It’s not always about fun

Hi All,

Alright, so I read a lot of forums, and I try to talk to as many coaches as humanly possible, and one of the things that seems to come up the most is “how do I make conditioning (or similar things) fun?” Essentially, how do I make my kids want to do this. And I’ve written about this before, I’m a huge proponent of fun in the gym, keeping a good, positive environment etc. But I think I need to emphasize this. It’s not always about the fun. Sometimes it’s just about the work. Putting in the work, 110%, executed to the best of your gymnasts ability, and insisting on consistency in that day in and day out. Here are some videos of gymnasts putting in the work.

This first video is of a gymnast doing a spotted pike press handstand. Even your kids who can press by themselves may have a hard time doing pikes. It’s a great way to increase the intensity (and also change the muscles somewhat) of press handstands.

This second video is of gymnast doing what I think is actually a really awesome conditioning station. I have kids do plenty of holds like this against beams/walls etc. But this is the first time I’ve seen a handstand trainer used. Neat idea. By the way these are one of my favorite pieces of equipment.

// Handstand Trainer //

Train hard!

Photo Credit:
Heather Maynez

// Handstand Trainer //

3 Comments

  1. Nicole says:

    A little tooting my own conditioning horn: I try extremely hard to teach my gymnasts that while conditioning may not be fun, it is rewarding. I work to convince them that strength and hard work is incredibly praiseworthy and they should be proud of themselves. I didn’t know if it was working and then one day while they were waiting in line I turned around and they were conditioning. They were so proud of themselves for their impromptu conditioning and I was beyond excited that the message got through.

  2. […] “It’s not always about fun” by gymnastics coach Zari Goldmann […]

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