Women Beach training?

[coach1234]

Any of you that live close to a beach do beach training (conditioning)?
We are thinking of starting it! Good idea/bad idea?
Girls will have to run up sand dunes etc, more fun and harder
Then if they really work hard we might let them have a dip in the sea at the end

 

[ivyagogo]

I'm jealous.

 

[PalmTree]

I second ivyagogo!!! I would LOVE beach training!!!

 

[wallinbl]

I live near the beach. I can tell you that running on sand is downright awful. I have bad knees, and even walking in soft/sugar sand is murderous. If you have girls with minor injuries, you might want to leave them out of it.

 

[coach1234]

One of our coaches is also a netball coach and they do it so she suggested it! Fab idea we thought especially as the girls are in the gym so much they never get time to go to the beach and they are ao close to us! One of the big perks of living where we do and interesting you say that wallinbl never thought of that will keep that in mind although (touch wood) all our gymnasts are in pretty good shape and no injuries at the moment

 

[txgymfan]

Texas Dreams had a video on gymnastike of pool conditioning. It looked hard but fun!

 

[chalkbowl]

UCLA does beach conditioning...I know there are pics/videos of it floating around.

 

[thepenguin]

Waller's GymJam has done it before. And their beach had ropes so they climbed them.

 

[RisingGymnast]

That sounds like fun! I'd definitely do it!

 

[raenndrops]

I live near the beach. I can tell you that running on sand is downright awful. I have bad knees, and even walking in soft/sugar sand is murderous. If you have girls with minor injuries, you might want to leave them out of it.

I'm right there with you wallinbl. We went to YMCA Gymnastics NAtionals in Florida at the beginning of the month. On the way down, we stopped in SC and went to the ocean. Since we had been there last year (same spot), I knew I would not want to actually get into the water... I chose to stay as high up on the beach as I could to minimize the amount of sand I would have to walk through. When we visited the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, I didn't even go onto the sand at all (my knees were still hurting AND I would have had to cross an old, weathered, wooden bridge - and I don't like bridges... or weathered wooden walkways (stairs, porches, decks).

 

[Aero]

Oh my god... I would do this all the time. That would be so fun and would be a fantastic way for the girls to have fun, while at the same time conditioning. The fact that it would be in a different environment would do wonders alone! Taking a quick dip in their leotards would be great, too, because they would just dry off almost instantly anyway. I'm super jealous!

 

[Ex member]

We live at the seaside and the gym is a 15 min walk from the beach, in the past the performance (elite ?) groups used to run along the beach early in the morning as part of there summer training.

We recently took part in a sponsored walk along the beach with the gym club and have a beach party with the performance groups on the evening before a weeks close down for the summer, my oldest dd's group has also been invited to the beach party, it is the first time the group has been asked to take part (might be the first time the gym has organised a beach party) and she is looking forward to it, parents have also been invited to join in the games. During the summer I feel lucky to live close to the beach.

 

[MissLisa]

Beach training for fitness wouldn't be a bad idea and definitely keep things interesting
It would also have the added bonus of offering a bit of prehab work for the lower limbs particularly the ankle joint due to the unstable nature of the sand. Assuming none of the gymnasts have an acute injury it shouldn't do any harm. The sand will help build all those little muscles in and around to foot helping with proprioception, balance and just generally recruiting more muscles. And it's much harder so will be more demanding on the aerobic/ anaerobic systems too, increasing fitness!

 

[dynamicduo]

Our gym does a beach training day each summer and the girls love it! It's basically just a big conditioning class and they get to play in the water and have fun! Our girls wear their swimsuits instead of leotards because they get pretty wet & sandy by the end! It's great and they look forward to it all year!!

 

[gymdog]

A lot of the colleges use the sand out at their track for leg stuff. But the trainers seem to say it helps by putting less force than a hard surface. I'm sure if you have an injury or condition that contributes to instability (problem with your joint laxity) the sand would be an issue.

 

[coach1234]

Took the girls the other night! They loved it! If any of you have beaches nearby I hugely suggest you take them, girls absolutely loved it and I actually think they worked harder then they normally do!