by Janice Marie Ferguson
Photo by Carmen Rivera
Many of you (myself included) have goals to get better at or succeed at doing pullups, pistols, muscle ups, double unders, ring dips, handstand pushups, walks and holds. You know, all the hard stuff that requires a lot of practice! The Bandit coaches are doing the best we can in the gym to help you achieve these goals. We’re always looking for new progressions and methods to help each one of you.
If you aren’t getting these skills as soon as you would like, you must objectively consider what could be holding you back. One of the major stalling factors in achieving your goal is just simply not putting in the work consistently or often enough. I understand not all of you can get to the gym every time we are working on these skills. That is OK. You’re in luck! Most, if not all of these skills, are things you can practice at home. You can easily buy the things you need to get better at the glamorous, higher-skill work (rings, bands), or use your own jump rope, wall, or makeshift pullup rack. Be creative! You will notice that we program controlled skill/strength work on all these moves every week at least once per week. If you can’t make it to the gym for the work of that day, NO ONE is stopping you from doing the gymnastics or skill work on your own.
Doing the prescribed skill work on the specific skill of the day consistently, day-after-day, and week-after-week is the ONLY way you will master the strength and skill to achieve your goal.
Make it a habit on days you can’t come to the gym to AT LEAST try to get the skill work in. If you see double unders are part of the conditioning, dedicate 10 minutes of your day working on them, too.
Take responsibility for your own goals. If you set your mind to it, you can do anything you want. But, you have to remember, you can’t complain about the results you didn’t get from the work you didn’t do.
AKA: No one is going to give it to you. You have to TAKE IT!
I also highly suggest you refer to any of these FREE gymnastics and skills resources. If you feel like you want to do more than what you are doing in the gym, or just looking for something to do if you can’t make it, you can pull work from any of these to do on your own. Doing this work consistently will give you more long-term benefit than any extra weightlifting or conditioning:
Gymnastics WOD, by Carl Paoli: http://gymnasticswod.com/
Power and Grace Performance and Movement, by Mike Poppa: http://www.powerandgraceperformance.com/category/movement/
Outlaw Connectivity, by Kaitlin Hardy: http://theoutlawway.com/category/connectivity/
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