Happy New Year!

We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are

-Max DePree

A Strapping Idea

Sometimes coaches use a belt harness when spotting certain skills on bars so that they don't get pulled off balance in the middle of spotting.  Since I never liked having one of these cut into my gut, and when we didn't have any such belt, a couple of years ago I began improvising straps that were strung together into a belt I could loop around my leg and hook onto the bar.




Here is Nick Blanton offering up some other ideas for the non-orthodox usage of straps:

Handstand Clinic with Sebastian Melander

Hanging and Tapping

Great bar clinic by Nick Blanton at Louisiana Training Camp earlier this year:

Sunday Funnies

Source

Out to Lunge

Rebuilding from scratch

The place I'm at now is in a rebuilding phase.  The team was pretty depleted of all their upper level gymnasts after the gym had fired its head coach (and still does not have a head coach).  So I'm investing in a group of 4 Hot Shots; and then we have about 7 level 3s. 


We hit a headspring circuit about once a week where I have a spotted station; a place where they can do headstands to bridge; handstand push-ups in a pike; set of stomach rocks; and downhill into the pit where they can have a go, on their own.

Headsprings are a good place to start in developing front tumbling and connected front tumbling.


As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm modeling much of how I approach backhandsprings now with the progression method (and technique) that I picked up from Wade:


I wanted to blend Wade's slide ups for the purposes of long backhandsprings that don't arch early with them being able to actually get into the stretched handstand position (essentially borrowing in part from the octagon/pacman/boulder drills, but eliminating the jump).  I also wanted them to get used to staying tight when impacting onto their hands and shape-changing from stretched to hollow shape.  So this is what I experimented with:



Sheesh...I sound a bit grumpy and a real curmudgeon in that last clip.

The poor kids might have to put up with me for a few more years, yet.

A Tale of Two Level 3s

These two were the only ones that showed up for practice (their teammates were at competition) that particular Saturday, a month ago.

I spent time on the basics, trying to get them to hit shapes and positions and lengthening their backhandsprings.  Started out with cartwheel step-ins then progressed to going downhill into the pit (They're still too weak in their round-offs that I think it destroys their technique and creates the bad habits to have them connect a RO BH when they are landing chest down, feet behind butt- tendency is to go early with the BH rather than hit the off-balanced position).






It's always interesting to play back video and note what corrections I'm giving and which ones I'm missing.  Sometimes it's a matter of what I'm focused on at the moment; other times it's just not seeing/noticing on my part (a lot of errors become obvious with slow motion).

On the round-off drill to their back, I need to remember to emphasize that even though I want a pushed out shape through the chest and tension all the way through to the toes, I don't want to see them closing their hips and piking in order to show me a hollowed out position on their backs.  I hadn't tried the double wedges before and maybe I should stick with either a cheese wall (landing off-balanced on their feet) or flat on a couple of 8 inchers.

Round Off & Backhandspring Progression

Vertical Push-Up Position

This is an old video that was once available for viewing on the British Gymnastics website:





I'm glad it's reposted to the British YouTube channel. 

Coach Wade once mentioned (might have been in a clinic) not to be overly concerned with kids piking down if the goal is to connect a ro bh when they are not physically strong enough to actually snap off their hands and get the chest up (where most coaches seem to place emphasis). 

I think the tendency of some coaches is to expect kids to connect a RO BH when they aren't physically positioned/ready for it.  What usually happens is a gymnast who has a weak round-off tries to go immediately into the backhandspring when the chest is still down and the feet are landing behind the hips.  The result is undercutting with knees buckling forward past the toes, head throwing back and chest out early.

Similarly, beginners are often made to do handstand snap-ups and told to keep the ears covered.  The problem is with lack of physical preparation, gymnasts will not be able to keep the ears covered AND get turned upright correctly.  The coach in this case is placing emphasis on desired outcome rather than adapting the technique to accommodate the reality of the gymnast's present physical strength.  I think the emphasis should be on "direction of arm-push" as it relates to where the gymnast's body is when getting off the hands.   Weak gymnasts who are told to keep the ears covered at all times end up pulling their arms off the mat/block/floor as they fall/pike down to their feet, resulting in throwing the chest out in order to also stand upright fast. 

 As crazy as it sounded to me at the time (which made me doubt if I heard him right), Wade seemed to encourage allowing kids to pike down in a round-off with the goal in mind of having the novice gymnast end up with the hips behind the feet and the chest staying in as long as possible (discourages throwing the head back and arching too much and too early rather than just stretching).

Coach Ben seems to be of a similar approach:

A reminder of Wade's method of teaching the round-off and backhandspring.

Wade tells me that he teaches both pike down and chest up for two different purposes.

He teaches chest down first (piked-hollow) to place the focus on the beginning phase of a round-off- the strong lunge, staying square long, 1/4 turn, hand placement/direction...

After that is "mastered", the next phase is then learning to push off the hands. 



