How to improve in gymnastic skills

1. Think small initially.
Reward the first signs of behavior that approximate what you want. Then reward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. In short, use your reward power to shape the behavior you seek.
2. Break skills into small steps.
Before performing an entire skill, a gymnast needs to understand how to do each step within the skill using correct form. For instance, in learning a proper back walkover, one of your gymnasts has good flexibility and completes the skill nicely, but she doesn’t keep her body tight and fully stretched at the end, which affects the ending of the skill and makes it difficult for her to stay on the beam. Reinforce the correct techniques of the back walkover, and teach her how to keep her muscles contracted throughout the entire skill and keep her arms tight against her ears at the end so that she stays on the beam. Once she masters this, shift the focus to getting her to finish in the proper lunge position while remaining on the beam.
3. Develop one component of a skill at a time.
Don’t try to shape two components of a skill at once. For example, in vaulting, gymnasts must learn to run and hurdle onto the board, rebound from the board, and perform a skill over the vault table. Gymnasts should focus first on one aspect (run and hurdle), then on another (rebound), and then on the remaining components of the skill. Gymnasts who have problems mastering a skill are often trying to improve two or more components at once. You should help these athletes isolate a single component.
4. Use reinforcement only occasionally, and only for the best examples.
By focusing only on the best examples, you will help athletes continue to improve once they’ve mastered the basics. Using only occasional reinforcement during practice allows athletes to have more active time instead of having to constantly stop and listen to your instructions. Gymnastics skills are best learned through a lot of repetition, such as drills and competitive activities, and you should make the best use of team practice time by allowing the athletes to have as much training time as possible.
5. Relax your reward standards.
As gymnasts learn a new skill or learn to combine two or more skills into one action, a temporary deterioration of previously learned skills may occur, and you may need to relax your expectations. For example, a gymnast who has learned how to perform a rebound straight jump off the vaulting board is now learning a jump to handstand (onto a raised mat surface). While learning the new skill and getting the rhythm down, the gymnast’s execution of all components may be poor. A similar degeneration of skills may occur during growth spurts while the coordination of muscles, tendons, and ligaments catches up to the growth of bones. As a coach, you need to remain patient as a gymnast is learning something new.