Gymnastics Coaching (Any gymnastics coaches please read)

Is there a benefit in private sessions once a week from a coach? In terms of strength/mobility would it be worth the money to learn floor, pommel, high bar, etc?

I'm highly considering it long-term and have done a few sessions already, and it is a whole lot of fun for sure. I just don't know if it'll be worth it in the long run only going once per week for an hour at a time. Sessions include warm-up/stretching, a primary apparatus, and a secondary. Since it is only a hour it's pretty rushed to fit all the conditioning etc in though. 

So if there's any coaches that could give me some insight on what my best option is (certain apparatus to focus on or exclude from our training, or should I just go with foundation, etc), since it's $50 an hour I don't want to do it if I won't get much benefit from it. I am doing foundation as well the other days of the week. Also I do drop-ins at the gymnastics facility to use the proper equipment since it's only 7$ a day, twice a week. 

In my gym to improve the quality of the teaching there is the following policy. 4 kids in the same group with the same level. a beginner kid has his personal coach who provides him all the bases. Personal coach is more suitable for beginner.

 For skill development, yes. At least it will give you something to work on besides the independent training you do on your own on the other 2 days.

For strength/mobility, that would depend on the coach and their knowledge and experience level. So that's kind of a crapshoot.

 I've done privates for adults and it can be of some benefit depending on the focus. For instance, one of my clients/personal lesson gymnast had a pretty busy schedule. He couldn't always make open gym or the adult class so it was another way to get another day of training in. It can be cheaper if you can split a lesson but that does take finding another person to split it with besides a gym/coach that is cool with that (most are in my experience but it can be very trying if skills levels and goals are completely different besides scheduling).



 

I was asking more in terms of will learning/practicing these skills (pommel, high bar, rings, floor, parallel bars) add any benefit for my strength/mobility training. Or would it just be wasted money/energy better spent on regular drop-ins and working on foundation. 

 Yes. Swing from stuff, support from stuff. Run and jump over stuff. Balance on stuff.

Alright, well I'm trying to practice skills as well on drop-ins when I go so that'll get me some extra training in. Question, how come there's really nothing adult orientated in these gyms? Do any of your gyms offer something for adults to actually learn skills properly? I mean kids can go for what, a few hundred a month and get many more hours in the gym.

We have classes but it's just the group that goes choosing what they want to work on, nothing programmed at all. So the cheapest way I can go is 50$ every session which really bums me out cause I'd be 100% into competing.

FLeXi said:

Alright, well I'm trying to practice skills as well on drop-ins when I go so that'll get me some extra training in. Question, how come there's really nothing adult orientated in these gyms? Do any of your gyms offer something for adults to actually learn skills properly? I mean kids can go for what, a few hundred a month and get many more hours in the gym.

 

We have classes but it's just the group that goes choosing what they want to work on, nothing programmed at all. So the cheapest way I can go is 50$ every session which really bums me out cause I'd be 100% into competing.

Have you seen the difficulty in transforming our zombie mobility into a normal safe condition even with a graduated progressive method as Coach Sommer´s GST?

If you had a gym open to all kinds of ages and mobilities ranging from zombie to mummy, how would you guarantee everybody´s safety and health? Woud you have enough/prepared staff to coach/spot people with abnormal mobility? It may be already difficult to spot teenagers, so it´s even more difficult to spot an adult weighing 80kg or much more.

It´s not impossible but the difficulty in establishing such a gym might be the main reason is not so common.

Besides, the objective is mostly to prepare the members for competition and in many countries they don´t have this notion of doing it for entertainment or for fitness. Here in Japan for example, even the word in Japanese they use for gymnast means something like a "gymnastics competitor/athlete". So if you took some lessons or trained without ever competing it´s difficult to explain that you did gymnastics without being a "gymnast".

Well every bit of training can be broken down to basic progressions, just like any class people can take everyone works according to their level, not someone else's. Take a yoga class, you think everyone has the same mobility as the yogi? Obviously not but they won't push someone aside for it. Same applies for endless sports/arts.

I understand the competition part, but I still think it's something that should be offered. Seeing as it's one of the most beneficial types of training, building overall strength/mobility. Seems like a waste to only offer it to kids who might eventually compete. 

Of course it can be broken down to basic progressions, but not everyone has the knowledge and approach that Coach Sommer has. Most of the gyms that I´ve seen just throw tumbling skills at random without a specific method. For example, I´ve seen here some "gyms" dedicated only to back handsprings, which is a skill that people usually show off when they say they can do gymnastics or apply for some artistic performance group. In those gyms they go straight to the skill without preparing the full range of motion/spine flexibility/wrist prep etc. necessary for it and the results may be disastrous.

I understand your comparison to yoga and of course I too would like gymnastics to be more broadly offered to adults, but the risk level in gymnastics is much higher. You don´t have tumbling/vaulting in yoga forcing the joints in several G force and the different risks at each apparatus. 

If someone has had a solid gymnastics background and continues to train in his adulthood it should be safer, as you probably had seen some senior athletes at their 60s, 70s or 80s. But to jump into a gymnastics program without first acquiring the necessary strength foundation and at least normal mobility is to ask for injuries. Like Coach Sommer and others here said, the safest way is to first finish Foundation and then try tumbling and other skills.

Probably basic skills like supports and swings on the several apparatuses won´t be harmful though. The same for basic movements like cartwheels, rolls, etc. who might be even a part of the movement series (only speculation here). 

I found a gym here where there seems to be a nice open minded coach who is open to all ages, but anyway I won´t go there at least I get again (I restarted this year) to F3 and get my splits and bridge back. Don´t want to take risks with my body and Foundation should make us bulletproof for anything.

Most adult classes are run under a recreational open gym mindset. It is dependent on the coach/gym program mamanger whether they want to push attendees towards skill development or just 60-120 minutes of screwing around. A bulk of attendees mainly just want to tumble besides do a bit of conditioning and stretching. In a collegiate club there is obviously more of a focus on event work because they do compete.