It’s all too easy to have slightly incorrect form or posture when doing gymnastics skills that can very quickly turn into bad form and a bad habit. It happens to everyone – both lower and higher level gymnasts. We are going to address some of the most common form/posture bad habits in this post so you can be more aware of what to look for in your own form and correct the mistakes before they become bad habits.

Our SkillTrakker program works on many of these bad habits throughout our monthly challenges (and we are extra focused on it this month for our Habits that Stick Challenge)so if you’d like extra help with this, make sure to check it out!

Also be sure to check out our 9 Basic Gymnastics Skills You Should Master post too!

1. Head posture in handstand

We see it often – a nice vertical handstand with the gymnast’s head sticking out. Instead, your head should be tucked in with your eyes looking at your hands. Fix this little bad habit and your handstand will be golden, especially if you’ve already got a nice vertical handstand with pushing up through your shoulders.

2. Practicing good leg splits only

It’s oh so easy to only practice the split that you’re best at. Instead, you should be making sure to practice ALL of your splits, so your bad leg and middle splits can get better. When you do split jumps your legs need to be evenly split, and you will only be able to do this if you have close to equal flexibility on both sides.

3. Pointing your toes only

Ahh – the toe point. Yes, your toes should be pointed, but you shouldn’t be ONLY pointing your toes. Instead of focusing on pointing your toes, you should focus on pointing your entire foot, from your ankle all of the way down to your toes. Point your foot, not your toes.

4. Standing on flat feet

A big bad habit that we often see is when gymnasts stand on the beam with flat feet. Instead, you pretty much always want to be standing in high relevé. Judges are definitely looking at this so this is a really important one that can help clean up your scores a lot.

5. Turning foot out in leaps/jumps

This one often times is due to lack of flexibility in your hips. It’s important to correct, which can be done by stretching, strengthening and drills to improve your hip flexibility so your foot doesn’t turn out (back leg) when leaping and doing split jumps.

6. Bent arms and legs

I’m sure you’ve been told a time or two to straighten up your arms or legs or keep them nice and tight. It’s a little bad habit that you should correct as soon as possible as it will lead to deductions. It’s really a little thing that can make a notable difference. Tight, straight arms and legs!

7. Crossing your legs when twisting

It’s very easy when you’re learning to twist to want to cross your legs. Instead, you want to make sure they’re nice and tightly together with your feet pointed.

We hope you’ve found these helpful and if you’re doing any of these bad habits, now is a great time to really focus on breaking them! You’ve got this!

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