Some Compulsory Vault Drills I use

Girls Peeling off the Bar on a Tap Swing!!!

So, during this season, I have seen about 12-15 gymnasts fly off of the bar backward while doing tap swings during a meet or the warm-up for a meet.  In 2 of those cases, an ambulance was necessary.  One of these gymnasts actually landed on her belly on the low bar and was, thankfully, okay.  Three to five of these girls were slowed down by their coaches as the coaches were standing in between the bars as these gymnasts were performing tap swings (two of these were ours).  The rest were extremely lucky in my opinion, not to get hurt.  I speak from bad experience myself with this situation as I had a gymnast break her arm many years ago when she peeled off of the bar in the back of the tap swing.  It was after this experience that I made sure that I stood there whenever my gymnasts were performing tap swings.

This, to me, is one of the most obvious cases of preventable injury that we have in our sport.  Let me first say that there are probably not many people who are bigger fans of the tap swing being included in the level 5 and 6 bar routines.  I think that the tap swing is simply, the best part of the compulsory routines on any of the four events.  Having said that, it is impossible, in my opinion, to eliminate the risk of the girls peeling off of the bar.  In fact, the better and bigger the gymnast swings, the more likely it is that the result will be a severe injury when she does peel.  The height of the swing is what puts them in that perilous position of “no man’s land”, halfway between landing on their feet and being able to flip over to their backs.  It is NOT about technique, in my opinion, but the size of the girls’ hands in comparison to the size of the rails.  I have seen plenty of girls with great shapes in the back of their swings and excellent “tapping” technique slip off just as much as (probably more than) girls with horrible technique.

For me, this is not a question of an individual gymnast’s ability level.  In my experience, the odds of this happening are the same for all of the gymnasts.  On any given day, it is just as likely to happen to the girl who has done 300 sets of tap swings and never “peeled” as it is for the gymnast who peels off once a month, in my opinion. 

I would like to note that I am not judging any coaches as I am writing this, and I don’t think negatively of people who have not stood in between the bars during tap swings.  However, I think it is time that we, as professionals who care about our gymnasts’ well-being, really start to rally around the idea of standing in between the bars for every set of tap swings that our kids do.  I know that there will be coaches who argue (Bill Sands comes to mind) about the idea of rescue spotting and reaction time, etc.  The way that our bar coach does it however (and the way I did it when I coached bars), diminishes that argument in the fact that he stands with his outside shoulder (in proximity to the athlete) right beside the low bar, and he stands as close to her as possible.  What this does is to place him pretty much behind the gymnast.  If she does peel, she is basically flying “into” the coach.  Again, the idea here is not to necessarily “catch” the gymnast in mid-air (which is what the studies about reaction time are about), but to slow her down and prevent the catastrophic injury.  Our gymnasts never do tap swings on a regular set of unevens without a coach standing in this position.  When they are in practice, we have a bar that is set up with a mat stack behind it and two wedges stacked up against that mat stack for the girls to do their tap swings.  This way, if they do peel, the elevated surface helps them to be able to land more safely.

I would really like for as many blogs and websites as possible to put this on their pages, or to at least discuss this topic.  Many of these gymnasts will never compete again in the greatest sport in the world  because of these injuries, and all we have to do is “stand in” on tap swings.

If it is not enough for a coach to do this because of the reasons I have already mentioned, it might help to think of the legal aspects as well.  When one of these girls’ parents decides to sue because of this injury, the attorneys for this family are going to investigate what other gyms are doing.  There are many gyms that already “stand in”, and therefore the attorney will want to know why this particular coach was not doing the same.  The second part of this is that when they are trying to prove negligence, the effort will be to prove that the accident could have been prevented by less of a burden than what the risk would be.  In other words, standing in between the bars is a very small effort in comparison to the many, many gymnasts who are injured on this skill every season. 

Aside from all of the legal mumbo-jumbo though, I always try to think of it in this simple way.  If this happened to one of my gymnasts and the parents or the attorney asked me why I wasn’t standing there like that other coach was, what could I possibly say?

