Top 10 Basic Gymnastics Skills – Learn & Master Them Easily

Gymnastics is a popular sports in many countries, and for good reason. It is a versatile, challenging, and visually stunning sport. Many people, both young and old, want to learn the basic gymnastics exercises. Imagine how amazing it would be if you could do a split, a somersault, or a cartwheel!

In gymnastics, ballet, figure skating, and even handball, mastering the split is essential to executing certain movements correctly. Additionally, it is simply impressive to be able to perform a split or other gymnastics elements. In this article, you will learn about the top 10 basic gymnastics exercises. We will explain each exercise in detail and provide instructional videos to help you learn them efficiently.

The top 10 gymnastics exercises

Before diving into the specific exercises, here is an overview of the top 10 gymnastics elements:

Gymnastics as a Foundation

More and more research shows that strong motor skills are best developed through gymnastics. Ideally, children would start with toddler gymnastics before transitioning into boys’ or girls’ groups, ultimately building a solid foundation to master gymnastics exercises. Athletes with a gymnastics background often excel in various other sports as well.

Volleyball players with a gymnastics history have perfect timing. They know exactly when to push off the ground to execute the perfect attack. They are also fast and agile, allowing them to keep even the most challenging and rapid balls in play. Football players who have done gymnastics move smoothly and effortlessly across the field. Did you know that many top-level football clubs dedicate several hours a week to gymnastics training?

Gymnasts possess a high level of body control and coordination, making them well-rounded athletes in general. This is also one of the reasons why learning gymnastics skills is so popular. At Gymnastics Tools our mission is to introduce as many people as possible to this beautiful sport. We hope this article helps you take your first steps in learning moves like a handstand, a somersault, or a back handspring.

Warming Up

As with any sport, a good warm-up is also important in gymnastics. By warming up your body and stretching your muscles, you prevent annoying injuries during exercises. Many elements in gymnastics require a certain degree of flexibility. Therefore, it is very important to stretch your muscles well before starting your training. Tension in your body is also common in gymnastics elements. By maintaining pre-tension during, for example, a handstand, the exercise becomes much easier.

With the warm-ups below, you'll get warm in a fun way, stretch your muscles, and have already done some good tension exercises.

Handstand

Perhaps one of the most well-known gymnastics exercises in the world: the handstand! During a handstand, you see the world from a different perspective—flipped 180 degrees, to be exact. The starting position is standing upright with your arms raised. Then, take a big step forward, place your hands on the ground in a smooth motion, and kick your legs up one by one.

Practice this first against a wall or a mat if you're in the gym. To come out of the handstand, lower your legs one at a time back to the ground, bring your torso up, and finally stand completely upright again.

With these step-by-step instructional videos, you will learn how to master the handstand, making the rest of your gymnastics exercises much easier!

Cartwheel

We continue with the cartwheel. Just like with the handstand, it is important for this gymnastics exercise that you can support yourself well on your hands. Your elbows must remain fully extended throughout the entire movement.

Start the cartwheel standing upright with your arms raised. Take a big step forward and place your hands on the ground with a slight 1/4 inward turn relative to your body position. Swing your legs over your body in a vertical motion.

Next, place your feet back on the ground one after the other. Before your feet touch the ground, rotate your body another 1/4 turn. This ensures that you land facing the direction you came from. Bring your torso back up, and finally, you land upright again.

Below, you will find some instructional videos to help you learn the cartwheel, along with a detailed analysis of how the movement should look.

The most desired gymnastics move: the front tuck

Now, here’s one of the most desired gymnastics moves: the front tuck. Performing a front tuck gives such a freeing feeling that I wish everyone could master this movement. A front tuck is essentially just a forward roll, but in the air. To perform a front tuck, you first take a run-up, then jump with both feet onto a take-off surface. This could be a trampoline, a mini-tramp, a springboard, or a plank. Some people can even do a front tuck by taking off directly from the ground!

Next, you jump upwards, swinging your arms up with you. At the same time, you curl up as small as possible, keeping your chin on your chest. You rotate a full circle around your horizontal axis in the air. When the rotation is almost complete, you open your landing position (your legs) to prepare for the landing. You land back on your feet with your knees slightly bent. Your arms are out to the sides to help maintain balance. Check out the gymnastics exercises for the front tuck below!

Back Walkover

Another very popular gymnastics move, especially among the gymnasts. A back walkover requires a certain level of flexibility. It often takes a while to master a back walkover. It can be especially challenging if you have stiff shoulders, as this makes learning the back walkover more difficult. A back walkover is one of the gymnastics moves frequently performed on floor and beam by women and girls.

