Kerry and Rosanna partner balance

When CrossFit was getting started Greg Glassman started saying that CrossFit athletes were the “fittest” athletes on the planet. This claim has been made by many top athletes. Marathoners, triathletes, decathletes, etc. In order to claim one is the fittest you must agree on a definition of fitness. Greg defined what he believed fitness is in “What is Fitness” which was one of the very early CrossFit Journal articles. I was thinking about this and realized that when I say gymnastics, this term can mean different things to different people. So lets take a look.

The gymnastics you see predominantly at our facility is known as “Artistic Gymnastics”. This is the most commonly known variety of gymnastics. It involves the 6 men’s apparatus floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar and the 4 women’s apparatus beam, vault, uneven bars and floor. There is a structure surrounding what a competitive routine can consist of. Each apparatus has a set of required elements and key components. Within these constraints athletes are able to put together their routine. These are known as “optional” routines. This is in contrast to “compulsory” routines which used to be a part of elite level competition, but were removed to allow athletes to spend their time on optional skills and routines.

Another form of gymnastics is “Rhythmic Gymnastics”. This form utilizes the floor exercise area and can include props such as balls, hoops, ropes and ribbons. There are individual and team routines. Routines involve significantly more dance elements than artistic gymnastics and creative use of the props allow for an infinite variety of movements.

CrossFit very loosely defines its use of the term “gymnastics” as, essentially, any bodyweight movement. Calisthenics fall into the gymnastics umbrella. Push ups, pull ups, rope climbing, etc all are part of the gymnastics component of CrossFit. This broad definition is why gymnastics is part of the base of the CrossFit pyramid. Learn to move yourself well before learning how to move other stuff well.

There are still many other sports and activities that all fall under the term gymnastics. Tumbling and trampoline, sport acrobatics, team acrobatics, etc. USA Gymnastics uses the term “general gymnastics” to encompass all of these different disciplines. The world of gymnastics is quite broad, but in all cases is founded on technique and efficiency of movement. All sport variants reward more difficult versions of skills and involve judging of technique in some way. Explore the world of gymnastics and if you’re not currently involved, take some classes. There is a reason gymnastics has been around for thousands of years. It is fun and a great way to keep strong and fit. Gymnastics is a natural expression of human movement.

Workout for May 10, 2013

A) Warm up: Back Squat 3 reps @75%, 3 reps @85%

B) 5 minutes upper back mobility

C) Back Squats 2-2 reps @95%

D) 4 rounds for time: row 500m / 30 ring push-ups - 15-min cut-off

E) 10-10-10 back extensions / 1 min - 1 min - 1 min handstand hold against wall / 10-10-10 kettlebell sling shots each direction

Kayla K. has been training at The Cave for just over a year, being really consistent since about September 2012. She has improved rapidly and is always ready to work hard to get better.

Last week we started working on round off backhandsprings with this group. This is the first time this group has been exposed to them. Several of the girls are reasonably close to getting the skill because they have all worked the progressions well, but Kayla was ready. I spotted a couple to make sure she would follow through with what she was clearly capable of and then let her go. Give it a few more months and we’ll see round off consecutive backhandsprings and round off backhandspring back tuck.

It would be nearly impossible not to notice the growth in the gymnastics program over the last 6 months. Both in total number of kids as well as skill level. The kids are getting better rapidly and having a great time. We’re excited to see the continued development of the program and improvement in our students.

Russ with some future stars

Anyone who has ever watched gymnastics understands that it is important to “stick the landing”. Very few realize how difficult this actually is to accomplish, or fully what it means. The definition of a stuck landing has changed some over the years, but the basic idea has remained the same. Land under control.

It used to be on women’s floor that a single step back into a lunge was considered a stuck landing. They tightened up the requirement such that all gymnasts must land feet together with no steps. Currently there are requirements on how deep one can squat on the landing. Too deep is a deduction. And showing any instability on the landing, such as arm waving, is also a deduction. So the current definition is quite stringent.

Deductions on a landing can range from 0.1 to more than 1.0. The deductions can be quite severe. Additionally it is the last thing that the judges see from  a gymnasts performance, which can have some influence over other judgments in the routine. No matter how clear the rules are for deductions in gymnastics it remains a subjective sport. There is quite a bit of judges discretion on what deductions to take, so showing a solid final landing can have an impact on score beyond the landing itself. The judging standards have gotten quite strict in recent years. If you watched any of the gymnastics at the 2012 Olympic Games in London you saw that more than a full point in deductions on routines was common. This was on routines that in the early 90s would have received few if any deductions.

So, it is important to stick a landing, but how hard is it? Well, let’s just look at speed and momentum. Depending on the apparatus a variety of velocities are involved. A gymnast will be falling from 5-13 feet in the air, with horizontal speeds ranging from zero to roughly 12 miles per hour. Try running as fast as you can, then jump has high as you can and try to stick the landing on a somewhat soft surface (It is easier to land with stability on firmer surface).  Now try to do the same off a platform that is 5-6 feet off the floor.

The other factor involved in sticking a landing is also dealing with the rotation of the dismount that is being performed. With the speed and height also comes multiple flips and twists. Gymnasts must land in a way that the rotation is all accounted for to remain motionless upon landing. Some dismounts require that the gymnast be blind of the ground upon landing. This is any dismount that finishes with forward rotation. If a gymnast looks at the ground in a forward facing landing it will virtually ensure you will take a step forward. Dismounts that finish rotating backward allow gymnast to see the ground long before landing and are far easier to stick.

Next time you watch gymnastics consider all that must happen in order to stick a landing. This is why it is a big deal when a solid routine is capped off by a stuck landing.