Uneven Bars: Double Layout Dismount

Many female gymnasts who struggle with the double layout dismount off of the uneven bars do so because of the timing of their “tap.”  While many coaches have a different interpretations of the “tap,” my definition references the point at which the gymnast transitions from a hollow into an arch position at or nearly underneath the bar.  So, from this point forward, you should know exactly to what I am referencing.

I was bored and decided to analyze a couple of different double layouts.  For the past year or two, Ivana Hong has really struggled a bit with this dismount while Bridget Sloan performs it seemingly effortless.  Therefore, I decided to do a little comparison between the two utilizing their routines from the 2009 VISA Championships.  The videos are below.

First, here’s Bridget.

Next, here’s Ivana.

After stopping the video at several points, the following are the noticeable differences that I found between the two performances.

At approximately 45 degrees below horizontal, let’s look at a comparison between the two.

Ivana Near 45 Degrees Below Horizontal To The Bar

Bridget Near 45 Degrees Below Horizontal To The Bar

Notice here how Ivana has already “opened up” whereas Bridget stays more “hollow.”  By staying in more of a hollow shape, Bridget is able to create more deformation (“bend”) in the bar in my estimation.  This additional “bend” in the bar stores more elastic (strain) energy and contributes to her rotation upon release.

Now, let’s look at the two at a position directly underneath of the bar.

Ivana Underneath of The Bar

Bridget Underneath of the Bar

Notice the “bend” in the bar (a slight bit more for Bridget) as well as the more pronounced arch position as compared to Ivana’s position.  Further, in the next sequence of images, you’ll notice the early “kick” into the double layout for Ivana such that she struggles to make the necessary rotations.

Ivana Past Bottom Of Bar

Now, here’s Bridget.

Bridget Past Bottom Of Bar

Notice how Bridget holds the arch past the bottom and “kicks” later into the double layout and is able to easily complete the rotations.

So, how would I fix Ivana’s double layout dismount?  I would work very hard to get her to hollow the downswing longer, “tap” later, hold the “tap” through the bottom longer, and this would result in a later “kick” into the dismount and probably a more successful performance.

Many men’s coaches who have moved over to coaching women’s gymnastics tend to promote the early tap as the men do.  Unfortunately, the womens’ uneven bar rail is a much different apparatus and women in general, are smaller.  As a result, they are unable to produce the degree of “bend” in the rail as the men do.  This is particularly true when they attempt to perform the early, exaggerated tap that the men do.

If you notice, most of the gymnasts who swing as I am describing are performing full-in or full-out types of dismounts or something completely different such as a double front, for example.  The early, exaggerated “tap” swing mechanics for the women will give you a lot of height, but lacks rotation.  If you want your gymnasts to have a good double layout, I encourage the mechanics that I am suggesting and they will likely be a lot more successful.

Hopefully, this gives you a bit more insight into the double layout dismount from a coaching perspective.  Please feel free to share your insights or any disagreements.

What are We Teaching our Kids?

This is a post I did a year ago, and recently (going to meets this season), it has become apparent that these things can never be said too much.

These are some areas that I feel we, as coaches, are underacheiving.  I have thought about these things for the last few years while attending meets and clinics, etc., and think now is a good time to discuss them.  I guess you could say that these are my pet peeves, but I really don’t want anyone to look at this as a negative attack on anyone personally, but more of a “hey, we have a great opportunity to have a profound effect on these young peoples’ lives, so let’s work harder to accomplish that mission” type of thing.

Here they are in no particular order (I am aware of how “long-winded” I am, so please, no comments on that, haha):

1.  All athletes should remain in the competition arena until the last competitor is done competing. It amazes me sometimes when I see coaches allowing their kids to leave the competition area before all of the teams are done competing.  What we are saying to our athletes is that the only thing that is important is their performances and maybe the performances of their teammates, but no one else.  This is such a missed opportunity!  While kids today sometimes seem to have less empathy than I can ever remember, we have this great platform to show our athletes how much everyone else wants the same thing that they do.  This is the beginning of their ability to look outside of themselves and feel for what other people go through.  It can be the start of true altruism for that individual child.  And this, in turn, makes the world a better place.