Cartwheel step-ins with the 3s:

All other problems aside, what I liked here was that these level 3s were starting to delay their backhandspring until they felt off-balanced.  Our focus that day was to lengthen the backhandspring:

Vertical Push-Up Shape

I've been hanging onto this and related tumbling posts that will follow.  Unpublished drafts of the past couple of months (So what follows was written a while back).

Nice drill:




These are a few of the level 3s.  I haven't been able to work with them a whole lot on floor; and there isn't a lot of consistency, probably, on technique-reinforcement (coaching staff has not been stable nor consistent; and I'm sure we all have different concepts of how RO BH should be taught).

When teaching, I often give kids only one or two things to focus upon at a time.  Just focus and fix one thing.

Here, what I'm having the girls attempt to do is land a round-off in a hollow push-up shape (standing upright).  So for the most part, as hard as it is not to want to correct other aspects (hurdle, blocking and shaping off the hands, etc.- which really should be taught and fixed first), I also try to limit my corrections to the one or two aspects of the skill I want them to fix.




 Since none are strong enough to turn their round-offs over yet to land off-balanced right away, I'm encouraging them to wait until they feel that position before jumping into their backhandspring.

As I type this out, a new idea has popped into my head.


s
I liked that in this clip they started waiting longer and only launching into the backhandspring once they were off-balanced:

The Secret Life of Your Gymnasts

The gym can be a kind of escape.  An escape from the outside world and all its problems.

For my team girls, I've sometimes talked about how Japanese gymnasts and the martial arts world have the tradition of bowing before entering a dojo (school); and when leaving.  It serves as an act of respect; but the physical ritual of bowing also serves as a reminder- a trigger- to put the practitioner into the proper frame of mind to focus upon the task at hand:  The workout.

But sometimes, the problems of the outside world are too great to be ignored and set aside for the 2-4 hours we are in the spiritual battleground that is the gym.

There are times when one of my gymnasts suffered a personal loss- a pet dying; the passing of a loved one.  And we as coaches adjust accordingly to care for the mental and emotional health of our athletes.

Today, one of my Hot Shots- a mature 7 yr old- wasn't quite behaving like her normal self.  Nothing too drastic- but just enough to make me notice that her energy level, her attention to form, and her focus wasn't quite what it normally is.

When we got to RO BHs, she was so off- loose in the air- that I asked her what was going on.  I pointed out what I was noticing and asked if she was tired, not enough sleep, or what.  She said it was a couple of things. First thing was, she didn't have enough to eat or something to that effect.  The second thing she said to me was that her parents were getting a divorce.

My heart broke for her right then and there, so I embraced her with a hug and told her I was so sorry.  She said it was okay (to comfort me, maybe).  But it explained a lot to me, what was going on with her during workout.

She did better after that.  And for a moment, we were both able to focus on the rest of gym as a kind of escape from the ugliness and stress of the really real world and not dwell upon it.

One of my very best kids....

Choice

Same thing happened to me

Today, I had 4 yr old team developmental gymnast Avery on bars, trying to get her to hold a front support without resting on her belly. Her elbows were bent in front support; so I told her to straighten her arms and she lets go of the bar and puts her arms up in the air to show me her straight arms...all while still resting on her belly!

Post by Blanton's Gymnastics Consultancy.

I also remember a couple of instances where I'd ask a young gymnast to cover her ears and she'd take her hands and, sure enough, cover up her ears with the palm of her hands. One time this happened while the kid was in handstand (I was holding by the feet and both hands came right off the floor).

Sunday Funnies

Marc Jacobs

On this day in history...

Conversation I had with Bryanna a year ago to the day:

Me: "You need to take off more in a stretched position, then snap your hips up. You're just dropping your chest a little; and it's retarding your rotation."

Her eyes went wide...

Her: "What DID YOU SAY?!?!"

Me: "Your rotation is being retarded by you dropping your chest instead of lifting your hips."

Stunned silence.

Me: " 'Retarded' as in "Slow...inhibited....hindered...."

Her: "Well, just say 'slow'! 'You're rotating slow' "

I swear, I used that word in the right context....sheesh.

Gymnasts Got Bones

Maroney was in an episode of Bones earlier this month.

Here's a behind the scenes look at some of the gymnasts on set:

G.O.'s gonna do some flips; only got 20 leo's in their closet...

This is actually pretty fun and creative from Gymnastics Olympica, apparently for their awards banquet last season:




I'm not so out of touch not to recognize that it's a song parody; I'm just not hip enough to recognize what the song is (although I know I've heard it before).

Another parody song by a gymnastics club that I discovered quite a while ago is this take on the Bruno Mars song:



And this reminded me of another song parody video by Zak Johnson and Club Champion out in Pasadena:

Some Giant Progressions

New video by Jason Mortimer:

Sunday Funnies

Marc Jacobs

Bruin Brawn

At the 2011 Bruin Meet and Greet:

Sunday Funnies

Hat tip:  GymnasticsCoaching.com

IDP Clinic Bar Workshop (Progression to Full Out)

Team Developmental HS flatback vault drill

Here's a drill I saw Gio set up that I liked from almost a year ago:





Seeing this video reminded me of the above clip:

Sunday Funnies

Come to the Edge Again: