British Poise, Calm, and Attitude

This is how you own the floor space:

Cross-pollination of Knowledge

Eddie's an amazing gymnast and coach.

He's been a great resource for me as a coach, through correspondence (former Michigan State Wolverine now residing in Minnesota to groom future elites). So it's flattering to know that I've given him something of value in return:

1st day working a bail. Focusing on technique. Thanks to Mike Sanders (former teammate and roommate of my brothers at UCLA) for introducing me to this spotting technique.

Note the superb rounded chest upon the single-hand release?  The outstanding shape and body tension in that handstand? It's the kind of knit-pick quality he and his buddy Justin Laury are cultivating in their athletes:  Strong body shapes and basics.  You can recognize good coaching, just by looking at the quality of the basics, imprinted upon their athletes. 

I began playing around with and refining this spotting method sometime after Coach Wade saw me hold a gymnast in the one-arm release position.  He asked me to show him how I was doing it, thought it through, and said he liked it.  I hadn't really given second thought to the unconventional spotting I was doing at the time; it just sort of arose out of a feeling of what felt right, in spotting it without fatiguing my muscles.

The gym gave me permission to share it outside of the gym.  I hadn't seen it done before, and felt it was a fairly unique method of spotting that could be of benefit to other coaches.


Here's a good example of the one-arm release technique on overshoots, as demonstrated by Amanda from Gym Max:


She kills her swing quite a bit; and I imagine that is due to her being on FIG setting.

Some people are selfishly guarded when it comes to sharing their knowledge and "secrets"; but it's the sharing and cross-pollination of knowledge that enriches a community.  This includes research into fields that are seemingly remote and unrelated to the sport and art of gymnastics.

It makes for stronger, smarter coaches all around; and that makes for safer gymnasts, all around.

Forster-Resnick: Introducing Front Giants & Clear Hips Drills & Spotting

The whip tap:


Clear hip training:



 Not the usage of the men's bar. 

Tom Forster and Neil Resnick are once again offering their Bar Boot Camp clinic.

2011 was the initial prototype.  Since the original date for the clinic filled to capacity with others wanting in, they opened a 2nd clinic which ended up preceding the first.

Some publicity for the gym

Overshoot spotting method.

Al Fong on Wrist Taping

Physio Ball Bounce Handstand Station/Drill Idea

I was moving mats before team camp started, and this idea just occurred to me. I had played with the balls spaced further apart before with hollow tight arch drills; but then I thought why not put together two drill concepts into one (bungee/physio ball cast handstands & tramp bar)? So I grabbed a level 4 kid who arrived early to test it out. After only briefly spotting her to make sure it was safe, I just let her play on it without really coaching her through.

We have a single rail that's a bit high off the ground that might be able to slide through under it (velcros to the ground), but haven't experimented further with this. Might just be a fun handstand station for rec, I dunno....

Could encourage cast handstands, bails and uprise, candle-shapes on the way up for giants; developed further, maybe even blinds and pirouette drills? If nothing else, I think it'd be a fun way for developmental girls to practice their handstands as a side station.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe even just a handstand hold conditioning station; if you fall down one way, you can just bounce back up and try to find the balance position again.

Simplify

Sometimes I think we get bogged down by an overabundance of drills with elaborate setups, trying to break things down too far. When someone is having a specific issue, that's when pulling out a specific drill to address the specific problem might be beneficial. In some cases, I think too much emphasis on drills rather than emphasis on the actual skills can create a Rube Goldberg situation where the shortest distance between two points becomes an unnecessary, complex maze.

Here is a very simple progression for acquiring the front layout whip:





With minimal coaching, I find that this setup is pretty much self-teaching.

Other than what's shown in the video, I also like having gymnasts start out doing layout fronts with the arms pinned by the ears and staying in a hollow without releasing the heels. If they can do this and flip all the way over to their feet, releasing into a tight arch is no problem.

I also don't like over-emphasizing the arms out to the sides, initially. Just a small arm circle at first to encourage the arms to be above horizontal, ready to set again for the next salto.  

*Update September 21, 2011*: 

Rick linked to this and a reader noted: 

The most interesting thing is that in the performance of the drills with supporting block the slightly hollow shape in the first part was obvious, since the gymnasts had to put their hands on supporting block. Once the block was removed, the somersault turned to the most common slightly arched layout forward. Actually, it was nothing left from the technique of whip salto forward.

