If your gymnast consistently lets their knees fall in front of their feet on drive back then try this little prep. The gymnast has to push backwards and wait for the right timing before they flick instantly helping cure the fault
What you're trying to eliminate is a backhandspring that initiates from this flawed position:
10-10-2012
To avoid this undesirable "knees-buckled-foward"-starting position, it requires a stronger turnover in the round off.
If the gymnast can land feet in front of the hips and punch through into the back handspring (as opposed to bending the knees and jumping), the gymnast is already landing off-balanced and will have a naturally long backhandspring. Most gymnasts who haven't mastered this part of a round-off backhandspring, however, land short; and rather than pull their bodies to lean off balance before jumping, try to jump right away, as well as arch way, way too hard- the results of which are an ugly, high backhandspring.
With sufficient power, not much arch is necessary at all.
When first learning giants, it's not uncommon for them to come and go.
A week ago Alaina was on a similar track with Erin (who successfully competed bars this weekend!) in going kip cast into giants, with taps that were sometimes almost decent. :-)
Yesterday, her taps were not there; hope she is able to study these clips and note the early arch and the early, shallow kick she is doing through the bottom.
Kira is always falling down. Moreso than Reanna (and I'm pretty sure that half the time she is doing it on purpose). Here she is yesterday falling on accident:
Anytime I start second-guessing whether or not I should be a gymnastics coach or why I didn't seize upon any number of alternate career paths over the years, just show this card to me.
Lia is someone who I don't think I ever really taught, but have been familiar with for the last 2 years. Until recently, she all but would ignore me whenever I said "hi" or anything. She'd just turn away from me and would shut down.
2 weeks ago, I had the pleasure of leading her birthday party at her request. Coach Robyn put the idea into her head of paper airplaines off the balcony. So 2 Saturdays ago, I folded 42 paper gliders before Saturday morning practice and after it. I also set the precedent of utilizing the bungee.
My birthday material was rather rusty as I never sign up for parties at BGS and am not completely familiar with their regular format; but I had a great time.
So today Lia tapped me on the shoulder and handed me this card. She even waved back to me when I waved to her in passing (*gasp*); and allowed me to take a moment to sit beside her and put my arm around her to thank her for the awesome, thoughtful card.
I missed out on filming an amazing bar rally- all the 9s and 10s hit their routines and were cheering so loudly, Manzanet couldn't coach his girls on the other set of bars.
Final rotation was vault. I thought I'd post this up in the event that any of these girls get a chance of studying their execution for the sake of improvement this weekend.
Wednesday, she made two routines in a row (then it sorta went downhill from there- but we won't dwell on that!).
This was her first one:
I'm also excited about her potential on vault.
I've been experimenting with having the board in closer for all the girls, to encourage stronger blocking. Erin has been having trouble hitting the board in the right spot; but when she does, and comes in at angle (I tell the girls to collide into the table and not skim across it), the result is something like this:
(Good usage of the slo-mo effect, Cam!)
Obviously, her body shape is out of alignment and that kind of segmentation affects the block; also, in my personal, non-professional judge's critique, she scoops into a slight hollow instead of staying open and extended (with eyes spotting the table longer). I want her to make her body stretch as long as possible and not shorten off the table. Straight body or stretched position- not hollow and not arched off the table.
Some coaches seem to want their gymnasts to hollow off the table. But I think it short circuits the follow through on the block.
Kort plans to let Erin warm-up bars at this weekend's meet in Vegas and play it close to the vest. If she's ready she's ready; if she's not, she's not. Safety is the number one concern and if she looks safe, she'll probably compete all 4 events.
I mentioned it to the girls tonight, and most did not know what I was referring to. We sooo have to jump on the bandwagon now while it's hot. The following videos are at most 4 days old. In two weeks or so, it'll be old news and the fad will be worn out.
a new Internet meme has usurped that once-ubiquitous horse-gallop dance.
It’s called the “Harlem Shake.”
