WAG Self Taught gymnast help!!

[Deleted member 28475]

Hello I'm Taytum, I am 14 and want to be a self taught gymnast, do you have any tips? I've wanted to do this for 3 years! I've gotten nowhere hardly,any tips appreciated-- have a good day Taytum

 

[Coach Kate]

Honestly, it's not safe. Find a local gym with a beginning junior high/high school class or even an open gym with instructors available to assist you.

If you want to start building flexibility and general fitness, I love yoga with Adrienne, which is free on youtube. On the Alo Moves app, which is paid, there are some wonderful instructors who can help you build strength and flexibility, and Dylan Werner has an excellent press handstand program.

 

[lime-gymnast]

Personally I never really decided to, I just really really wanted to and my parents never met me so I self taught myself for a few years. I barely had any padding and it was on hardwood floor, definitely not safe, but I started going to a gym and it got better! My best tips if you know you’re safe are to make sure you have lots of mats and padding, find all tutorials you can online, make sure to condition and stretch, and record yourself! It might seem weird but definitely set up your phone or something in a distant area and rewatch the videos so you can make any and all corrections necessary. It will help rid of any bad habits and ensure good form! Also, be sure to learn lots about the sport. There’s a lot of terminology and different things that would be good to know. I learned this all from online though, so you should be fine. Wishing you best of luck!

 

[Trying_to_tumble]

Hello I'm Taytum, I am 14 and want to be a self taught gymnast, do you have any tips? I've wanted to do this for 3 years! I've gotten nowhere hardly,any tips appreciated-- have a good day Taytum

I used to be self taught until my mother finally caved in an sent me to lessons I taught myself the ultra-basics like cartwheels, handstands, etc. my biggest tip would be to STAY SAFE. You do not want to fracture your back or twist you spinal chord. Invest in a good mat (they don’t need to be too expensive just make sure they’re large enough) and maybe make a dedicated area for gymnastics if you can. Don’t try anything you’re not comfortable with, and for the love of the universe do NOT let your friends spot you. That usually ends with two broken noses. Other than that, stretching and conditioning is always good. Use YouTube tutorials and again, stay safe. An unsafe backhand spring attempt is not worth getting paralyzed for the rest of your life. Lessons are honestly the best, but I get not everyone can afford them or even have access to gyms if they live in certain places. No harm in teaching yourself cartwheels or perhaps back bend related skills but don’t attempt flips unless your parent is a literal gymnastics coach.

 

[Aussie_coach]

My tip is - don’t do it!

To a degree every kid is a self taught gymnast. Most kids teach themselves to do forward rolls, handstand, cartwheels etc when very young. But beyond that it’s not a good idea.

Most gymnastics skills above the backs level need to be taught using carefully planned steps and the watchful eye of an experienced coach. Otherwise a catastrophic injury can occur. Including life long paralysis and death.

The majority of the time self taught gymnastics also has minor errors that put stresses in the body. You don’t feel any pain when doing these skills, but doing them correctly over and over again over time almost always results in stress injuries. These injuries take years to heal even with great physio and some never heal.

The other problem with teaching yourself is you are likely to prevent yourself from being able to progress. Skills need to be done in a certain way to be able to make it progress to the next level. If you teach yourself without this knowledge, you will get so good at doing it incorrectly you will have bad habits that are almost impossible to undo.