The two older gymnasts shown at the end without the block in place did not go through this progression from the beginning. Their old habits of the earlier heel release and arm movements are still there, but these two are showing improvements in what they were like prior. Sorry for the confusion in presentation and video edit. If I had thought this through better, I should have filmed gymnasts who went through this progression from beginning to end result.

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).

Arms where?!

At the Chalkbucket forum, there's a discussion going on over where the arms should be taught (especially for beginners) out of a RO and for a RO BH. I left the following comment:

Ok,

I'm going to be a contrarian and argue on behalf of the other side: Arms in front, chest hollow. Like Alorah, who created this thread, I grew up being told arms by ears; And I've been an advocate for that, passing it along to my gymnasts, up until less than a year ago.

My gym has a coach who used to be one of the national coaches for the jr. boys team in Australia. He's sold me on the idea of teaching arms in front, even to beginners (and yes, influenced from power tumblers); and part of the reasoning behind this is for the very fact that yes, beginners aren't going to be as powerful as more mature tumblers.

The Australian coach rationalized it this way (this is my understanding/interpretation, at any rate, partially in relation to discussing Yurchenkos with him, as well): If you simply isolate the arm-push and forget the ability to generate a powerful snap-down/snap-up scooped shape, which direction do you need to push off the floor to get your chest up? For beginners trying to keep their arms up by their ears and not having a powerful enough snap-down, they'd basically be pulling their arms off the floor by trying to keep them by the ears. The push direction is wrong when they're trying to stand-upright with their arms glued to the ears. The reality for them is that they simply don't have the fast turnover needed to punch into a long backhandspring.

Originally Posted by Geoffrey Taucer

That said, I wouldn't teach level 4s to do roundoffs this way, because it would likely cause more problems than it would solve -- the biggest problem it would cause is that the gymnast would be more likely to lead with the head in the backhandspring.

This problem is solved by the way this particular coach (and now, myself, although I've only experimented with it in modified form to ones who can already do BHs, since currently I'm not with team developmental groups) teaches backhandsprings. There's no reason for the gymnast to lead head first even with the arms starting out in front (I've gone from arm-swing, to no arm-swing, to small arm swing AND no-arm swing in teaching standing backhandsprings).


He has a series of progression drills that only work if done in conjunction with each other. Other methods and drills aren't "wrong" and of course there is more than one way to teach a backhandspring (just as there are more than one way to teach RO BHs and everything else- as evidenced by this very thread); but the drills he uses are very specific to what he's trying to get across to his gymnasts. As far as he's concerned, he's simplified the process and factored in the issue of young gymnasts who lack the strength/ability to generate a powerful round-off or standing backhandspring.


Going back to the head thing, among the very first drills he has kids do is get comfortable with falling backward and landing on their backs. Basically, going long and keeping the body flat. He then adds in the arms. And he drills it into the gymnasts that the head never throws back until the arms are by the ears (an image he's used is to imagine two pencils sticking out of your ears; the head does not move back until the arms swing up and hits the pencils- after which the arms and head move together as one unit).


Using his series of progressions, he boasts of having kids who will always have naturally long backhandsprings and none of the common issues you have to fix along the way, like head throwing back and too much lower back arching. He says once it's done, it's done and there's not much to really correct or fix as far as the backhandspring.

I do, however, teach my boys an exaggerated scoop right from the start -- I teach them to land with their arms by their ears, but with the head down and forward and the eyes on the floor

This is interesting to me, because it sounds similar to one of the Aussie's drills. Basically, he is eliminating any need for a power round-off in order to still end up with a long backhandspring. One of his drills basically puts the gymnast in the position which you are describing so that they are off-balanced (picture a cartwheel snap-up or round-off where the hands stay low to the ground as the feet land in a piked stand that has the hips far behind the feet with arms covering ears and head buried; the gymnast needs to jump back or end up falling on his butt in a pike sit).


It is definitely quite possible that I haven't fully comprehended all aspects of his method and concept of the standing backhandspring and the round-off backhandspring, as he understands it and teaches it (I'm learning from him every day). But after working with him for about the last 6 months, I think he's a genius.

So which method is better or superior? In the end, I'd advise everyone to keep an open-mind and not reject techniques without fully researching their own experience in trying and applying. The sport, along with technique, is constantly evolving. I've had to accept that things that I knew or thought I knew at one time are now "obsolete". Part of it is due to changes in the equipment (what technique to use for a rod floor? Spring floor? Panel mat? Wooden floor? Grass? Concrete? Vaulting table vs. long/side horse?). Things that I know today may one day also be abandoned in wake of something superior. Sometimes, also, what works for one gymnast might not work for another so it's sometimes good to have a bag of tricks that isn't a one-size-fits-all approach; different avenues can still get us to the same destination.

