Physical Philosophy Seminar

This seminar will be the most open of the three as far as content goes, and also probably the most friendly towards complete beginners. The idea here is not to focus as much on the technical aspects of the skills, but rather on how to develop the physical attributes that make the acrobatic skills possible. In addition, we will discuss some theory on overall physical health, injury prevention, recovery, and different training perspectives.

This event is open to anyone, as all topics can be scaled accordingly for all levels

Flexibility/Mobility:
-The different kinds of flexibility along with their benefits and drawbacks
-Techniques and progressions to develop the following positions: full squat, back bridge, pike, pancake, and splits in 3 directions
-Flexibility work for specific joints such as shoulders, chest, ankles, wrists, etc.
-The mental process required to get more loose; it’s about a lot more than stretching the muscle
-Roles of tension and relaxation
-Using flexibility training to also build strength and resistance in end range of motion
-How to practice or teach differently for hypermobile and hypomobile students
 

Strength:
-Basic Upper body support and pushing progressions
-Basic Upper body hanging and pulling progressions
-Straight arm versus bent arm movements
-Using decreased leverage to increase difficulty: planches and levers
-Conditioning for press handstands: where does flexibility come into play?
-Strength work on the gymnastics rings
-Rope Climbs
-Bodyweight Leg strength: progressions towards one leg squats and beyond
-Theory on maintaining flexibility while building strength
-Theory on strength versus technique when it comes to movement
-Building resilience in the joints to be able to handle force

Coordination:
-Progressions and variations on basic plyometrics; Jumping and landing as well as learning how to dissipate force
-Progressions on breakfalls; very important for injury prevention
-Rolling on the floor from several different perspectives: gymnastics, martial arts, parkour, and dance
-Progressions and variations on cartwheels
-I believe that rolls and cartwheels are useful for anyone to learn, acrobat or not

Recovery Work:
-Soft tissue release techniques for different areas of the body, plus the importance of releasing accumulated tension in the musculature
-Recovering from injuries
-How to structure a “recovery” training session and when to use them
-Balancing out “hard” and “soft” training
-Learning how to undo the damage done from training, sitting, etc.

Additional notes:
There is no way we can cover all of the above information in only a weekend, especially if we go into any real detail on a specific topic. Ultimately the curriculum will be decided by the group and the facility and equipment we have access to.

Required Equipment for this seminar:
The minimum as always is just floor space, however I like to also have: rings, rubber bands, mats, stall bars, rope, pull-up bars, dowel rods, lacrosse/massage balls, massage rollers, etc. The more equipment we have, the more options it gives us on where we can go with the seminar.
In the case of single loop rubber bands, if the gym or participants are interested I have the option to bring some for purchase, but I need to know ahead of time.