For the uninitiated, it consists of
users uploading videos to YouTube that last about thirty seconds in
length and feature the opening of electronic music producer Baauer’s
song “Harlem Shake.” The videos begin with the song’s sample of a man
giving a shrieking siren call of “Con los terroristas!”—Columbian
Spanish for “with the terrorists”—followed by one person, usually in a
ridiculous mask or helmet, dancing to the song alone as the beat builds.
He or she is surrounded by others who are stationary, blissfully
unaware of the dancer. When the directive, Then do the Harlem shake
is uttered about 15 seconds in, the bass drops and the video
metastasizes into pure chaos—the entire coterie engaging in paroxysms of
dance for the next 15 seconds in outrageous outfits, and wielding
bizarre props.
Thefirst video was uploaded to YouTube by amateur comedian Filthy Frank on February 2.
As of February 15, over 40,000 “Harlem Shake” videos have been uploaded
to YouTube, totaling over 175 million views. The cast of theTODAY show, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, this year’sSports Illustratedswimsuit models, and even a battalionof the Norwegian Army have gotten in on the act.
Last Saturday was her birthday; and Sunday was the party celebration.
Caitlin was brought to my attention a couple of years ago (3 years?) when DJ recommended her for Perfect 10s (she's now in Shooting Stars). It was a Monday class of 3, and my favorite group to work with. Caitlin was a bit wide-eyed unfocused that first day; and what charmed me was her constant smiling and good-nature. She caught on quickly, though, to the structured nature of the team developmental class (and I owe credit to her two teammates who set the example and the expected standard- Caitlin really paid attention to how they behaved and mimicked them).
Unfortunately, Kort took me off of team developmental shortly after, and I believe I only taught Caitlin for one session. But I made it a point to always dot upon her each week and say hi to her, so that she wouldn't forget me.
I was thrilled to work her birthday party last year; and I was delighted and honored to be requested by her again this year.
Coach Christine works with her in Shooting Stars and remarks about how physically strong she is and how she is maturing.
Like her teammate Lia last weekend, yesterday's birthday queen got to enjoy the bungee thrill ride, exclusive only to birthday girls who happen to request yours truly to work their respective parties:
I passed my camera over to Coach Robyn but did not have time to
school her in how to use the slo-mo feature (slow motion would have been
awesome!).
Caitlin did a pull over/back flip as soon as I turned my back on her!
Interesting side tidbit is that her dad Keith is pretty sure he and I lived in Sproul around the same time, saying I looked familiar.
Claire has been doing RO BH BTs for a long time now. But within recent weeks, she had hurt her shoulder bailing from a tumbling pass. And then it happened again and has really messed with her head.
Confronting shaken confidence and fear issues is not uncommon in the sport.
One of Claire's trademark virtures that has gotten her through so much of her gymnastics has been her belief in herself and willingness to try. From what I remembered, the first time she tried doing a layout salto, she pretty much did it, because no one told her it wasn't possible to do it on her first attempts. She did not hold herself back from self-imposed, preconceived notions of failure.
So today we did a workshop to restore her confidence. I have not been on floor much to work with her in recent weeks and did not realize how badly she has been in this rut of balking. At first I was focusing on technique issues (her roundoff, throwing her head back in her salto, etc.); but then realized she just needed help on the mental block she created for herself.
After tumbling on the tumbletrak and into the resi pit, she tried bringing it out onto the floor, but just could not stop her brain from second-guessing herself. So finally, I had her go to the wall of quotes and read one of my favorite stories (credit to Karine's mom on FB):
If you put fleas in a shallow container They jump out. But if you put a lid on the container For just a short time, They hit the lid trying to escape and learn quickly Not to jump so high. They give up their quest for freedom. After the lid is removed, the fleas remain imprisoned by Their own self-policing. So it is with life. Most of us let our own fears or the imposition of others Imprison us in a world of low expectations -Andrew Hsu
So proud of Claire for removing the imaginary lid that she had imposed upon herself. And so thrilled to see her excited again!
When Emma's mom came to pick her up today, she wanted to see her daughter land her front handspring front tuck. Emma kept crashing it. She had successful ones earlier.
