Different skills. Different apparatus. Purposeful training every class.
Gymnastics Lab is a flexible, coach-led training class designed around the athletes who are in the room, what they are currently working toward, and what they need most to continue progressing.
Rather than having every athlete perform the exact same exercise at the same time, athletes may work with partners or in small groups and rotate through different training stations. Each station can be adjusted based on the athlete’s level, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and current skill development.
One athlete may be working on a tumbling progression while another is developing the strength required for a skill. Another group may be using trampoline, working on handstands, improving flexibility, training on an apparatus, or refining the technique of a skill they already perform.
The goal is not simply to keep athletes busy at different stations. Every exercise should have a reason behind it.
Training that changes with the athlete
For athletes involved in cheerleading, dance, gymnastics, and other performance-based sports, training needs change throughout the year.
During choreography and routine-building season, athletes are often introduced to skills that they are expected to perform before they fully understand or physically possess everything required to execute them well. Gymnastics Lab gives us time to break those movements down, analyze what is required, identify missing pieces, and build the appropriate progressions.
During off-season or breaks between competition seasons, the class can be used to increase training, strengthen fundamentals, address weaknesses, develop new skills, and build confidence before those skills are needed under pressure.
During competition season, training can shift toward consistency, technique, maintenance, refinement, and helping athletes prepare to perform their skills reliably when it matters.
During tryout season, athletes can begin bringing together the strength, flexibility, technique, body control, and skills they have developed throughout the year and learn how those pieces can move them toward the next level.
What might we work on?
Training can include:
Tumbling and floor skills
Trampoline
Bars, beam, and other apparatus work
Handstands
Jumping and vault progressions
Strength and conditioning
Flexibility and mobility
Balance and coordination
Body control and alignment
Skill breakdown and movement analysis
Progressions toward new skills
Technique refinement
Consistency and confidence training
The focus may change from class to class because the athletes’ needs change.
This is not an open gym. Athletes are not simply choosing what they feel like doing. Training is organized and coach-directed, with exercises and stations selected to help each athlete move toward a specific goal.
Some athletes may spend the hour working toward one major skill. Others may need several different pieces — strength at one station, flexibility at another, technique work somewhere else, and then an opportunity to put everything together.
That ability to adapt is what makes Gymnastics Lab different.
Every athlete has different needs. Every season creates different demands. Every station has a purpose.
