Gymnastic Moves

If you want to master gymnastic moves, whether they are moves that beginners are trying out or moves that professionals have perfected, it is absolutely essential that you have the training and practice. Gymnastics isn’t like some other sports, where you still might have a chance at success without training and practice.

Someone that is fast can go out for track and win races without ever practicing. Someone who has shot basketballs his whole life but has taken a year off still might have a chance at shooting well. Someone who has never played football and is put in as a kick returner still might return a kick for a touchdown. But someone that has never practiced techniques in gymnastics will not be able to do much. It’s just not a realistic possibility.

The best thing about practicing and training for gymnastics is that it also helps you in so many areas outside of gymnastics. The most beneficial thing is that your overall fitness will greatly improve. For example, if you’re in school and you’re going to take a physical fitness test after training in gymnastics, you’re most likely going to do very well, better than the majority of your classmates.

Training for gymnastics will improve your strength, flexibility, agility, and most impressively, your overall control and body awareness. Not only will your athletic ability improve, but so will your overall confidence. Another factor is safety. You might be able to avoid certain dangerous situations or help others out when an emergency arises.

If you’re looking to get into gymnastics and want to know what moves a beginner should work on, here is a short list: forward roll, backward roll, parallel bars, balance beam, vault, floor exercises, tumbling exercises, bridge progression to back walkover, cartwheel, front walkover, handstand, hollow body hold, as well as many more, some of which will be covered below.

Those who are at a professional level might be trying to perfect such amazing moves as the 1.5 twisting kovacs, the triple twisting double back flip on the floor, the full twisting triple back flip off the high bar, the triple back flip from the parallel bars, or the tkachever salto. Unless you are supremely experienced, you shouldn’t even dream about attempting any of these. Come to think of it, you probably shouldn’t even be reading about them.

We covered some gymnastic moves for beginners and professionals, but how about the most common moves overall. We will cover a bunch of them here.

The first one is an aerial. This means that you are performing a move without your hands touching the floor. A handstand is when you stand on your hands while your arms are straight and your body is vertical to the ground. A tuck is when your knees are brought into your chest during any move.

A front handspring is when you flip onto your hands and your legs follow. A back handspring is when you flip backward onto your hands and your legs follow. A cartwheel is when you place your hands sideways on the floor and propel your body and follow with your legs one at a time. A front walkover is when you kick your legs over from a handstand position and bring your chest up. A back walkover is when you kick your legs over your head from a backbend or bridge position on a balance beam.

A salto is a somersault. A forward somersault is when you roll forward with your knees tucked in. A backward somersault is when you roll backward with your knees tucked in. A roundoff is like a cartwheel but includes a half twist. A pike is when your body is bent and knees are straight during any move. A split is when you have one leg forward and one leg back while on the floor. A straddle is when your legs are extended in opposite directions.

The above is just a short list to give you an idea of what kind of moves are being done by what level of gymnasts out there. Like anything else, the key is to start at the beginning and work your way up, one move at a time.