We try very hard with our program to remind our kids that what the other girls are doing is just as important to them as it is to us.  We tell them that we will always remain in the competition area as long as there is a girl competing in our session.  And here is a big key to this…we, as coaches, remain seated with them (there is always at least one of us who does this).  We do not allow them to run around unnecessarily, but remind them to sit, facing the girls that are competing.  We also make it a point to our girls to go and thank teams that stay until the end if we are the last ones competing and there are only one or two teams left watching.  Unfortunately, this happens often.  It disappoints me to know that we are missing the boat on making our gymnasts more respectful and mindful of others.

2.  Athletes should put their things into their gym bags (all of their things), zip them up, and put them out of the way.  This could be under or behind the chairs that are provided for the athletes to sit, or along an “out of the way” wall.  When we allow our athletes to come into a meet and we do not remind them to put things away, we are again missing an opportunity to make them more mindful of others.  We should be telling them that they would not like it very much if they came over to sit down on the chairs and there was no where to sit because of the laziness of others (unfortunately, we are able to give them very clear examples of this at every meet that we attend).  We should also mention how they would feel if someone was walking in that area and tripped on their belongings and had to go to the hospital or missed the rest of her season because of the injury she sustained because of our bags.  I realize some people find this to be far-fetched, but I have seen some major messes at meets, and very recently.  This is unacceptable on our parts as coaches!  Kids are going to do whatever they are allowed to do.  It is our job to teach them how to behave in these situations, and this is an important one, in my opinion.

3.  There should be no talking during the presenting of awards.  This is so disrespectful to the athletes on the award stand!  I know that many coaches do not go to awards because of the limited time between sessions, and we are no different.  What we have done though, is to go to them whenever we possibly can, and speak to them about behavior as often as possible.  Our kids rarely go to awards without being first reminded of our expectations.  I, personally, am not above going up to the front where the girls are sitting to reprimand them for talking during this time.  I have done this a few times.  I feel very strongly though, that after an adequate number of times of this, and several discussions with them, that when they do have to go to awards without us, I can trust them to behave appropriately.  This makes me very proud as I know that they are learning something that many gymnasts are missing out on.  Again, it is our responsibility to help these girls become better people through the opportunity that gymnastics provides.  It is not just about teaching the sport!

4.  All athletes should stay until the last award is handed out.  This one is exactly the same as not leaving the competition area before the last competitor.  We need to make sure our gymnasts know that what they want is not more important than what all of the other girls at the meet want.  They are all there for similar reasons, and no one is better than anyone else as people, or more important.

5.  Scores at a meet are the least important thing about the meet.  I know we all know this, but putting it into practical application can be a different thing.  Scores are, after all, one of the few tangible evaluation tools that we have in this sport.  I am fairly sure that most coaches remind their athletes that the score is not the most important thing, but these same coaches (myself included) sometimes over-react to scores when they are at a meet.  If we are to truly convince our gymnasts that scores are not so important, then we have to be very careful about our own reactions to those scores.

Another thing that we have to do to help our athletes focus on the right things is to give them plenty of feedback on their performances, so they have a better idea where they stand.  I usually try to give my gymnasts a critique on their performance before the score is posted.  Many times I will tell them during this critique, that “I really don’t care what score comes up, that was the best vault you have ever done!”  It is very important, in my opinion for them to understand that one (or two or four) person’s view of their performance on one particular day for one particular routine, is not a real evaluation of where they are with their gymnastics.  What is important in this setting is how they handle the pressure, how mentally strong they are, and how much their performance reflects their training.  These are all things that we talk about when we are evaluating their performance when they are done.  It is through these discussions with them, I believe, that our athletes really do understand where their scores fit in relevance terms.  This does not mean, however that our girls aren’t proud of where they end up in a meet.  But there is always a balance, and finding it with your athletes is a very important life lesson.  We must teach them that if they are happy or unhappy about a performance, that evaluation should not change when the score is flashed.  The gymnast has either done the best she could or she did not.  A score doesn’t change that.

6.  An athlete should definitely have goals, but the process is the absolute most important thing.  For a gymnast to be successful in her sport (or any athlete in any sport), they obviously need to have goals.  Without these goals, the day-to-day training that is necessary for success would not be possible.  One of the things that is overlooked sometimes, though, is the trip to those goals.  So much focus is placed on the goal by the gymnast that she may not really appreciate what she has already achieved.  This, in my opinion, is another of our many jobs in coaching.  We have to remind our athletes of all of the great milestones in their career, and more than that, the lessons that they have learned along the way that will make their lives even better.

