You are flapping around the rig or rings and you wonder why you never make that muscle-up? If that sounds familiar then readon.
Strength matters
Chances are that you have skipped the assistance work that your coach told you to do after class or between classes. Like Coach Sommers said on a forum a long time ago. “The quickest way to get good at gymnastics is to get strong. Technique is easier”.
I don’t know if I completely agree but on the whole he is right.
Most people are just too weak.
For instance in the ring muscle-up males tend to be too weak and/or stiff close to the body in the bottom of the ring dip or in the transition. If you are good at “Perfect pull-ups” you are also going to be good at Butterfly Chest to bar pull-ups. It’s just mechanics.
The talk about that “I lose the rhythm” is nonsense. You are too weak to keep up the pace with yourself.
Technique matters
Strength will take you lengths, however you need to get efficient to get to the next level.
Think of technique as efficiency.
Imagine if a Strongman had weightlifting mobility and technique. They could snatch the world! That is the extreme though, but they do muscle-clean over 200kg so strength takes you far. But to get a 260+ Clean and Jerk you need skill or efficiency.
Same goes for gymnastics. You can have 10 strict pull-ups but only 12 kipping since you skipped the beat swing work. You need to master the basics.
I train basics almost every day in my warmups or… skill preparation if you so choose. You never get too good for basics.
Sequencing
Our recommendation is that you first address some strength issues and then some tech and so on.
You could choose a strict path or a kipping path but we believe that a longer progression by undulating strength and skill stimulates more things per month spent as a whole plus gives your head a well-needed variation plan.
Good luck!
