Training

Several people have asked me when gymnastics is over for the year.  My answer?... "It's never over."  It's true, gymnastics is one of the few sports that doesn't have an 'off-season.'  Here at Seattle Pacific University we receive one week off after our National Championships are over and that is considered our 'off-season'.   Competition season lasts from the middle of January through the middle of April.  So what do we do the other 9 months of the year?


Preseason:  September-December
Can you say 'CONDITIONING?!'  That's right, sometime around the middle of September the  gymnasts come back from their summers and kick off the year right with 'hell week'.  'Hell week' is dedicated to finding out who did their summer conditioning and see where gymnasts are strength-wise vs. where they need to be for competition season.  After hell week the rest of preseason is dedicated to building up strength so that gymnast's will have the strength and endurance to get through their competition routines.  Repetitively doing routines during season breaks down the body a lot so it is important that gymnasts build their muscles up so that they last through the three grueling months of season. Check out the Utah girls conditioning in the video that is posted on the sidebar.   The opening is about 30 seconds of them competing some awesome gymnastics (a yourchenko with a one and a half twist!) but what follows is the important part.  Many Universities have similar programs that include weight training and cardio circuits.


Season: mid-January to mid-April
Gymnasts put on their game face for this time of the year.  With competition's nearly every weekend it is a very taxing, but extremely fun and rewarding 3 months.  NCAA athletes have to work especially hard to balance their athletics with their education.  From personal experience during my sophomore season I missed 1/3 of my classes during our competition season.  That's probably the last time I'll ever try to take 18 credits while competing.  As far as traveling goes, personally I think that traveling is where teammates really get to know each other.  When your with the team for 4-5 straight days, eating, sleeping, flying, driving, competing, and living together you get some awesome bonding and usually some really funny stories.  A normal week during season looks like this:


Monday: At home training routines
Tuesday: At home training routines
Wednesday: At home training routines:
Thursday: Travel day
Friday: Compete
Saturday: Travel home
Sunday: Rest day


And then you do it all over again.  Week in, week out.  One of the amazing things about traveling is all of the amazing places that we get to see while we are in other states.  Below is a picture of a few of us on the travel team at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Spring Training: Mid-April to mid-June
This is an interesting segment of training.  In some ways it's dedicated to resting and repairing all of the little injuries that we got throughout the season but didn't have time to take care of.  It's also a time to strengthen our bodies which inevitably means more conditioning.  The vibe in the gym is much more relaxed during Spring Training.  The pressure of competition season is gone and we get to start upgrading skills!  


Summer Training: Mid-June- September
Some Universities required their girls to stay at school during the summer holidays in order to maximize their training.  Other schools, like the one I attend, send us home with specific instructions.  We are given a list of skills to train all summer with the expectation that we will have made progress on them by the time we return to school in September.  We are also given a list of conditioning that outlines what we are to do nearly everyday in reagards to strengthening our bodies.  (Gotta love all the conditioning we do!)  We are also expected to maintain all of the skills that we competed in the previous season.  Summer is bittersweet.  Although it's nice to go home and see our families it's weird training without the teammates that we have become so accustomed to being surrounded by.  


Why don't we have an off season?
It's important for us to maintain our mental and physical abilities year round.  If we were to take month long breaks we would constantly be relearning skills instead of building on the skills that we already have.