Gymnastics Speed Drills

Gymnastics speed drills are a great way to improve your floor routine. Speed is also thought of as agility where the key component is explosive power and braking. To build speed you also need to build power and agility. One of the benefits of speed drills is to increase your speed off the mark. This means you start speed. This is where you will see the most improvement and go into a jumps or turn with the power you need behind it. 

1. Preparing for Drills. Always take the time to warm up your muscles adequately with stretching and about ten to twenty minutes of cardio. A work ratio should be one to five. This could be five seconds of sprints or speed to 25 seconds of recovery. Find what works for you. You should aim for five sets of ten repetitions. Each sprint counts as one rep. You can choose which of these drills work for you and work in the natural movements you're use to in gymnastics.
2. Basic Sprints. Use your floor mat and sprint from one corner to the opposite corner, then walk back. This counts as one rep.
3. Up Hill Sprints
4. Keep your distance short (about ten to fifteen  meters) and run up hill at an incline of no more than 30 degrees. Work this into your fitness training outside the practice mat if you can. If you don't have a location to run uphill, consider using a resistance parachute instead.
5. Rolling Start. A rolling start is a slow start followed by a steady acceleration. Go back to the mat, jog for the first ten meters or so and then kick it into gear and sprint the rest of the way to the opposite corner. 
6. Cruise & Sprint. This is similar to a rolling start over a much further distance. Set a run course of 100 meters. Start with a job and slowly accelerate hitting your top speed at about 60 meters, then hold that speed for the last 40 meters.
7. Sprints Partner Training. Work with a trainer or partner and follow them as they walk, job, run and sprint at random times. Keep as close to your partner as possible. Not only does this drill help with speed, it also help with leg coordination and reaction time. 
8. Hollow Sprints. Set cones out in 30 meter sections. You can choose how many cones, five is recommended. Jog to the first cone, sprint to the next, jog to the third cone, sprint to the fourth and jog to the fifth cone. Walk back to the start and start again. This completes one rep. 

All of these gymnastics speed drills can help you increase your speed throughout the routine, off the mark at the start of your routine and give you more power into your moves. Work with these speed drills to enhance all of your fitness adventures and get more enjoyment from them.