Core stability for gymnasts is important, up to a point.
But I’ve long suspected that coaches over-emphasize it, at the expense of other physical qualities.
For example, this gymnast is not arched due to lack of abdominal strength.
Giant doesn’t require much abdominal strength.
There’s a bit of trend in sport science, right now, to reduce the amount of core body conditioning we are doing, especially the traditional “sit-up”.
Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, is cited in this recent article:
MacLeans – The man who wants to kill crunches
A Canadian professor of spine biomechanics rails about the dangers of the ubiquitous sit-up
Of course that’s not sport specific.
A better article for coaches is …
The Myth of Core Stability by Professor Eyal Lederman, of CPDO, the Centre for Professional Development in Osteopathy and Manual Therapy.
I checked on this “trend” to avoid over-conditioning the core with Keith Russell.
He tended to agree:
… don’t isolate, use large body movements where ever possible and DON”T overemphasize the abdominals …”
Food for thought. Leave a comment if you’ve modified your core body strength training. Using more isometric training, for example.
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related – Gymnastics Revolution – The Giant
Gymnastics Coaching.com 