Photo: Snapped! by Becca Clark
Happy Holidays! As you finish up your last practices before the winter break, you may be wondering what you can do at home for the next 2 weeks to keep improving yourself, or to prevent you from losing skills you just learned.
1. Keep up Your Flexibility and Strength
Whether your gym has virtual classes set up, you follow YouTube workouts or you have one of my home training programs, try to keep up with your stretching and conditioning! You’re not likely to lose much over a 2-week span anyways, but you may find it easier to get back into training in the new year if you continue it at home.
2. Try Other Sports
So that you don’t become too sedentary and feel stiff, you can also keep up your activity level by doing other sports. Skating, skiing, snowboarding and hockey will all keep your endurance up and give you some sort of workout!
3. Take Advantage of Open Gyms or Private Lessons
Just because you don’t have practice doesn’t mean you can’t go to the gym! If your gym is still open over the break, you may have access to open training or be able to book one-on-one lessons with your coach. This will give you the opportunity to work on individual skills like tumbling or jumps.
4. Focus on Foundations
Take time to practice simple drills and body positions required in tumbling and stunting skills. For example, do stomach-to-wall handstands since they apply to just about every skill.
Practicing upwards reaching is also very beneficial. Stand with your back against a wall, making sure that your heels, hips, lower back, shoulders and head are all touching the wall (this requires you to roll your hips under to push your lower back against the wall). While maintaining this position, raise your arms overhead and place them against the wall – it’s going to be difficult to keep your lower back flat as you do this, but try your best. Reach upwards through your shoulders as much as you can and hold for at least 20 seconds.
5. Use Mirrors for Motions
Winter break is a good time to make your motions perfect! You can hit high-Vs and do T-jumps all day long. Practicing in front of a mirror helps you monitor your positioning and identify where you can be sharper/cleaner.
6. Work on Body Awareness
Another way to keep your head in tumbling mode is to practice basic skills that don’t require too much space, yet still help with developing awareness. Back rolls and front rolls seem simple, but when done correctly and regularly for a prolonged period of time, they can greatly increase your awareness during backward and forward flipping skills. Imagine being able to feel what every single part of your body is doing at any given moment during a tuck? Rolls will help with that.
To further enhance your body awareness, stand or sit in random different positions (can be anything) and try to feel which specific muscles are working to hold you in that position. Start at your feet and work up, or start at your head and go down. Also, think about what your joints are doing – are they turned inward or outward? Do you feel a stretch anywhere? Do you have to work to stay balanced? Are any muscles getting tired? Be mindful of how your body is feeling and what it is doing.
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