How Gymnasts Train: Drills and Progressions for Every Skill
Gymnasts learn skills in small steps: a shape or drill first, then the skill with a coach's help, then on their own. Strength, flexibility and body care run alongside, planned around the skills being learned.
This page sorts every Gymnast Gem training guide by event and goal, from a first handstand at the wall to strength holds on rings. Each card gives the short answer and the guides to read next. The guides explain what is happening; new skills, and anything upside down, are learned with a qualified coach. To recognize skills rather than learn them, see our gymnastics skills by event, and for step drawings of the first moves, our gymnastics moves library.
Find a training guide
Choose an area and a topic for a quick answer and the guides to read next.
Each card gives the short answer and links to the guides that explain it in full.
Handstands
Handstands
Learning a handstand
A handstand is a balance upside down on straight arms, with the body in one straight line from the hands to the toes. Learners start at a wall, facing it, and learn a safe way down before kicking up with their back to it.
The kick-up, wall walk, press and jump all finish in the same straight handstand. Most beginners start with the wall walk and the kick-up; presses usually come last because they need the most strength.
Both are in the first USA Gymnastics level. A forward roll tucks the chin so the back of the head and the shoulders meet the mat, never the top of the head; a cartwheel turns sideways through a handstand, hand, hand, foot, foot.
Forward roll
Chin tucked, roll over the back of the head and shoulders
CartwheelThe steps, drills and what judges look for
Floor and tumbling
Bridge and walkovers
A bridge is an arch supported on the hands and feet, pushed up from lying on a mat. Walkovers pass through a split handstand without a jump: backward from standing in a back walkover, forward in a front walkover.
Bridge
Hands by the ears, push up through hands and feet
Walkover
Through a split handstand, with no flight
USAG Level 4
A back walkover on floor
The bridgeHand and foot setup, and a controlled push-up
A back handspring jumps backward onto the hands and pushes back to the feet in one continuous movement. Flips, or saltos, turn through the air with no hand support, and full attempts belong in a properly equipped gym with a qualified coach.
Practicing the tuck shape builds body awareness and control before it is combined with harder movement. Being comfortable in a tuck is a different task from a tucked flip.
In USA Gymnastics, Levels 1–5 learn a set compulsory routine, while optional levels and Xcel have routines built for the gymnast. Learn an assigned routine in short sections with music cues; a new routine starts from the gymnast's approved skills and requirements.
You can start tumbling as an adult without a handstand, cartwheel or flip. Look for a class that welcomes complete beginners, and build control through basic positions, weight transfers and landings.
Beginners practice walks, balances, small jumps and simple turns on a line on the floor, then on a floor or low beam, and move higher only when the coach says a skill is ready. Some wobbling is normal: balancing is a series of small corrections.
Readiness belongs to a particular skill and setup, not just a height. A walkover or handstand on beam uses the floor technique but has to stay on a narrow line, so it gets its own preparation.
Poses, balances and credited elements are different things, and no single list of poses earns credit in every program. The arabesque, a balance on one straight leg with the other lifted behind, appears from the first levels.
Beginner bar lessons teach children to hang, support their weight, swing and move around the rail with control. The coach chooses the bar height, mats and help, and the first named skills are the pullover and the hip circles.
A mill circle travels forward around the bar in stride support, one leg on each side. The glide kip takes a gymnast from a swing under the low bar to support above it; joining the glide, fold and rise without losing the swing is the hard part.
Hang the rings from a secure anchor at a low height and learn a steady hang, a ring row and a support hold first, with the feet able to help. Each ring moves on its own, so control comes before harder versions.
Skin the cat passes from a hang, feet through the arms, into a German hang and back, and is learned with a coach a little further at a time. Levers hold the body straight and horizontal under the rings: face up in a front lever, face down in a back lever.
These are advanced skills built over years of coached rings training, in stages, with help that is reduced slowly. In men's elite gymnastics, a hold counts only if it lasts at least 2 seconds.
In a double-leg circle the legs stay together; in a flair they straddle and alternate. Turns such as spindles and Russians have to fit into the ongoing swing rather than stop it.
Conditioning is the strength, power, endurance and flexibility work that prepares the body for skills. Most of it uses body weight and is planned by the coach around the skills being learned; many programs add weights for older and higher-level gymnasts.
Main exercises
Hollow holds, push-ups, pull-ups, leg lifts, squats and jumps
Weights
Supported for young athletes when well planned and supervised
Core work teaches you to keep the shape you intended while the arms and legs move. Shoulders have to support, hang and press overhead, and straight-arm strength means producing force with the elbows extended.
Home practice works best as a small extension of class: body shapes, an approved balance or a coach's cue. New skills, backbends and anything upside down need a gym, mats and a coach.
Gymnasts need flexibility for split leaps, bridges, an open shoulder in a handstand and tight pike and straddle shapes. Splits come from stretching a little at a time on most days after a warm-up, stopping at a feeling of stretch rather than pain.
A higher leg hold needs the strength to keep the leg up, not only the range to reach it. Yoga can complement flexibility training, and a warm-up prepares the body for the practice ahead.
Preparation builds comfortable movement, strength and a gradual increase in load, but it cannot guarantee pain-free training. Repeated wrist pain in a growing gymnast, a recent sprain or foot pain beyond the skin needs assessment first.
Wrists
Increase the load gradually
Ankle tape
Adds support; it cannot make landings safe
Feet
Check the skin before and after practice
Wrist strengthPreparation, loading and when pain needs attention
Ankle exercisesSeven ways to train mobility, strength and control
The twisties describe losing your usual sense of orientation during familiar airborne skills. Stop the affected skills and tell the coach; the way back is individual, with no set schedule.
Spotting is a coach's hands-on help while a gymnast learns a skill. It reduces risk but does not remove it, coaches spot less as the gymnast gains control, and flips, handsprings and bar skills should not be spotted at home. For coaches, a recreational curriculum gives classes a consistent routine and a cycle of themes.
Gymnasts change a movement's difficulty through body shape, support and timing: tucking speeds up a rotation, and extending into a lever makes a hold harder. Balance is an active skill, not a gift of a particular body type.
Podium training is a scheduled practice on the competition apparatus, in the arena, before a major meet begins. It is a working session, not a performance.
Skill practice on each event, plus conditioning for strength and power, flexibility work and rest. Most conditioning uses body weight and is planned by the coach around the skills the gymnast is learning; many programs add weights for older and higher-level gymnasts. Our guide to gymnastics conditioning shows how a training week fits together.
How can I get better at gymnastics?
Practice the version of a skill you can control, one step at a time, and let the coach choose the next step. Build the strength and flexibility that skill needs, and judge progress by the quality of the movement rather than by trying harder skills sooner.
Can you learn gymnastics at home?
Home practice works best as a small extension of class: body shapes, an approved balance or a coach's cue. New skills, backbends and anything upside down need a gym, proper matting and a coach. Our guide to gymnastics at home for beginners covers what to practice between classes.
What should a beginner learn first?
Body shapes, rolls and the cartwheel on floor, walks and balances on a low beam, and hangs and support on bars. In USA Gymnastics, the Level 1 routines include a forward roll, a cartwheel, a back hip pullover and a back hip circle. Our guide for parents of beginners covers classes, clothing and the first year.
Final Takeaway
Gymnastics training works in small steps: a shape or drill first, then the skill with a coach's help, then on its own. Each area has its own starting point, from a handstand at the wall and a forward roll to a hang on low rings.
Strength, flexibility and body care support those skills rather than replace them, and the coach decides when each next step is ready.