On his new Coaching Methods blog, Valentin reflects on the “typical” Artistic workout.
For a 4hrs training session:
Warm-up (5 min)
Dance / Dance preparation (Girls) OR Special physical preparation (Boys) (30 min)
General Physical Preparation / Conditioning (30 min)
Apparatus I (50min)
Break — Most gyms allow a small 5 -10 min break
Apparatus II (50min)
Apparatus III – if time allows in program another apparatus can be done (50 min)
Flexibility (15 min)
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read more – Basics of program structuring
10 comments ↓
My current (3 hour) workout structure for my boys:
Warm-up/handstand work: 20 min
Tumbling basics: 10 min
Conditioning: 30 min
Apparatus I: 50 min
Apparatus II: 50 min
Stretching: 15 minutes
And 5 minutes at the end for whatever. Usually either aerial awareness drills, tight body drills, or stick drills.
We do our conditioning at the end of class. I want the boys working so hard that they couldn’t possibly do an event afterwards.
Interesting, I find 50 minutes too long for a single apparatus. I prefer to keep each apparatus to 30-40 minutes. After too long on one apparatus the gymnasts seem to lose focus.
I agree with Coach S, for boys (well, older ones at least) you need to have the strength/conditioning at the end. After a proper strength session they can barely lift their arms, let alone do another apparatus. Also, a trampoline section for aerial awareness is essential.
@ Clinton
I agree in general but out of that 50, its important to consider how the gym works. If you can get in on an apparatus without time wasting 50min can be a drag at time. However if you are constantly moving mats, adjusting stations, setting up bars etc.. out of the 50min quite a bit of time can be lost. Not taking into account group sizes.
@ Coach S
I understand that logic, but there really is a no real benefit to that. Like any coach I assume you want to get your gymnasts strong, flexible, develop the right position/aesthetic presentation. However by doing apparatus first you are actually not helping at all. I would even go as far as saying that it can be a big disadvantage. The only time it makese sense to have conditioning last is, during season, when focus is on routines.
The benefit of a correctly designed conditioning program is that You can have conditioning first, hit it hard and properly, and still! have effective skill training in practice. But if your conditioning is wrongly structured and done (which i hate to say it, but my experience says most coaches need more education in this area ) that you will get the opposite, which is what i assume you are trying to avoiding.
Also, from a training perspective flexibility benefits most from the being done at end of training, but stretching and strength stimuli so close together in practice can be a little or very counter productive.
But good to know others have opinions on the topic as they should
@ Geoffrey Taucer
I have to say man given that boys usually train less hours than girls (never! understand why), and they have far more training demands, 2 apparatus a training is not enough in my opinion
I go to a lot of Men’s gyms. Most do strength training beginning and end of workout.
Specific at the beginning. General at the end.
Only 2 apparatus does surprise.
… Unless you block the apparatus Swing (R/HB), Support (PB/PH) and Jump (V/FX).
In all my years of coaching we never skipped PH. Vault was often only scheduled once a week. On average we’d train 4 apparatus / day. Six would only happen as we near competition.
@Valentin
You’re saying there’s “no benefit”, “not helping at all”, “and it can be a big disadvantage.” Can you expand on that? I didn’t see you state any reasons why this would be the case.
We do our events when the athletes are fresh. Conditioning is at the end. We generally train to complete failure in our exercises and the athletes couldn’t possibly do an event safely right afterwards.
When I coached boys we did 2 events a day and staggered opposites..
We did Rings/Horse. Highbar/P-bars, and the only two that were similar were floor/vault (mostly because you can cluster drills for both floor and vault).
We also did conditioning at the end.. it was a nice way to get a group together and have a “team” instead of a bunch of individuals who happened to train together.
Even in 3hrs, I did at least 3 events if not 4.
Something like PH/PB, HB/SR, FX/V. Somewhere there was some tramp time and for younger guys, pommel every workout if their wrists and elbows could handle it. Tumble-track or trampoline were sometimes return or side stations. Every once in awhile pulling out the double mini for Warmup.
I prefer general conditioning at the end. Generally some specific strength per event or as side stations.
Specific conditioning at the beginning, general at the end. HS work at the beginning, sometimes Wall HS for endurance/conditioning at the end.
And somewhere in there was some barbell work. Even for girls last year. Only happens if I have weights in the gym and enough for all the kids. Otherwise I use BW stuff.
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