Questions about circles and not shrugging

Hi everyone,

I've been reading for a long time but this is my first post!

I'm 23, have been doing recreational gymnastics for a few years, and have been practicing circles on mushroom for about a year now and can consistently do 3 or more consecutive circles, up to a max of 10. I can't seem to figure out if I'm pushing down my shoulders, even having tried the upper arm circles on pbars. Would it be possible to even do 10 circles without shrugging in the first place? And are there any other ways to gain feedback that I'm doing it right?

Lastly, what would be a good number of consistent circles to achieve before progressing on? My goal is to do flairs and/or russian circles.

Really appreciate any responses. Thanks!

- Umbu

10 ain't bad. Try going for 20-25. Again the focus should be on good circles not just hitting that many reps with circles.

Right now, my L5 can sometimes do 2-3 floor circles but it's pretty new that he's gotten beyond just 1-1.5 on the floor mushroom. I'm hoping to keep on focusing on extension.

It seems he forgot his spindle, so we'll be working on spindles, stockli, moore in bucket time to time besides the forearm circles.

I'm not even thinking about russians though of course he wants to. I might consider looking into flairs now because they are bonus in his routines but we'll see. We have 4 1/2 months, nearly 5 to get them.