So I pulled out my camera and threatened her with the following:
My words at the beginning got cut off; but essentially what I said to her was that I was going to film her next one; and if it didn't look good, I was going to post it up on YouTube and tag it with every conceivable word so as to show up in search engines. [/bluff]
Since she landed this one successfully, this YouTube video remains unlisted, available only on this blog. (^_~)
The 7/8s were on vault Saturday, and I reintroduced a shaping drill for board takeoff. It's to encourage rotation, and somewhat specific for vault entry. The girls worked tsuk and Yurchenko timers and DeShaz worked on a handspring full, to increase her level 8 start value. At this stage in the season, the likelihood of getting a yurchenko safely is unlikely; but a handspring full might be possible.
So as a side return station, the girls were doing the shaping drill onto a resi and doing a one-arm drop twisting drill. Here's a version of the drill we once did, over 2 yrs ago, inclining the mat to encourage direction of turn:
DeShaz also tried the handspring full over the resi pit, using a springboard to block off of with her hands. You're supposed to block, drop one arm to turn.
So what I'm hoping (and I'll probably have to clarify this to the girls) is that the girls aren't confused by what they were trying to do as a vaulting drill and what Christopher wanted them to do for a tumbling drill (for baranis/front layout twisting).
His emphasis was on having a tall takeoff and pressing the arms down as you straighten out in order to twist.
Making it higher to encourage standing up for more lift:
Shaggy run?!
The vaulting takeoff drill without the one-arm twisting involves arms staying up by the ears (since they make contact with the hands on the table) and staying in a hollow whether they land on the hands (as opposed to straightening out and landing flatback, like level 4) or bounce high enough to miss the hands and rotate all the way over.
The one-arm drop technique involves straightening out for turning/twisting, and is used simply to get the girls used to turning (and is used for a handspring full). For actual front twisting, both arms pressing down by the sides is preferable (unless wrapping for multiple twisting).
Kort's new motivation: Picking the hardest worker on each rotation for each of the optional groups, every day. Then whichever gymnasts in each group has the most nominations wins a prize at the end of the week.
This is the 2nd week. "Hardest worker" might be a misnomer, because part of Kort's criteria is noticeable results and improvements; not just who is busting her butt, working hard.
Yesterday when I arrived at gym, Gio was leading a rec class over by bars, going over the stations. He was demonstrating stall bar leg lifts on an inclined block. Instead of focusing on the exercise, one of the little girls in his class blurted out, "I see your underwear."
It reminded me of the time at SMGC when I was teaching a rec class and going over some technical aspect of a pull over or a chin-up on bars. And I was demonstrating. At the end of my lesson, what did the students glean from my little talk? The reaction I got from one girl as I still hung from the bar was, "You have hairy armpits."
I also remember many years ago, coming across something in Reader's Digest submitted by a reader. She was coaching a gymnastics class and demonstrated a forward roll. One student asked, "But how do you make that cracking sound with your bones?"
I put the following quote up on the "wall of sayings" about a week ago:
If at first you don't succeed..... ...next time try doing what your coach told you to do
When I pointed this out at the end of class last Monday, the girls all groaned and Cassie told me, "Sometimes we do try what you guys tell us to do- and that's the problem!!!"
Stability is important in almost all aspect in every sport. Stability strength can fire up almost every muscles in your body and sure be a good workout !
This week the athletes were working on the lower extremity to help make their legs stronger for landings. However due to working all aspect of the leg muscles from the ankle to the gluteus, it also helps the athletes run faster and jump higher. The reason is that power comes from proper stability and strength to withstand the amount of force that is applied when you are running and jumping. If you didn't have the strength and the stability you would lose control if you try to max out your running speed or jumping higher on the trampoline, floor, and vault. I'm sure you see this in beginner to novice level kids who would try to run fast and they loose control and fall (expecially the ages between 2-7 years old). I'm also sure you will see this when kids at any age that try to jump high on the trampoline and they loose control on the trampoline bed (this also core strength as well) Like always control is more important! That control requires stability strength!