Wade is always looking for simplicity. And what is curious, and I'll have to ask him about it, is that I'd think keeping the arms by the ears would be less complex than arms in front- and he teaches it this way when he is teaching the backhandspring on tumbletrak, adding in the arm swing only after the kids are experienced. Hmm.....

Anyway, here are clips from a clinic Wade did for our staff earlier this year on his series of backhandspring progressions, including the round-off. I did miss filming some of the beginning drills, including simply standing with arms out in front, being off-balance just enough that when the gymnast drops her arms down to her sides, it's enough of a change to tip her over where she can land straight body onto her back. Arms come up after she lands flat. Then add a little leg bend and push as she's already falling; then the timing of the arm swing to end up by the ears as she hits the ground....

Assisted Handstand and Portable Handstand Wall

I first saw the concept of this handstand assist drill from Al Luber at Santa Monica Gymnastics Center. Also good against low beams and against the edge of springboards (lower = more challenging).


I've posted this before, but here's another look at Al's portable handstand board:




These were filmed in December of 2007


Al was an engineer and came up with all sorts of devices and training ideas.

Starfish Flyaway Drill

Zac of Aerials Gymnastics has been playing around with the following flyaway setup over the trench pit:

Body Tightness/Layout Drill for Team Developmental

About a year ago, while working with team developmental age 3-4, my co-instructor asked me to do a station for body tightness since all the kids weren't very squeezy in their gymnasticking. Keeping the fun-factor in mind, I turned over one of the rainbows in the gym and pretended like we were going to do this big magic trick. I was Houdini and they'd be my assistants. I'd snap my fingers and say my gymnast was now hypnotized. I'd then tip them to see if they were tight, pick them up and toss them a few times into the air (which they love), then set them on the rainbow. Unfortunately, it's kind of a "one size fits all", with a bit of wiggle room for variance on height. Some are just too tiny, though, to reach across end to end from their tip-toes to their shoulders.

I'll pretend they are thrilling an audience with their levitation trick. Then I'd challenge them to see if they can keep their finger tips pointed to the ceiling while I tipped the rainbow back and forth (didn't do a good job of demonstrating that in this video- my material's pretty stale and rusty since I haven't been working with team developmental this year). When teaching layouts, I've always tried to describe it to my gymnasts that even though they may be told to pull their arms down hard to their sides, they should visualize that what they are really trying to do is snap their toes to the ceiling and their hips up to their hands (in which event their arms will end up down by their sides, but upside down, which means their arms are still up toward the ceiling). For young gymnasts in team developmental programs, I think this body tightness exercise is also a good opportunity to condition them at an early age for arm movement through a back layout salto.

This kid only did this one previous time before I decided to pull the camera out and document the drill:

Flexible Trampoline Frame Bar Testing

Not too long ago, Tumbletrak came out with the quick flex bar as an alternative to the more traditional frame bar.

The inherent padding makes hitting and crashing on the bar a non-issue, as far as the fear of acquiring bumps and bruises go.

Love the idea of it, but the product is $239.

Coach Ben came up with a low-budget version that amounts to less than $20.

Still am thinking of brackets to support the ends of the ratchet trailer tie-down, but so far this might be a fun and inexpensive addition for a bar drills station.

I don't see a whole lot of carry-over value in their usage (with the exception of maybe drilling the throw on Tkatchevs); but within a narrow scope and range of skills, and with some creativity, I think the trampoline bar is good to have. It's also fun; and making drills fun and interesting is sometimes one of the challenging aspects of coaching.

Demonstrating Use of the Octagon Bar

Demonstrating a backward roll to hollow push-up (3/4 giant) and a back extension roll handstand to fall flat stomach with the octagonal floor bar.

Having No Limitation as the Limitation

"There are two kinds of people: those who think they can, and those who think they can't, and they're both right."
- paraphrased from Henry Ford

At Broadway Gym, each level group has a prescribed series of stretches they do, as a routine, with one of them chosen to lead. Our expectation is for them to do it, synchronized, efficiently transitioning from one stretch to the next with presentation (as if they were performing this on stage or in a competition). So there is no talking, no extra movement; focus is straight ahead. Of course, inadvertently someone will "break character", and look around at what else is going on in the gym, play with her ponytail, pick at her leotard, etc. Basically, losing focus.