The reality of this sport is that most athletes will never achieve their ultimate goal, and the more intense the athlete is, the more likely she is to feel like she has failed because of this.  I really believe that the atmosphere and example we set in the gym is the determining factor to whether the gymnast feels like a failure or a success at the end of her career.  I have even seen in my career (too many times) the gymnast who actually does achieve her ultimate goal and feels more relief than happiness.  I think this is a little bit of a tragedy, and more than that, I believe it is preventable.  The whole point of this incredible sport is to build stronger, happier, more successful people.  How can we do that if our athletes come away feeling like they have wasted a good many years of their lives, because they didn’t achieve ultimate success (Vanessa Atler, anyone?)?

We try very hard in our gym, as I know many other gyms do, to actively search for small successes on a daily basis.  We want to remind our athletes as often as we can all of the great things they are accomplishing, so that they feel successful more often.  Trust me, they are going to beat themselves up plenty, and we are going to criticize them plenty as well, but I am always looking for that genuine opportunity to let them know that they are succeeding.  It can be anything from “I am so proud of you for coming into this meet after being sick, and doing what you did today,” to “There are lots of athletes who would have given up way before this if they had to deal with what you had to.”  We all know things like this, but I think we all have to do it even more often.

7.  Athletes on the award stand should congratulate the athletes on each side of her.  This is something that we just started requiring of our athletes this season, and I feel like it is so valuable.  It really makes the girls remember that they are not the only ones trying to achieve their goals.  It opens their eyes to the feelings and realities of other girls, and I can’t think of many things that I would rather have them learn.  I strongly suggest that we all have our athletes do this.

8.  A great athlete learns to keep reactions on a fairly even keel.  This means that they should never get too high or too low about what is going on (especially in reaction to scores).  One of the biggest examples of this, to me, is when an athlete begins her warm-up on a particular event, and it doesn’t go well.  We have to teach them, and ourselves, that this beginning of the warm-up is not more important than it is.  It is not enough though, for us to say to the athlete that “your warm-up is not a reflection of the gymnastics you are going to do.  What you do the majority of the time in the gym is what is important,” and then we turn around and get frustrated or angry at a gymnast for blowing a turn in warm-up.  This has always been a tough one for me.  I can remember many times getting very nervous when an athlete was not doing in warm-up what I had seen her do in practice.  We, as coaches are human after all, and while my motivation is almost 100% in the realm of wanting her to do well for her, there is a little piece of all coaches that desires success for ourselves.  We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have that longing.  So, I would get aggravated when those things happened, and that frustration would show through to the athlete and then they began to doubt themselves, and then their performance was very likely to be affected.  I’m not promising that I didn’t get frustrated a little over the last weekend when we hosted our St. Louis Classic, but the difference now is that I am more aware when this happens and the result that can occur, and so I hide it and turn it around.  I remind myself that they will always fall back on their training if I can help them to control their emotions and wandering thoughts.  What I have found is that, if the training has been done the right way and the athlete truly is prepared for what she is doing and she isn’t stressing because of this or her coaches reaction to it, then the “crappy” turns that happen in warm-up from time to time really don’t have an effect on the performance of the athlete when she competes.  This was an awesome discovery for me, and I hope that all of you can use it!

By the way, when I talk about controlling reactions, I don’t mean that we want our athletes to never get excited or disappointed about things.  That is what humans do, and there is a time and a place for each.  We shouldn’t really expect our kids to have the desire necessary to put in the amount of time and hard work that this sport requires if they could not express their excitement when they actually accomplish these things.  And we should not expect them to spend that energy and time and heart, and then be bubbling over with joy when they fail at the goal they had set for themselves.  Our job is to teach them the things that are okay to react to and the things that are not, and what to do next.  This takes things from a reactive state to a pro-active state.  Now, we are going to do something about the negative situation, or remember what we did to accomplish the positive and repeat it.  A great example of this “right time and wrong time” scenario is when an athlete is not doing what they need to in the gym and then cries because they fail at the meet.  I, personally, try to use this (as I try to use every situation) as a teaching opportunity.  I let them know two things – – the first is the fact that they can do something about this situation by changing their behavior in the gym – – the second is that they have not earned the right to cry when they have not done everything they can to keep this from happening.  In other words they contributed to this, and I tell them that it is like pouring water on your own head and crying because you are getting wet.  I use this time as an opportunity also to inform them that if they calm down, then the first time is okay, but the second one is not.  They are told that they will have to leave the meet and go and sit with their parents.  I have only had to send a girl out of a meet for this once in over 25 years.  Most of the time, if the athlete knows that you will follow through, and you are doing your job in the gym to continue this lesson, this warning is all that it takes.  Sometimes, the athlete changes their training habits, and sometimes they don’t, but they most always change their reactions when this approach is taken and is consistent with the team and philosophy of the program.

