Ensuring the gymnast's physical readiness for the intended task also holds critical safety implications. A review of the safety literature specific to injuries in gymnastics reveals lack of performer readiness, more than any other variable, is the single most common cause of gymnastics injury.
A seemingly endless number of physical variables contribute to successful learning and performance in gymnastics. For example, physical size and weight play a significant role in the gymnast's ability to perform effectively. Generally speaking, smaller, lighter performers enjoy a movement advantage over larger, heavier performers simply because they possess less inertia.
Additional factors such as muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, speed, agility, reaction time, and kinesthetic awareness are also very important and can be developed through a carefully planned yearly training program. However, none are more fundamental to ultimate gymnastics success than flexibility (joint range of motion) and internal power (power-to-weight ratio). Without the ranges of motion required to assume the desired shapes as well as the muscular power to move these shapes quickly and forcefully, the aspiring gymnast will do just that-aspire-but never achieve true excellence!
Although the demands of gymnastics are common to all participants, the needs specific to each performer are unique. Consequently,the wise coach carefully evaluates the individual performer's readiness profile and then employs this information to develop a training program that directly reflects the unique needs of that person.
Rather than recommending a rigid set of protocols, the underlying purpose of this chapter is to offer an organized system of principles and concepts that can be universally applied to all gymnastics training programs. The primary objective is to provide coaches and performers alike an improved set of tools with which to work, so that aspiring gymnasts might be blessed with positive rather than negative learning experiences. Remember:
Good coaching implies that success becomes a learned trait
initially, rather than finally.
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*Excerpted from Championship Gymnastics: Biomechanical Techniques for Shaping Winners. For additional information, see Chapter 8, "Concepts of Training," pages 167-192. Also covered are:
- Flexibility - Constraints on Joint Flexibility, Range of Motion in the More Critical Joint Areas, Flexibility Training Protocols, Specificity for Flexibility Training, Flexibility Training Intensity
- Power - Specificity for Power Training, Resistance Techniques, Core Power Training Examples, Power Training Intensity
- The Training Pyramid - Relationship between Flexibility Training, Power Training, and Actual Skills
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