Back handspring & round off drills for pike down technique

Modifying a staple exercise for the little ones

Slider drills across the floor is part of the regular warm-up that many of the boys team, lvl3s, and preteam kids do.

With a new crop of preteam kids, I figured out a way to modify one of the harder exercises for them:

3-year old Emma Rester on Ellen

As a coach, I have reservations about rushing skills at such an early age (technique foundation/habits; and bones still developing); but there's no question she's a talented, adorable kid; and military brat, to boot!

Best takeaway words of wisdom from a 3 year old:

Ellen: "Do you get scared of falling, ever, Emma?"
Emma: "No. Because then we get back up."

Hollow Push-Up Beam Crawls while Piggybacking Foam Block

Since we did not have all the beams, I thought I'd kill some time on the two high beams we did have with a little conditioning and concentration game. The Hot Shots loved it so much, we spent 2/3rds of our beam time on it. I figured they were getting stronger working their core and support strength. Since they were enthused about it, why not?

At first, they had trouble; then they started figuring out a certain "cheat"- foam block on the upperback and behind the head. I might have to create a rule on no resting the foam behind the neck; but if it helped them keep their round turtle back, I couldn't really complain.

Sound Buttons for Gymnastics Conditioning, Contests, Games

I wanted to find recordable sound buttons, but from what I had read, the volume on the speakers weren't that great.  Similarly, the Staples Easy Button also was low volume and would be all but inaudible in a noisy gym.

I acquired these buttons at Lakeshore Learning Center and they are pretty fun. Here are just a few uses I played around with.

You can definitely make it into a conditioning game. For example: Timed push-ups (say, 30 seconds).

- 1 point for touching the button at the bottom
- 1 point for touching the button at the top of the push-up
- Minus 2 points for any wriggling of the body

For the planching push-up challenge, award progressively higher points for each button, with the one furthest out (forcing a stronger lean) being valued with the most points.

Bungee bar candle levers

Safety Slams

Backhandspring Progress & Shaping Drill

We only have one vault table and I normally don't get to do this drill setup with my girls on a regular basis.  This was a preteam/new level 3 kid on Saturday.  She made some big improvements on her backhandspring.

Press/Cast Handstand/Stalder Shape Conditioning

Have not done this exercise in a very long time:

That's a preteam/new level 3 kid.  Thought I'd try it with her at the end of her practice.


Below, I think this was a level 5 kid; maybe training old level 6:

Tight Drills

A few spotted tight drills:

Jenga Fun Warm-Up

Beware of Foam Pit on Your Six O'Clock!

Situational Awareness= "The ability to take in the information surrounding you; analysis,and interpret that information and act accordingly to the current situation for the sake of your own safety. It involves being aware of what is happening in the immediate vicinity, all around you."


Here I demonstrate a great example of what happens when you lack sufficient situational awareness.

Wonder Twins Unite

This was pure coaching joy. 

These two mini-shots are sisters- twins, to be precise.  And they are in constant competition with one another...bickering....fighting....rooting for the other's defeat.

So last Saturday, I had it in mind for them to cheer for and not against their significant sisterly other.

I told them they were both on the same team; and the challenge was that between the two of them, they had to make 10 back hip circles, combined, in 2 minutes without form breaks.

Now, as you can see from watching the video, I was not totally honest in regards to skill execution quality.  For me, it didn't matter.  They're 6 years old; and knowing their psychology, it would have served more harm than good to be Spartan-knitpicky.  They need the feeling of success.  Without telling them, I judged them each according to individual standards of ability in performing the skill (one is further along than the other).  Yes, I manipulated the battle space and inconsistently called out points and misses; and brought it all to a dramatic end- a race against the clock.  I was manipulative in the same spirit as we talk up the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, and Santa Claus to little kids.

The focus here was more on teamwork and team spirit; on nurturing their bond and cultivating a sense of self and other accomplishment.

Sadly, I shut off the camera too soon and missed capturing their sisterly hug at the end.

Teaching quality glides

Jason Mortimer's latest video reminded me that I had filmed a few of the level 3's doing correct-incorrect glide shapes, recently:

Also like doing hanging hollow holds and swinging hollow holds.

The crunch hollow holds at 37 seconds in Jason's video is the exact way my primary teacher used to have us do them for warm-up- palms resting face up on the knees.  Periodically through the 2 minutes, he'd demand us to crunch up another inch higher.  Having hands face up on the thighs/knees helped us have a visual of how high we were crunching and maintaining position.

Happy Halloween!

Offered them toothbrushes for their Halloween treat; but they didn't go for that. So gave them origami flapping bats instead.

Leg cut/weight transfer drills

A couple of videos I apparently didn't create a blogpost for- from early August; but which did see the light of day from Swing Big!

Another one it doesn't look like I got around to uploading:

Related posts:
Level 3 weight transfer exercise
Hey look...ONE HAND!

Team Developmental Chin-ups

One of my Tiny Shots.  From a dead hang, she can do 10 chin ups (I've always called overgrip "chin-ups" and undergrip "pull ups") with form.

To avoid the temptation of gymnasts wanting to rest their chins over the bar, my colleague would have them touch their nose to the bar instead.  The 2nd half of the video shows what this evolved into. 

I think this strengthens the muscles at different RoM positions.

Super Six

Quick and cute little video of my former Hot Shots:

It took less than half an hour to edit, using random footage off of my iPhone and one of the movie trailers in the free iMovie app.

Today's technology.....

Welcome to the Wild, Wild Gym

Saddle up, Boys!

This was the last week of summer camp and the theme was "Welcome to the Wild West".  With school having started this past week, attendance was light.

I had shown up to the gym early to help out with the excel, Wednesday, but there were so few of them, they really didn't need me.  I noticed a saddle on top of the pbars (campers were learning how to mount a horse) and thought to take a picture of it on top of a "real" horse.

The other idea that struck me was, "how fun would it be to play "bustin' bronco" atop an octagon barrel by suspending it over the top of a pit?

I wanted to try it with bungee cords, but the ropes probably worked better.  My two concerns were the stitching breaking off of the equipment (I figured it'd just be the hooks and webbing stitched on the barrel, which aren't used for anything anyway) and Murphy's Law of a kid falling onto the rope and hurting himself with a scrape.

I tried out my idea with the camp kids with the instructor's approval, and it worked out beautifully.

So Friday, when I told the Hot Shots to bring their cowboys hats in (didn't tell them why), I tried covering the rope ends with noodles (they didn't stay on and I felt safe enough that I didn't tape them to stay on).

I only gave them 2 turns before we did our regular warmup- and it was a blast!

My 6 Hot Shots begin training at the same time as the level 4 team next week, jumping from 6 hours a week to 9-12 hrs, for level 3 training.

Congratulations, cowgirls!

Backhandspring drill using the vault table