Ideas for content of an adult gymnastics class

[Ryan Libke]

I am currently attending an adult gymnastics class, once a week.  It is convenient as it is held the same time my children are taking classes.  My class is taught by a young coach, and has only two others in it, so it is relaxed.  We usually warm up on the trampolines, and then do some conditioning, and then the training is ad hoc, and we will work on whatever basic skills we like with the coach's help.   My purpose in taking the class is to work on basic skills, not strength training so much, as I take the latter from GB.  

 

I am looking for some ideas to structure the skill training.  I sometimes resort to doing my handstand training at this time, but I think the time in class would be better spent working on other skills, especially since there is spotter available.  The free time is about 20 minutes to a half an hour.  

 

I am wondering if it would be better to focus on a particular skill for that short time, or regularly perform progressions on each skill, i.e. front and back tuck, front and back handspring.  Also, whether or not there are some absolute essentials that should be done every time.  

[Blairbob]

With 20-30 minutes of event time, I'd split it between tumbling/FX and perhaps a small amount of time on one event.

Or you could just rotate and work on event per week. This would give you more time to work on one event rather than just 10-15 minutes per an event (which isn't a lot of time since we often would train each event 30-45 minutes at a time in small groups in our adult classes with Roger Harrell).

Personally, I always liked doing tumbling basics every day as a part of a session. Usually the below tumbling series was actually part of my warmup except the RO and handsprings (though I often warmed these up on a tumbl-trak).

Typically forward roll to HS and HS fwd roll series
Backward roll series including back extension rolls
Side cartwheels passes on both sides besides front to back, step in CW and RO
Pirouette work.
 Sometimes this was in a tumbling series like FWD roll to HS 1/2 pirouette to backwards roll/extension or HS FWD roll to FWD roll pike up to HS full pirouette, jump 1/2 turn back extension roll possibly 1/2 or full piro out. These are passes from the compulsory routines.
 
Either on floor or a tumble-trak: pass of headsprings, pass of flysprings (done on floor typically with a power hurdle), Hurdle or Step FrontHandsprings. Pass of BackHandspring series (3-5 depending on how many you could fit) Pass of back whips. Pass of BHS to Back whip to back salto.

Obviously, you would tailor this to the progressions you might be using.

So super beginner like:
5-10 attempts of backward or forward rolls on floor or down a wedge or off a panel mat
and/or
5-10 cartwheels be it Dominant/Recessive side sideways or from a lunge, etc
and/or
5-10 or maybe 10-20 attempts of handspring drills over a handspring trainer/barrel/"boulder" 

 - also could be drills like Jump back to straight body on a portapit

 - spotted handsprings with a spotter

or spending some time working 5-10 sets of PB swing in support, upper arm  or hang
sets of swing on rings or high bar (swing 1/2 turns)
doing casts on a single rail or fwd rolls, back hip circles, stem rises
straddle or stride swings on pommel horse, bucket circles or mushroom circle work
vault such as learning how to punch the springboard, squat ons, handstand flatbacks on a portapit, springboard saltos
tramp work such as basic shapes, seatdrops, table drops, "dead bugs" for back drops, 1/2 and full turns; Seat-Table-Fwd roll/salto

And yes, adults can do handsprings on a trampoline but one of the issues is that sometimes the handspring has to be cut down in length or I can end up using the entire tramp and nearly bouncing off. That being said, if I were to go to an adult class right now I might warm up handsprings on a tramp before a tumbl-trak because it's been so long since I've done them (wrists are finally back I think).



 

[Ryan Libke]

Thanks BlairBob!  Very helpful.