I was really happy with how productive the 7/8 group (the ones competing this weekend) were on their last rotation, Tuesday. They were very focused on improving their skills, hitting routines, hitting side stations and drill stations not because they had to, but because they chose to. I felt they hit the perfect balance between hard work and focus, and having a reasonable level of talk that never distracted from the task at hand. They looked self-motivated to work.
Kort has a new motivation contest, where we (the coaches) are supposed to choose the hardest worker in each group, on each rotation. Bars was a very difficult choice for me. DeShaz was on bars for 2 hours, due to hurting her ankle on vault; she took a lot of turns (including about 12 turns on bars without ever chalking up), getting stronger in her giants and more consistent on her high bar clear hip. Edie improved her shape in the downswing of her giants, hit a number of routines, worked hard on the virtuosity of her clear hips, and as usual, faithfully worked the side stations (half of them are pretty good at doing this, now). Double A I think is getting physically stronger; it's showing in her giants. Her flyaways were looking good and she was also trying to get her clear hips higher. Action Jackson focused on her high bar clear hips, sometimes doing 2 or 3 in a row. Remi worked her giants on the regular bars.
Rowan had a short bar rotation, as she was held over on floor; but she did good work.
I decided to settle on Ashley for "hardest bar worker", due to not only productivity, but also in stepping it up on her clear hip:
I offered the entire group something more valuable than sticker rewards: Individually wrapped prunes.
For some odd reason, not all the girls like prunes.
The real reward, of course, is the joy of accomplishment and improvement in their skills.
I missed recording some of the opening exchange between Coach Christopher and Nadiya (had to run and grab my camera once I realized this is going to be entertaining).
Nadiya apparently had never done a back tuck before and was opposed to trying them. Christopher was giving her directions on what to do and when she was arguing against trying a back tuck, he told her, "No! I'm the driver! You let me drive the car."
She survived for round two:
By the end of trampoline rotation, she was begging to stay on longer....and she didn't die!
What a great gymnastics weekend at the Split Rock resort in
Pennsylvania. It was filled with lots of good memories for everyone.
There was one particular incident however that stands out in my mind.
All of the girls in my group had placed in the top 6 on one or more
events and they all had some podium time. They get their medal put over
their head and then they present for photos. All of them…except for one.
And that one gymnast is an extremely kind and sensitive, hard working
kid. She did well, 8.5ish, and consistent on all 4 events, but just not
quite good enough to medal.
So as the celebration continued, medals jingling as gymnasts ran by
to hug parents and teammates, I watched the one kid and I could see she
was upset. It was painful to watch as she tried to control her emotions
but she needed to be left alone for the moment. As Her teammates were
jingling, she stayed in the same spot, sitting on the floor by herself. I
was distracted by the others and when I turned back to look for her she
was gone.
The awards were held on a large balcony that overlooked the gym.
Below us the next session had already started. It really was a great
view of a gymnastics meet. As I scanned the crowd, I spotted her
standing by herself leaning over the balcony watching the competition. I
could tell she was weeping. The whites of her eyes were reddened and it
kind of splotched over to her temples, forehead and cheeks, like a
pinkish mask across the whole top half of her face. I waited and watched
for a few minutes. I was sure she didn’t need to hear anything from me
at the moment.
She shifted a bit and so I walked over and stood next to her
and leaned on the rail. We didn’t look at each other and I didn’t say
anything. I just watched the gymnastics with her. It was only about a
minute but it seemed much longer when she turned her head just slightly
towards me. It broke my heart to see her face like that. I could tell
she wanted to say something but it was hard for her. She looked down
again and then she said, quietly and slowly, “I can’t wait to get
in the gym Monday night”. I took her chin in my hand and lifted her
head up. I paused for a moment and then said to her ”I can’t think of a
single better thing you could have said just now”. She smiled a little,
looked down for a moment, then looked up to watch the gymnastics. The
splotches on her face faded.
Never feel sorry for yourself. Never quit on yourself.