9.  Support and cheer for the other teams in your rotation.  This one is a lot like the awards stand, but even more personal.  If we encourage our athletes to go and meet the girls in our rotation and root for them, then they are not only learning empathy, but social skills as well.  They are finding new friends that have similar experiences, and maybe even friends that they will have contact with for several years.  We can’t possibly know what the future holds for that friendship.  Could one of them donate a kidney to the other one someday, or something simpler, like saying the one thing the other needs to hear when losing a loved one?  This dynamic is again, a very much underappreciated aspect of our job as coaches.

10.  We can set an example for our athletes by helping each other out as coaches.  This includes, when possible, blocking time together when a team has only 2 or 3 athletes.  Even making the offer to a smaller team by a larger team really shows the athletes what is important.  Our athletes look up to us like almost no one else in their lives.  They emulate us without really even knowing it.  When they see us helping out others, they will respond by doing the same in their lives.

11.  We control what we can control, and don’t worry about things we can’t control.  The judges are not in our control, and therefore it does us absolutely no good to worry about what they did or didn’t do.  Our athletes have to believe that they can do enough to change anything.  That means that, even if they have been underscored, they can get back in the gym and train even harder and do such great gymnastics that it will be impossible for someone to deny them.  The greatest athletes have to believe this is true!  Notice, however, that I did not say that it is completely true.  If an athlete wants ultimate success, though, this has to be their mantra.

In closing…

I think that it is extremely important that we remember how valuable an opportunity we have with these children.  What we are teaching in respect to skills and routines is important, but this only occupies about 1/7 to 1/5 of the athletes’ lives.  We have to remember that the lessons they can learn from the sport can help them with the rest of their lives.  What a great gift that can be!

Thank you and I hope this is helpful to all of you.

Basics, Basics, Basics!!! Training the Front Handspring on Floor – Part III

And now for the 3rd and final part of Training a Front Handspring on floor.

THE BLOCK OFF THE HANDS:  A lot of times, this action is under-appreciated and over-emphasized at the same time.  I know that sounds confusing, but I will try to explain.  In my opinion, in most situations, coaches try too hard to train their athletes to block a front handspring on floor (and even vault) when the athlete is not doing the things before this block to allow her to be able TO block.  As stated before, if the lunge leg doesn’t do its job, the center of gravity will be too low, and the athlete must bend her arms.  At this point, it is impossible to block off the floor, since the definition of blocking involves a “bounce” or “pop” type of action, and not a bending of the arms, where the energy is absorbed.  So, stressing on blocking without the pre-requisites of the techniques before this action is a huge waste of time, in my opinion (doing drills for blocking while still getting the rest in order is fine — it’s the expectation of a block without this prior technique that is the problem).

It is also my opinion that this action of blocking will become semi-automatic for the gymnast that does all of the technique before the block correctly.

The “under-appreciation aspect of this action is in the fact that, a lot of times, we are so busy trying to figure out why a gymnast is having trouble with the subsequent skill out of the front handspring that we may not look at how important the block is in the success of that second skill.  Many times, the failure of that second skill is due to the lack of angle out of the front handspring, because the gymnast did not block from their hands in the front handspring.

