New Toys for the Gym!

Always fun to get new things to play with. Egbert is our maintenance guy and will be constructing a frame bar for our tumbletrak, hopefully a portable handstand wall bar (like the one Al built), and a hollow-arch body shape strength machine (Home Depot's just around the block).



Mike approved a work order for octagonal-end floor bars. I talked to Jaime about making them yesterday, and this afternoon he already had two made, plus made an extra one which he gave to me as a personal present.



Jaime Villalobos is a former UCLA gymnast and he works for his brother-in-law's cabinet business which is right next door to BGS. His niece, Sara, was on SMGC team and sometimes volunteers work at BGS.

Hopefully the bars work. I had a couple of level 5-going-on-7's test 'em out. I think it might be a matter of them getting used to the bars, as both had difficulties at first. The one who kept testing it got better at it.



My one concern is whether or not they are safe getting to a handstand position with stable wrists and not let the bar roll back the other way. Might be a good idea to practice rolling back down from a handstand safely before letting them try to pop it open to a handstand, unassisted.

I would have tested it out myself....but then thought, "Naaaaah....."

I really liked ET's video, "Bars: Must Drills for Beginning Optionals". I liked the emphasis on the dish shape over the bar in the 3/4 giant, since I see so many gymnasts arching on the way up to the handstand in their giants.

I started out teaching Izzy on her giants, this way, using the low bar. When it came time to start actually doing giants, she had trouble opening up her shoulder angle to get to handstand because she was used to swinging to the 3/4 giant/hollow push-up shape. And now, because I haven't gone back to re-emphasize the scooping action as a drill, she's been developing the habit of peaking too early with an early wrist shift, and a bit of arching at the top of the swing.

*UPDATE*

07/26/2010

The 5's and 6's had trouble with the prototype, so Jaime cut it down (I think the bar was too high off the ground). Edie tested it out, and she said the one on the left- the new one- works much better.

*UPDATE II

7/28/2010

This is the final version (notice the difference between the ones on left and right?). I've had a lot better success with these 3.