A back walkover begins standing upright with your arms raised. Then, you lift one leg up until it is horizontal. Next, you bend your upper body backward while pushing your hips forward. You place your hands behind you on the ground, and at the same time, your leg that was still on the ground lifts up as well. From a split handstand, you then return to a standing position on your feet, with your arms raised. Below are the gymnastics exercises for the back walkover!

A popular gymnastics move: the split

When you think of a gymnast, you think of the split. Most gymnasts who train at a reasonable level master this gymnastics move. In a split, your legs are spread 180 degrees, with one leg in front and the other behind you, as if sitting. The key word for mastering the split: stretching!

A split is an element that anyone can practice. A large number of people are also capable of learning the full split. Flexibility is partly inherited, but mostly something you can develop. Good news for those who would love to be able to do a split!

At Gymnastics Tools, we offer various flexibility programs, including a split program. In a maximum of 30 days, you will learn the split, with guaranteed improved flexibility by the end of the course. Below are two videos with gymnastics exercises from our course.

Straddle split

Another beautiful gymnastics move that requires a lot of flexibility to perform: the straddle split. In a straddle split, your legs are also spread 180 degrees while sitting. One leg is to the left of you, and the other leg is to the right. Stretching is again the key word here. Just like with the split, Gymnastics Tools has developed a program for practicing and learning the straddle split.

Round off

One of the most important gymnastics moves: the round off. The round off is very similar to the cartwheel. The starting position and the initial movement are the same, but in the round off, you land on both feet. You also need to actively push off the ground with both hands at the same time to return to an upright position.

Start the round off standing upright with your arms raised. Take a large step forward and place your hands on the ground with a 1/4 turn relative to your body position. Your legs swing vertically over you.

When they are vertical, close your legs. At that moment, actively push off the ground with your hands. Be sure to push from your shoulders, not by sinking through your arms. As you push off, bring your feet back towards the ground and straighten your upper body. You land on both feet next to each other, with your face and body facing the direction you came from.

Before learning the round off, I recommend getting the steps of the cartwheel mastered first. Check out this gymnastics exercise for learning the round off:

Back handspring, an exciting gymnastics move

In the back handspring, you perform a backward rotation around the horizontal axis of 360 degrees, similar to a back walkover. The difference between a back walkover and a back handspring is that in a back handspring, you make a jumping motion. The back handspring is done with much more speed than the back walkover.

Start standing upright with your arms raised. Bend your knees and bring your arms down along your body. Make sure to keep your torso upright.

Next, actively push off with your feet, swinging your arms back by your ears. While jumping, arch your body backward, pushing your hips diagonally upward. Then, place your hands on the ground and immediately push off again. Ensure that the push comes from your shoulders, and your arms should always stay straight.

Due to the speed and push-off, your upper body comes back up, and your legs move toward the ground. You land standing upright.

In these videos, you'll get a clear picture of what the back handspring looks like and which exercises you can do to learn it.

Pullover

This is one of the gymnastics moves performed on the horizontal bar or uneven bars.

Young children are often seen playing on a horizontal bar in the playground, swinging, hanging, and flipping. This is great because the motor skills practiced here are very important. For example, swinging helps with coordination and strength. The pullover appears in both men's and women's gymnastics. A pullover is essentially a backward rotation around the bar, starting from a standing position. The push-off can be done with one or two feet.

If you're strong enough, you can pull yourself up with control and then perform the pullover. You finish in a support position on the bar with your arms extended. In women's gymnastics, the exercise often starts with the pullover at lower levels. In these videos, we show you gymnastics exercises for learning the pullover.

Front handspring

We wrap up this top 10 with the front handspring—a gymnastics element that can be performed on the floor, vault, and balance beam. To successfully execute a front handspring, you must first master the handstand and be comfortable rotating over your head. A front handspring is often performed with a run-up. You start by running forward, then take a hurdle step, placing one foot behind the other while swinging your arms up by your ears.

Next, you place your hands far in front of you on the ground, side by side. At the same time, you quickly kick your legs one after the other into a handstand position. Your legs should be together before reaching the vertical position. Your hands touch the floor only briefly as you immediately push your body off the ground. Make sure to push from your shoulders while keeping your arms straight and tight.

The push-off, combined with the speed from your run-up and the active leg kick, helps you land back on your feet. You finish standing on both feet with your arms raised by your ears. In the gymnastics exercises below, we show you what a front handspring looks like and how to learn this skill step by step.

Learn more gymnastics exercises

Now that you are familiar with the top 10 basic gymnastics exercises, you can start practicing them. Of course, gymnastics includes many more advanced movements beyond these fundamentals.

Would you like to discover more exercises and tips? Visit our website to access our extensive library of over 3,000 instructional videos and a free trial month of our training platform.