A MAG Novice requesting for directions

[Alec_PH]

[Disclaimer: I don't know if this is the right section. If not, I apologise in advance.]

Hello, my name's is Alec and I am 28. I have a very late start to artistic gymnastics, dating to about 4 months ago (12th October, 2021), and I fell in love with the discipline. PH in my name stands for my favourite apparatus, which is pommel horse.

I am writing this topic because I want to improve my flexibility but I don't know if what I am doing is efficient and I have a feeling that committing to the the ST series would help. I don't know where to start with it, so I will make an introduction about where I am at, what issues I am having, and what do I need to do (skill-wise).

I am committed to 7 hours in the gym every week, 2x 2hours sessions and 2x 1.5 hours sessions, which is not enough for the sport, as one needs 40-minutes on each skill most days of the week, if they want to progress at a decent rhithm, according to my coach. Still, I am very lucky as a non-elite adult to have these many group sessions, as most centres in this country only offer 0-2 hours a week.

Issues

• I can know do a more or less proper cartwheel with a decent entry, finish and movement, but I still can't keep my legs straight when I am doing. Overall, I obviously would not get a minimum 9.1 out of 10 (execution score), which is my personal goal in every skill I learn.
• In a standing pike position, I could already touch the floor when I started but cannot fully bend to touch my head to my legs and hug my legs.
• I cannot do forward roll to straddle stand position, as I cannot get up. Furthermore, my leg opening seems to be much narrower than during a static stretch.
• I cannot hold a free handstand position for more than 1 second and it's not straight yet.
• I have control issues whenever I perform a skill. I don't seem to have awareness of everything and, if I focus on 1 or 2 tips from the instructor, I forget about the rest). I simply lack coordination, I guess. For example, sometimes I can do a handstand forward roll and a dive forward roll gracefully enough without producing a sound; other times, it feel like an elephant hit the floor, especially during Novice competitions, which make me anxious.
• I can more or less do a bridge and, while the arms are straight, the form is not correct yet.
• My back support position is not good enough when circling on a mushroom, which leaves me unable to complete 1 circle without touching the ground with my feet.
• My middle splits are not full yet, and my pancake isn't full either but it's getting better.
• I can do shears on the pommel horse as of today but still cannot even do 1/4 circle on it, and I think it's a hip mobility issue.
• I can skin the cat on p bars but can only do half of that on rings before dropping into the foam pit.

Current goals

Flexibility:

• Full pike fold
• Full splits (left/right, and middle)
• Full pancake (aka japana)
• Better front support, back support and side support position
• Better bridge
• Better shoulder opening/extension for handstands, handstand forward rolls, handstand flatbacks, handspring, etc.

Skills:

• Press to handstand (from a pike fold position, from a middle split position, and from a straddle hold position)
• Front tuck somersault (current goal to develop over time into a twisting somersault) on the floor
• Handspring on vault (current goal, while the long-term goal is a tsukahara)
• 3 circles on mushroom or even 1 on the pommel horse.

What I am doing (At home)

I'm following most of the following two playlists but I feel they aren't good for adults and non-gymnasts. I did them 3 times a week in January, and my hips were really sore after the first week.

Hips

Shoulders

So, yeah, I was hoping to replace this with Stretch Therapy. I also don't think the screenings on those routines are comprehensive enough to identify issues and know which drills to keep and which one to replace.

Conclusion

Please, help me identify issues, understand what programmes in your series should I choose to improve my mobility and flexibility, and how many mobility goals should I focus on. I suppose 2-3.

I understand the differences between limbering, stretching, flexibility and mobility, as I read your article about it.

If I missed any articles that explain part of these, I apologise and, please, feel free to let me know.

[MarkusO]

Hello there and welcome to the forums!

You have a long list of goals.  Here is how I would approach it. Other people would go a different route: I would split them by function and keep things simple:

- forward bending
- legs apart
- backward bending, including dedicated hip flexors work

The pancake and the bridge will cover most of these things, including shoulder mobility. The pancake covers the forward bending and legs apart part. The backward bending/bridge work will cover the whole anterior chain including the hip flexors and the shoulders. If you work on those two there will be a carry-over to front splits (hamstrings+hip flexors) and side splits. ST offers a lot of partial poses that let you focus on YOUR weaknesses in these poses. There was the excellent Stretch Therapy mastery series which covered all these elements in detail. I'm not sure what happened with it after the re-launch of the website. Maybe @Nathan knows? 🙂

Happy to iterate with you to come up with a plan to master your goals!

 

 

[Nathan]

18 hours ago, MarkusO said:

There was the excellent Stretch Therapy mastery series which covered all these elements in detail. I'm not sure what happened with it after the re-launch of the website. Maybe @Nathan knows? 🙂

The Master the... series has been combined into a single Mastery Course. The Mastery Course will require you to put more effort into designing your own flexibility practice, but the result will be better results and a better knowledge of your own body and needs. It covers all of your current flexibility goals directly except for middle and front splits, but with a great pike, pancake, and back bend, splits will be very close.