WAG Wanting to improve

[hublaur]

Hi! I don't really have a lot of gymnastics moves and I'm pretty old but I absolutely love gymnastics and really want to improve! I've done gymnastics before and now I'm doing cheer and it makes me so angry the way the are showing me gymnastics! They just want me to have the move but don't correct if my technique isn't good, if I land on my feet, it's fine. I really don't know what I can do if I want to learn it the proper way... If any of you know a way for me to improve or like what I can do in my situation, please tell me!

 

[hublaur]

Sorry I put my post in the wrong category!!

 

[Somekiwichic]

Hi, good on you for wanting to improve your technique! How old are you and are there any clubs around you? A lot of clubs have beginner classes at all ages. Plus some have tumbling classes if you were wanting to focus on just tumbling and not the other events.

 

[hublaur]

I'm 18 years old so yes I'm pretty old to be doing gymnastics. My cheer team actually practices in a gymnastics club where I also work as gym coach but when I tried taking classes they put me in a group that was doing competitions and they really weren't paying any attention to me at all. I did learn a couple of thing but really never practice enough to get them right because my coaches were taking care of the other girls.

 

[alsmom]

I have the same concern with cheer tumbling. My older dd is a competitive cheerleader. She has chronic knee pain because of the situation you described- I feel like they rush her to 'get' a skill, but are not concerned enough with her technique. My younger dd is a gymnast, and she would never be allowed to tumble the way her sister does. I have my cheerleader attend private tumbling classes at the gymnastics gym as often as I can to ensure that someone is paying attention to her form. Would this be a possibility for you?

 

[Somekiwichic]

Does the club have an open gym? At the club I coach at there's 'adult open gym' 2 days a week. The problem is there's no official coach, but lots of coaches and strong guys that come in to do tricking don't mind spotting and giving corrections. Is there anyway you could do that? Also, is that the only gym near you?

 

[Somekiwichic]

And you definitely aren't too old or anything to be doing Gymnastics I used to think that too, but you should do what you enjoy and if that's Gymnastics and/or Cheerleading then age really doesn't matter.

 

[BlairBob]

I would look into private lessons with a decent coach (that cares) at the gym instead of classes as you said they didn't really work for you. Most gyms I've been at have often offered tumbling classes for preteens/teens geared at cheer tumbling. When I have been an adult class coach, I generally spend a fair amount of time spotting these high school or college aged kids but I'm not just an adult class babysitter.

Thing is many adult classes are barely anything more than supervised adult open gyms. Sometimes a coach will help you out but sometimes they don't really have the time having to watch everything going on at the same time.

Being that you are an adult and if you were to only do private lessons once a week, I generally recommend that besides this you have got to be working on handstands, leg lifts, pushups, and lunges/squats. If you are already on a cheer team, you might be doing these as conditioning twice to thrice a week but if you are not, being physically prepared is what will allow you to learn faster.

 

[hublaur]

Thank you so much everyone for all the tips it is so helpful! I am already conditioning at home everyday I don't cheer. I also go to the open gym sometimes but the person in charge of spotting is actually my cheer coach so that doesn't really help! I will definitely try to look for a private coach though I think that would be an awesome idea. There are tumbling classes at my gym but no one is really doing anything and they obviously don't want to work so a private coach might be a good idea for me!