Thea Grit

Happy Birthday, Thea!

Front Layout Shoulderstand Roll Drill

*UPDATE*
August 26, 2011

Neat variation:



I'm digging the addition of the trampoline.

*END UPDATE*

I first saw the concept of this drill from coachben's video.

Reminds me of upper-arm swings/shoulder stand roll on men's p-bars.

Toyed with it before but rarely ever set it up. What I don't like about it is the way the girls get into it by basically arching right away from upright to invert. But the 2nd half is great, placing emphasis on head position, arms, and hips staying open.

Then this past Monday, in the middle of floor rotation the setup in the video kind of just happened (and continues to evolve and refine, as is probably noticeable in the day two video). Adding the rainbow at the top allows them to start hollow and get closer to inversion before the tight arch position.

I'm thinking the blocks might be stood up on its side-ends so the (taller) girls have more time to land with their feet getting under their hips more rather than out in front.

I've seen the same concept of passing through the shoulderstand support applied to teaching front aerials and preschoolers bent-arm backward rolls. (And I've also seen this drill from Enrique Trabanino as well; maybe on one of his dvds).