MAG Taking a Break, How to Keep up Skilla

[thatonegymnast]

My brother is taking a break from team gymnastics for a year. How can he keep up his skills? His gym does not have a recreational program for the more advanced boy gymnasts.

 

[Brandon]

He won't. You can't take a break for an entire year and expect to keep all or most of your skills.

If he takes a year off, it'll take him another year to re learn it all correctly, and he'll be more susceptible to injuries because he won't be as strong.

Just a bad idea all around. Try taking a break for a few weeks or something.

 

[skschlag]

I am not sure what level he is at, but it is hard. Not impossible, but hard. We had a kiddo take a year off after his level 5 season. He came back and just had an ok level 7 season. He trained for a year before competing. He can do it, but has to realize that when he comes back it will be very very hard as there is no way to keep your skills, but you can relearn them. Will the coach just let him train a couple of days a week without competing?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

good luck with that...

 

[BlairBob]

Open gym once a week besides keeping up his strength at home or at the gym.

 

[Faith]

I don't think it's impossible. But it depends on him and his muscle memory, and what level he is at.

We had a kid broke her arm, twice in 3 months. She had to take a year off while she underwent investigations for bone disease which might mean she breaks too easily. Once she was cleared she came back to gym and gradually built back up, but was at her old skill level in a few weeks and had caught up with her teammates within another year. I gave up gym age 11, and went back for fun after two or three years. I hadn't lost any skills at all- a couple of apparatus skills like BHS on beam needed a bit of working up for confidence, but tumbling and floor skills were all still there.

But then I know a swim coach who has had regional champion swimmers give up at 16, come back at 19/20 for fitness, and have practically forgotten how to swim!

If he is the type whose body doesn't forget, it's going to mainly be the loss of condition that makes the biggest difference. If he can keep generally fit and conditioned, that will be the biggest help to getting back in to it. Otherwise he's probably going to need an intensive 6-8 week strength and conditioning program before he starts back with skills.