Yesterday, I challenged my 5-7s (a group that is jumping from level 5 to level 7) with a sticker reward for whoever was the most focused with great presentation during stretches. Immediately, one girl said "Why not just give it to GymnastA?" (GymnastA is a model gymnast when it comes to doing this and everyone knows it. She'd be great standing and marching in a military formation). I told them why not try and "beat" GymnastA? That they were all equally capable. Two other girls said in regards to this, "But that's impossible!"

After their stretches, I led them over to the side of the gym where, on the wall, I had taped the following story:

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 impositions
of others imprison us
in a world of low expectations."
-Andrew Hsu

We talked briefly about what the message is that we can take with us from that story; about the limitations we fabricate in our own heads about what we are and aren't capable of achieving.

Last week I had begun posting little inspirational quotes and maxims around the gym at key locations. Over by beam, one of my favorites:

"Fall down seven times, get back up eight"- Japanese proverb

Girls at bars are always asking me the time. There's actually a clock on the wall nearby and above it I have a sign that reads, "The time now..." and below the clock: "...is for you to work harder! And the only easy day, was yesterday."

A favorite of mine at the bar stations hangs on the wall above the chalk tray. It reads something to the effect that, "Those who squander their time hanging out at the chalk bar become experts at procrastination. Those who spend most of their time getting up on the equipment get better at gymnastics."

I like having these in the gym. The kids are noticing.

I don't know how much of this sort of stuff sinks in, but if you fling enough out there, and often, something's bound to stick.


*Special thanks to Nadine, from whom I first heard the flea story.

Candlestick Extension Drill for Giants- Wrist Shift

A drill idea I was playing with for giants/wrist shift, handstand shaping.

The other related drill is to lay on the rainbow, grabbing a low bar facing the other way, scoop into candlestick shapes, then scoop all the way over into a push-up position on the other side, maintaining the hollow-dish shape the whole time. Laying on the rainbow in a tight arch would be perceived as the bottom of the swing with the hollow push-up as the top of the giant. Also good for working 3/4 giants.

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.

Blocking Drill for Backhandsprings

Backward Roll Ending in Hollow Push Up as Flyaway Drill

I just watched the following backflip ("leaf drop") introduction for little kids, uploaded by Al Fong:

I once did a similar drill setup for a guy who came into LASG for a private lesson on learning a standing back tuck. I believe I started him out with backward rolls on the cheese wedge since he had zero tumbling experience- not even rolls (rather uncoordinated person). Eventually, one of the stations I set up was to put a big octagon barrel in front of the pit and had him jump onto it, landing on his back and rolling off backward into the pit to get used to the sensation of jumping and spinning over backward.

It was my lazy man's way of spotting a "big kid" like him who had quite a ways to go, yet.

When I visited Aerials Gymnastics, Tom Forster showed me from his laptop a similar drill like this for flyaways.

Strangely enough, Thea and I got around to filming the drill just this afternoon:

She isn't executing it perfectly, but we were on our way out the gym when I remembered I wanted footage of this drill. So she dressed back down in her leo and we did a quick take with no rehearsal and only a brief, generalized description of what I wanted; but you get the idea.

Not sure how much I'd actually incorporate this drill into teaching a flyaway. I just found it interesting and might make for a nice additional station. I suppose its value is in emphasizing body shape on the release and open shoulders.

It's reminiscent of the back extension roll on a panel mat, only higher up. I believe Tom's instructor Zach might have come up with the exercise. The emphasis is on getting the gymnast to hit the candlestick shape and pop the shoulders open to simulate the release of the bar. The gymnast lands in a hollow pushup position. I think Tom told me that one drill Zach does for layout flyaway release is when he spots them from the bar, he'll have them land in a hollow push up there as well. There is no concern on the drill for landing on the feet. Just body shape on the release and through the air.

I think another compliment to this would be George Hery's suggestion of using gainers on trampoline as flyaway drill.

Put the two concepts together, and you have your flyaway mountain wall...and also something else that your coach probably shouldn't recommend you try, since we have this thing called "litigation" in this country.

Tom Forster's Floor Bar with Octagonal Ends

Tom Forster's gym, Aerials Gymnastics in Colorado Springs, has these floor bars that Tom made, with octagonal wheels on the ends- 4 sides longer than the other 4.

A common drill for swinging is to have gymnasts practice backward roll to push-up to reinforce the candlestick shape and scooping action that becomes critical for good barwork. With Tom's floor bar, the gymnast can actually grab a real bar to simulate a baby giant or extend the shoulders open and bring it up to a handstand to simulate the giant swing. The octagonal ends forces the gymnast to work on shifting the wrists in order to make it over.