Mastery

Without a doubt, there are a lot of tasks and things in this world that we do that are boring and mundane… but that are also good for us.

Whether it’s conditioning, flexibility or repetitive drills, these things all have incredible value that can lead to long-term success and payoffs with the gymnasts. While doing them just seem dull, repetitive and boring. It is being great at the boring and mundane that makes a gymnast successful.

Now a lot of things can be rewired to become inherently interesting to us and gymnasts – especially if the stakes and consequences change. But the fact remains, sometimes you just have to “do the work” when it comes to repetitive things.

There’s the common saying of “work hard, play hard”, my interpretation of the message behind that is to be consistent in your WORK. The strength, flexibility and basics that we use as a base for all the other skills.

The advanced level is just mastery of the basics.
Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini

Being exceptional with receptive drills and exercise will build an exceptional gymnast.

At every training camp there is always one gymnast who is super flashy and has a great skill or event. Every coach can’t wait to work with her. Then training starts and the gymnast has no basics. She is a one trick pony and one change in FIG code of points from having no usable skills.

The best gymnasts have a variety of skills derived from a variety of basics. The better their base the better they tend to be in competition because they can handle the pressure, they can make adjustments.

A gymnast and coach must become a master of the mundane.
Sure, doing a double back is important but without huge repetitions of good hurdle, roundoff and back handspring will they be consistent enough in their double back to be able to advance to more difficult skills?

A coach must realize that the boring and mundane is often the most important. As a coach there is not a lot of FUN or CREATIVITY in conditioning or flexibility. Spotting thousands or cast handstands, press handstands or clear hip circles is difficult and physically challenging for some. If you are not going to pay attention to these things and be willing to work hard you have severely limited their future.

Boring success is better than exciting failure
Bob Hurley

If you need further convincing, look at strength, flexibility and basics like building a house. You wouldn’t shingle the roof before you lay the foundation. In the gym, you can’t get ahead of yourself. You must have a clear plan of what you are doing, what comes next, AND WHY. Before you can start adding a a bunch of skills to a routine you must lay the foundation.

Embrace the boring
Embrace the tedious
Embrace the repetition

Mastering the mundane separates the good from the great

One of my favorite Blogs is Functional Path Training by Vern Gambetta. This post was largely taken from one he wrote.

If you don’t get the basics right then everything that follows will be compromised.

In my experience the difference between good and great gymnasts tends to be that that the great ones always pay attention to the basics and have flawless mastery of the basics. They never stray far from the fundamentals; in fact no matter where they are in their career they touch the basics everyday.

Sure it is mundane, some have called it boring, but to be the best requires mastery of the basics. Advanced skill and technique is built upon sound fundamentals. The most basic of the basics are fundamental movement skills – pull, push, squat, bend, extend, rotate, reach, step, leap, starting, stopping, jump etc. It may not be as exciting as trying to master a double back but it will serve you well in the short and long run. The great John Wooden felt that most mistakes under pressure in games was caused by weaknesses in fundamental basketball skills. Each day in each of his practices a significant amount of time was devoted to proper execution of fundamentals. You will NEVER really Rise to the occasion. You will sink to the level of training which you have mastered.

A base of fundamentals is the foundation for more complex skills and creativity in movement. Keep it simple, link and connect basic movements to achieve advanced skill and training. If you don’t know the alphabet you can’t spell a word, if you can’t spell you can’t write sentences, if you can’t write sentences then you can’t compose paragraphs or write an essay much less write the great American novel. Master the movement ABC’s and go higher faster and stronger.