First adult gymnastics class

Took my first adult gymnastics class yesterday and instead of working the basics was directly thrown into ring routines including skin the cats, l-sits, front levers, back levers, etc.

I was a bit surprised to say the least. Absolutely loved the class but I am worried that it might lead to injuries.

Anyone else experienced the same thing?

I experienced something similar with tumbling elements. It's hard to find a good place for gymnastics as an adult, if not impossible depending on your location. I envy those near an affiliate!

Hilarious and scary at the same time

Please be careful and check the innumerous times that Coach and others said beginners should not work ring elements, specially back lever, you are right to be worried, since many coaches have no notion on how to progressively guide and prepare adults without gymnastics background.

I was 19, still young and with a lot of sports background (mostly martial arts and weight lifting) but got a herniated disk in one of these classes. I was being taught back handsprings without even having passed through the usual bridge progressions.

Take care, because lack of preparation and impatience may lead to months or even years of forced inactivity that you´ll certainly regret. 

Are you already following the Foundation courses? That will certainly prepare you for the lessons, but I would wait until having finished at least  Foundation 2 or 3 to start basic elements.

Appreciate the input!

Despite my crazy first exposure to gymnastics I decided to go back and I absolutely loved my second class. We mainly focused on the basics this time like cartwheels and handstand with forward role. He also made me work on strengthening my forearms and lower back as those are my weakest links.

I guess the first class was partially to test my abilities and partially to teach me a lesson in humility.

The coach seems knowledgeable and I'm excited to learn the basics!

Absolutely same experience.  Started one year ago.  Led to shoulder, neck, knee injuries.  But I love it so much!  But yeah, I basically had to all-but-quit the class and committed to Foundation One and Handstand One and am feeling much better for it.  Actually went back to the class the other night for the first time in a while, and the F1H1 training I had been doing was clearly helping a lot.  Definitely worth it to prepare your body with conditioning before throwing yourself into skills.  Even though skills are sooooo fun!

Couldn´t agree more. My GST has definitely prepared me well and is allowing me to progress much faster than some of the others in the class.

I´ll probably write an update in a month or so to see how things are going

Adult should focus for the most of time on mobility and basic physical preparation including upper/lower body strength and alignment..

This was my biggest gripe with a local (Canberra, Australia) gymnastics club: "adult" meant "anyone over 16 years old". The "focus" was on tumbling, and "doing your own thing".

The "coach" had no clue about progressions, let alone any age-appropriate progressions, warmup or preparatory work. And I've written about the bilateral shoulder injuries arising from this class in another thread.

As other people have mentioned, GST via GB has made me stronger and more flexible than I could have imagined possible. For this I am eternally grateful.

NickM said:

This was my biggest gripe with a local (Canberra, Australia) gymnastics club: "adult" meant "anyone over 16 years old". The "focus" was on tumbling, and "doing your own thing".

 

The "coach" had no clue about progressions, let alone any age-appropriate progressions, warmup or preparatory work. And I've written about the bilateral shoulder injuries arising from this class in another thread.

 

As other people have mentioned, GST via GB has made me stronger and more flexible than I could have imagined possible. For this I am eternally grateful.

I'm also based in Canberra! Was that in Belconnen, Erindale or Woden? I've been to the first two, but only spent significant amounts of time in Belconnen. Either way, it's probably better to just use their facilities for the equipment and take advice/tips/lessons from Coach Sommer and his courses 

I've been taking adult gymnastic classes for 10 months now.  When I started, I was a total beginner and, quite frankly, I still am.  

My advice: consider privates.  

I've been taking privates for 2 months now, and it's the best thing I've done!  Before that, my progress was next to nothing.  I was taking the weekly group classes, but learned very little--other than that everyone else was so much more advanced than me.  I was totally lost.  I had no idea where to begin, what to do, or even what questions to ask.  Sure, there were coaches circulating around, but they can only do so much when there are other students to deal with.

The downside of adult classes, I found, is that there's very little structure, and everyone is at such different levels.  Most of my class--even though it was for "beginners"--were coaches-in-training, teens, and adults.  All had prior gymnastics experience, except for me.

Anyway, in my very first private, I had learned way more than all my group classes combined (5-6month worth).  If you want to ensure you have a solid foundation, and to give you goals to work towards, then privates may be worthwhile (in addition to your group classes).

Best of luck!

Hi,

If you are still reading there is a new place in Canberra. Mitchell gymnastics. The classes are structured and the coach is in the national mens team. There is 30min conditioning at the end and progressions for back handspring. Ive been going for 8wks and can do standing tucks, back handspring  (though not nicely), layouts and Im doing back hip circles. Its so much fun. Not sure how to bring this to the notice of the previous commentors though!