prefer to not do rings and bar on the same day so my hands don't get too worn down.

In general, just make sure you're hitting each event at least twice a week. It's hard to get better at skills at a lower frequency than that. I might go for something like this:

Day 1:
10m basic tumbling
25m rings
25m pbars

Day 2:
10m basic tumbling
10m circles work
15m floor
25m high bar

Day 3:
10m basic tumbling
25m rings
25m pbars


Day 4:
10m basic tumbling
10m circles work
15m floor
25m high bar

 

 

You'll notice there is 10m of basic tumbling every day. This is because your basic tumbling with carry over to every event. This should be things like cartwheels, round-offs, handstands, back extension rolls, front/back tucks, etc. 1-2 passes across the floor for each element. 

 

There's also 2x 10 minute sessions of circle work. This is to get you going on the pommel horse. It does not require tremendous strength to perform circles: a lot of the work involved in getting circles is learning the skill. Spending 10 minutes on them twice a week will help you learn circles quite rapidly. 

 

Also, remember that down time is time wasted! If you're resting between sets, you should be either figuring out what went wrong the last set and how to fix it, or performing some prehab/rehab exercises, or stretching something, or watching your teammates' gymnastics to learn from what they're doing and offer constructive suggestions. 

Joshua, how would you recommend learning a front handspring?

I liked Joshua's program pretty much. Well for men's. It would be different for women's of course.

Generally we alternated events like this:

FX/V SR/HB PB/PH. Some either/or.

Typically we spent 45 minutes on the apparatus stations and 30 minutes on FX/V. Not as much time for those events and they were generally sandwiched in between apparatus events. So for example, PH/FX/HB or SR/V/PB or flip flopped. Of course this was for a 3hour ish training session and not necessarily what I would do with my competitive boys.

That being said I always did floor basics with my boys. Often I would use basics as a warmup catered to their level so we were always touching handstands, cartwheels (RO), and rolls of some sorts. Also we might have basic handspring series in there as well besides salto work. 

Basically everyday we would work handstands and press handstands (or headstands) after the general WU. And maybe even pirouettes. Our adult group often worked standing saltos after this as well.

I also liked to make sure my L4s would touch circle work every training session since getting that circle is so important. Not necessarily PH every day though. Also mushroom and circle work doesn't beat up your hands like PH can (in tandem with say HB, SR, or PB).

If you really want to get circles bad, then basically every training session to some degree especially when you have yet to get the basic circles down or under 3. After you get 3-10, you might want to scale it back though. Especially as an adult so you don't get forearm tendonitis or sore wrists.

A lot of basic vault drills would be in the warmup anyways like running mechanics and punching. 

I also liked trampoline work either as a side or dedicated station. That can be just as important as tumbling, especially down the road.

For 90 minutes, I'd probably work no more than 30 minutes per apparatus (especially on your own). 20-30. This leaves time for basics and maybe some tramp. 

 

 

btw, can you make Wednesday? Like maybe come in for a short while. Do HS, basics, stretch. Also can be a good day to do tramp work (I used to do my tramp work on Wed as my light day from MTuThF). Of course it depends on your schedule, but you can make it short like an hour instead of 2 as well.

If you want front handspring you need to learn handstand before.

THen what after that?

Show me a good handstand before.

Okay well it's for my son. He'll get to work on that we were just curious

Thanks

FHS?

There are a lot of skills to master first.

Lunge to HS, HS Flatback. HS to bridge, HS Front limber. Headspring (headstand to bridge). I like teaching a flyspring on tumbl-trak or trampoline.

Power hurdle into a head spring. Headspring off a panel mat, blah blah blah. 

HS hopping/blocking which generally has HS walking before and HS shrugs, etc.

Also front walkover, Front Handspring step out.

And of course it helps doing it off panel mats or barrels or down wedges.

Unfortunately I can't find a good progression or tutorial on Youtube.

Drills&Skills has some tips but it's an incomplete progression.

Nice thanks.