One of the drills for blocking that a lot of people use, that I am not such a big fan of is the handstand hop.  I like this drill (and variations of it) for front handsprings on vault, but not so much for floor.  It goes back to what I talked about earlier regarding the “kicking through” of the back leg.  When performing this handstand hop, we are, in my opinion, strengthening the action of bringing the feet together way too soon.  This is an action that is more natural in my experience than the other (kicking all the way through), so I personally, don’t want to do anything to make this action more dominant.  I feel like the gymnast can separate this technique more successfully when doing the drill for vault, so we do it there, but not on floor.  Call me paranoid, but it works for me.

One drill that I have them do for blocking involves doing the front handspring from a lunge going down to a resi, and then over-rotating to the belly on a couple of wedges.  This could also be done on the floor from a hurdle.  Here are some of our gymnasts doing these drills:

THE FINISH:  This is another very important aspect of the front handspring, as the position of the body and the angle of the body is crucial to the success of the skill that will eventually come after the front handspring. 

***A huge point about the landing of this skill is the risk to the back.  I am a firm believer that the majority of back injuries in our sport comes from the landing of front handsprings and other forward rotating skills.  The reality is that no matter how much work is done on these skills, gymnasts land many of them with their bodies considerably behind their feet.  This landing creates a great amount of force which is focussed on the vertebra of the lower back.  It is because of this fact that I believe we need to be very conservative with this skill.  We should do the best we can to keep our athletes from doing this skill on the floor until we know that they are capable of doing all of the above techniques efficiently enough to rotate this skill to the point of landing their bodies in front of their feet when the feet contact the floor.  It is also important to work with the athlete to get her to tighten her core, using a “bracing” system (tightening the lower abs, the glutes, etc.), so that the lower back is protected on impact.***

One of the drills that we do for this are included in this video (thanks to Tammy Biggs for another great drill):

So, there you go.  The training of a front handspring.  I have included a couple of videos to show the completed process.  The first is a video of our level 7s performing front handspring flysprings, and the second is of Ginny, one of our level 9s at Westerns last year performing her floor routine.  She does a very nice front hanspring in her second pass.

Thank you so much for your time in reading this series of articles!  I hope that it helps.  I look forward to any and all comments that you would like to make about any of this.

A Comment about Basics and Conditioning

Josh submitted this comment about basics and conditioning:

I love the philosophy and mindset that you have, I just wish that everyone thought the same way. I do have a couple questions though. I really like conditioning and love to do it at the end of class, however my classes are very short and there is not much time. What are some things that you can do during class to “make-up” for this? Another thing is how can you make the kids feel like they are not being punished? I try being upbeat about it, even join them every once in a while but they seem to still act like it’s because they have done something wrong. Thank you!

As to your first question – – – If you are coaching a class that is only 1 hour, it is very tough to get in any great amount of conditioning (especially if it is a tumbling or cheerleading type class with teenagers), so your options are limited.  One thing that I have done in the past is to try to come up with drills that involve much more strength, so that they get some conditioning as we are rotating through a circuit.  This can be as simple as doing a handstand against a wall for 30 seconds, or roll and jumps 12-15 times in a row, or jumps to the back on to a resi several times in a row.  The success in this comes from the fact that these are all things that the student understands to be important to their acquiring certain skills.  This is completely dependent, however, on how great a salesperson you are, which brings us to your second question…

 

How do you get the students to feel like they are not being punished by conditioning?  The answer to this is that you have to change their mindsets as to what conditioning is.  You have already done step 1 by being upbeat about it.  The next step is to continually re-enforce to them how great they are going to be at the skills they want if they continue to condition properly.  Your excitement and their belief in your sincerity are the big keys here. 

 

One of the things you can do to emphasize this importance and how successful it will be is to use examples among your students.  Find the kid in your group who is excelling at something and point out how her strength is helping her to this result.  Or, even better, find the student who is finally making a skill, and point out how her conditioning and strength has helped her to have this success.  Every time a student has success with a skill, it is an opportunity to promote your agenda.  This is true not only about conditioning, but drills, flexibility, mental dedication, hard work, etc.  Use the girls’ (or boys’) successes as a tool toward future successes for them and their classmates or teammates.  DO NOT POINT OUT ATHLETES WHO ARE FAILING BECAUSE OF A LACK OF STRENGTH!!  This does nothing but alienate that student and make her feel like giving up.  The stress should be on the success that can be had by all of the students by doing something as simple as consistently working hard at a few exercises.  Again, it is the “selling” of this idea that is the key.  Your challenge is to get the students to want to do conditioning because of how much they want a certain skill.

