WAG Drills I can do at home?

[mikaylagymnast10]

I was wondering about how to get certain skills at home. There are severall skills I really want to be able to do, including aerials and a RBH. Recently, I posted asking for tips on these sklls. The main response was condtioning and drilling. However, no one gave me specific drills to do. So I decided to post asking specifically for drills to get my aerial and RBH. If any of you have tips or drils for these skills, or a video or article that you found helpful, I would appreciate hearing about them. Also, if you know any other skills I would need for xcel gold that I can drill for at home an have any tips for that, I would like to hear it. Thank you.

 

[Coach Kate]

As a now former coach, I do not recommend doing most drills at home. That should be something done at practice with your coach in building skill progressions. Skill based shaping and conditioning, and stretching, yes. Please ask your coach what they feel comfortable with you doing at home. I regularly made it a point to tell my athletes what specific things we were doing at practice that they could be doing at home as well. When I was a gymnast, my coach's policy was that we couldn't work any skills at home that we couldn't do on high beam. It held us to our very mastered basics...and sometimes encouraged us to get braver on beam

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

In all honestly there are many fantastic drills out there easy to find for any coach/athlete. Often you see these same drills being done very poorly in gyms because what matters is the technical information from the coach. So yes we could give you drills to do at home - but it likely won't help without supervision. However more strength and flexibility will help.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but the best way to work an aerial or a RO BHS at home is to not work them at home. Both have enough technical detail and nuance that you're better off only working them with a coach who can give corrections and guidance in the moment. If you practice it at home with incorrect technique, it becomes harder to fix that than it would be to just teach it from scratch.

What you can work at home -- which will help with everything, not just aerials and ROBHS -- is strength, flexibility, and handstands.

 

[mikaylagymnast10]

I actually am strong and VERY flexible. But do you have any exercises that go specifically with these skills?

 

[NutterButter]

I actually am strong and VERY flexible. But do you have any exercises that go specifically with these skills?

Most gymnasts are strong and flexible however this strength and flexibility is usually not evenly distributed across your body. For example, my daughter ended up with multiple stress fractures in her back years into her gymnastics journey. At the time she was a L9 so she was plenty strong when this happened. The treatment to prevent injury after she healed included new and different strength exercises tailored to specific core muscles that were not adequately engaged prior to her injury.

The input you have received so far on this thread and your other one has largely been from coaches who have a tons of experience (I’ve been on this forum for over 10 years and many who have responded to you have been here the entire time I have) . Their advice all boils down to talk to your coach and let them know your goals. Ask them what additional conditioning you can do at home to support your gym goals. The last thing you want is to try to follow videos and inadvertently learn the wrong technique because this will set you back in reaching your goals.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I actually am strong and VERY flexible. But do you have any exercises that go specifically with these skills?

Yes: strength, flexibility, and handstands.

Sorry if you were hoping for something more exciting, but this is the reality of efficient training. If you want to be the best you can, the way to get there is by training efficiently and safely. I promise you every coach would rather teach their preferred techniques from scratch than have to un-teach bad habits learned at home. And both an aerial and a ROBHS are very technical and in some ways unintuitive skills; the odds of you teaching yourself the right technique at home without a coach are very very low.

But if you want to get the most bang for your buck, both in the gym and out, want to get these skills and more, you can help yourself get there by doing conditioning, flexibility, and handstands at home.
Flexibility, I'll grant you, there's a point where your flexibility is "good enough" and you don't really need to push past it. However, there is no such thing as being too strong, or having too perfect a handstand.

ROBHS uses pretty much your entire body. Arm and shoulder strength for an efficient spring off the hands. Lower body strength for an effective takeoff. Core strength for efficient snaps in both the first and second half of the BHS. Etc, etc, etc. Your coach should be the one to teach you a BHS, but you'll make it easier for them if you have good strength and a strong handstand.

So I'm sorry if this wasn't the answer you were hoping for, but if you want to learn an aerial and a ROBHS, the best thing you can do at home is stretching, strength, and handstands.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

I actually am strong and VERY flexible. But do you have any exercises that go specifically with these skills?

In your other post you stated you could barely do a glide swing because you were 'tall' nobody is too tall to do a glide swing if they have a strong core. Perhaps start with some core strength exercises.