Feb ’26 Gymnastics Skill Work: Support Holds
by Coach Jackie
Why It’s Important:
Support holds are important because they require stability and control. We often want to jump straight into high-skill movements and skip over the foundation, but that would be a huge disservice. To do these fun skills, we need to make sure we set ourselves up for success. Not only that, we want to stay safe.
By training static holds, we increase our strength, control, and safety in whatever skill we are working on. You might see these as only transferring to push-ups, dips, or ring muscle-ups, but they carry over to much more than that. Gaining more control in your holds will benefit Olympic lifts, all gymnastics movements, and even daily life.
Just a key note to remember: anytime you’re doing a hold of any kind, don’t hold your breath. Focus on your breathing throughout!
Prescription:
- 1x per week: 3 sets of :20–:30 (straight through or accumulating)
Variations & Scales:
Focus on staying in a neutral plank position with your core engaged and actively pressing the floor away. Focus on your breathing and try not to let your hips drop too low or rise too high.
For this drill, we want to think about actively pressing down on the box, keeping your eyes forward, and making sure your shoulders, hips, and knees are in a straight line. The same goes for this drill with a toe spot. For the toe spot, just let your feet or toes touch the floor, but still make sure everything is in a nice straight line.
This drill is similar to the box support but more advanced because the rings are not static. They move, so it requires more stability. The focus should still be eyes forward, actively pressing down on the rings, and keeping everything stacked in a straight line. If needed, put your toes or feet on the floor and support as much as you need.
