My name is Peter Wraae Marino, and I have been teaching gymnastics for more than 25 years. I am often asked what the most important skill a gymnast should master. I always answer "The handstand." Sooner or later, you will be doing a handstand in just about every event. Many other skills, such as handsprings and cartwheels, contain a hidden handstand. Mastering the handstand will certainly make learning other skills easier and will help to reduce the learning curve. This handbook contains basic handstand exercises, all of which can be done at home or the gym. The exercises are written in order...

Balance is often a frequently overlooked skill. Some people think balance is something only women should work on because it is required on the balance beam. Nothing could be further from the truth. Balance is a skill that all gymnasts should work on. A tumbler needs balance when landing and executing certain skills; a trampoline jumper needs balance each time he or she lands and takes off on the trampoline. There is not a single gymnastic sport that does not require balance in some form. This book is a great starting place to get an understanding of the basic types of balance a gymnast should...

This book is a great starting place to gain an understanding of how to perform cartwheels. This book is designed for use in the gym or at home, and for coaches, parents, and gymnasts.

Topics in this book include exercises for beginners. If you can already perform do a cartwheel but have certain problems executing it, this book will help you with exercises focusing on specific aspects of the cartwheel.

Lets begin your journey into learning about cartwheels and the basic skills required to execute them.

This book is a great starting place to gain an understanding of how to perform a headstand. It is designed for use in the gym or at home, and for coaches, parents, and gymnasts.

The headstand is one of the easier gymnastics skills that you can learn. There are no skills to master before starting learning to do a headstand. The exercises in this book are ordered so you steadily progress toward doing a freestanding headstand.

Lets begin your journey into learning about headstands and the basic skills required to execute them.

This book is a great starting place to gain an understanding of how to perform splits. It is designed for use in the gym or at home, and for coaches, parents, and gymnasts.
Splits are all about flexibility, and it takes a great deal of training to become flexible enough to execute them. This flexibility is achieved by doing different types of stretches that focus on the hamstrings, quadriceps, thighs, and hip flexors. Your warm-up will include a lot of stretching exercises that will help you become flexible enough to execute splits.
Splits are used not only in gymnastics but also in dancing,...

Every coach you ever talk with will tell you that it is essential to have the basic gymnastic skills mastered before attempting more advanced skills, like back handsprings, somersaults, whip-backs or twisting. This book is a checklist of 260 fundamental gymnastic skills that all gymnasts should be able to perform. Each skill in this book has been analytically divided into relevant mastery parts. This approach allows you to grade each part of each skill, so you will know exactly which part of the skill you need to work on. All the skills in this book can be done at home or at the gym.

This book is a great starting point for improving your shoulder flexibility. It is designed for use in the gym or at home, and for coaches, parents, and gymnasts.

Shoulder flexibility is important for many different skills, such as walkovers, handstands, bridges, front handsprings and back handsprings. Having good shoulder flexibility will allow you to execute these skills with ease, while bad shoulder flexibility will usually make the skills more difficult to learn. In many cases, the lack of shoulder flexibility results in incorrect technique.

The lack of shoulder flexibility becomes very...

This book is a great starting place to for gaining an understanding of how to perform a back walkover. It is designed for use in the gym or at home, by coaches, parents, and gymnasts.

The back walkover is a basic gymnastics skill that will ease your transition to more difficult skills, such as the back handspring. The back walkover might look difficult, but if you have good shoulder and hip flexibility and can hold yourself in a handstand using a wall then you are already 90% done. The last 10% is learning the technique needed to perform the walkover. With that said, this book will also...

This handbook contains the essential tumbling skills that all level 1-5 gymnasts should master. Each level contains a set of conditioning routines, mastery skills for each session and skills for each level. This is a book that all coaches, teachers and parents should have.

Use this report card to keep track of which skills you have mastered and which skills you need to improve or start working on. Each skill is rated with three stars. Let your coach fill out the stars as you improve and master each skill.