elite gymnastics (coach sommer)

Hello, my name is Lee.

It's a pleasure to write my first post on this forum.

It's obvious that you all have a good understanding of training and do it well.

After research and discovering sources such as these:

http://www.youtube.com/user/gymnastat45

http://www.prweb.com/releases/oldestgym ... 714403.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_h ... le_gymnast

I realize that despite things folks have told me in the past like, "You're too tall," "You're not young enough," and "The equipment isn't designed for people of your size," I perhaps have a shot at becoming a serious gymnast.

I'm 31, 6ft., and am hoping that someone could help me out with a conditioning and progression plan.

Just to give some idea of where I'm at currently, I've developed these skills:

Floor hands: planche, 1 hand handstand, v-sit, straddle press, flares, pirouettes, windmills, supermills, 2 airflares

Floor tumbling: back tuck, back full, gainer, gainer full, side flip, front tuck, front half, aerial, btwist, doublebtwist

Rings: ring muscle up, back straddle lever, front lever

Bar: glide kip, muscle up

P-bars: haven't worked on it

Vault: haven't worked on it

Please, please let me know your thoughts...

Lee :-)

Post up a video, I for one am curious to see your self-taught skills

I myself started late and taught myself to a fairly "high" level, but what the elite gymnasts are doing these days is no joke

I also would love to see a video.

Since you have achieved so much, I would think that you're quite experienced already when it comes to training programs. Also, the attention needed to create such a personal program will be hard to find over any forum kinda atmosphere on the internet (even one as helpful as this)

With videos, tips and critique can be possible and very helpful.. Other than that, you might want to be more specific with your request. You're goals aren't super clear, and it seems as though you have accomplished a lot already.... A coach might be what you need.

I'll try to make a video soon.

I found a gym and trained there this evening.

I cleaned up roundoff-backhandspring-back tuck and learned the shoulder stand on rings!

That first post can be a tough one to write. My first one was a real doozy thankfully I didn't let having my behind handed to me get to me.

Welcome to the board Lee, like the others are saying, your question is just too open ended to answer. The one thing that is for sure is if you are thinking of being a competitive gymnast you need to find a coach, an adult gymnastics class.

If what you say is correct, it sounds like you've built a decent foundation of strength already, this is one aspect of Coach Sommer's method that I really appreciate. I don't know how Tina Wise trained but that list of injuries I have to wonder if her coaches neglected proper prehab and strength training as part of her comprehensive program. This is a fairly common issue in adult gymnastics from what I gather.

Haha, thanks Cole. Well, I suppose my goal is to develop elite level skills. Right now, I'm tweaking the roundoff-bhs-bt to obtain optimum rebound and height to progress into double backs. I've trained with a coach and getting that perfect form for the tumbling pass is quite intricate.