 

Also, a huge key to the students “buying in” to the idea of conditioning is your consistency with it.  If they know what is coming every week, then they start to prepare themselves for it, rather than having it tossed on to them randomly.  This is when it feels like punishment or just a coach trying to “push me around, because he can”.  There was a great quote last year (and very funny, I think) on the awesome show “Glee” by the cheerleading sponsor.  It is very extreme, but kind of sums up this idea:

I empower my Cheerios to live in a state of constant fear by creating an environment of irrational random terror.

 

Obviously, this is an exaggeration, but I think it makes the point that things that are random create questioning and uneasiness on the people who are targets of it.  Also, I just always wanted to share that quote with everyone, and so I took my opportunity.  A benefit of blogging, I guess.

 

So, be consistent, and be a great salesperson, and you will be fine.  Thanks for the great questions, Josh!  I hope this helped.

Basics, Basics, Basics!!! Training the Front Handspring on Floor – Part II

So, here is the 2nd part of Training a Front Handspring on floor:

***Please note that a lot of these drills are done with front handspring step-outs, and while the gymnast may sometimes tend to land behind her foot and create a little lower back arch (something we do other drills for as well), I believe that the real danger to the back is not necessarily in the arching of the lower back (we still try to avoid this), as much as it is in the impact of landing in this position on two feet at full speed.  I would love for my gymnasts to do these drills with less lower back arch, but we are still working toward making that better with these girls through spotting of these drills, CONDITIONING, other drills that are not shown, such as flysprings, etc., and through better flexibility.  Remember also, that these drills are shown to give you some ideas on how to help your athletes’ front handsprings, and that we do not just do hundreds of these on a daily basis.***

THE LEVER ACTION:  This is a big key to all tumbling, as this lever is what generates rotation and results in the body finishing past vertical, leading to momentum in the direction of the tumbling pass.  Many, many gymnasts struggle with their tumbling passes, because they land their front handsprings behind their feet, simply because of the lack of this lever action, or the “stopping” of the lever action before the rotation is initiated fully.  There are some lever drills on my “Handstand” post.  Here is one of the drills we use to try and increase the speed of this action:

The goal in this drill is for the gymnast to place her fingertips as close to the edge of the carpet square as possible and then try and get her foot to land as close to the carpet square as possible.  This is done by kicking the back leg through as aggressively as possible.

THE PUSH OF THE FRONT LEG:  This is definitely one of the most over-looked parts of tumbling.  So many gymnasts do not really understand the importance of this “lunge” leg.  All we have to do is think of this scenario, and we can get a much better understanding of the necessity of the front leg push:  A gymnast kicks the back leg as hard as she can over the top of a front handspring, but does not use the “lunge” leg at all.  What this leads to is a lack of rise of the center of gravity requiring the gymnast to bend her arms in the round-off or front handspring.  The second problem in this scenario is the loss of forward momentum, and the resulting “circling” action of that skill.  It almost changes the momentum to retreat toward where the athlete started, as a kind of “undercutting” situation.

So, we have to make sure that we are working drills toward maximizing this action of the front leg.  One way to develop this push of the front leg is a drill involving jumping across the floor with the lunge leg (do both to keep a good balance in strength in the legs) while holding on to a partner’s hands. Below are some gymnasts doing some of these (this was very new for these particular gymnasts) and another drill that I have found effective:

Another drill that we have found particularly effective is doing front handspring step-outs and cartwheel step-ins from the knee.  This creates a situation where the gymnast must “stand up” using the front leg to make this skill.  Here are some girls doing that drill:

 Watch for Part III in this series, which will cover the “Block off of the hands”, and the “Finish” of the Front Handspring on floor.

Why Spend More Time on Basics…part 2

The following is an excerpt from JAO‘s comment on the training of basics, and why some coaches don’t train them enough.  I think this is pretty accurate, and definitely something we should think about.

Coach A, maybe only even subconsciously, wants to prove to the world he’s an awesome coach. Why else would Coach A be coaching team? If Coach (A) *just* loved coaching, he could coach rec kids and not have to worry about levels and meets and stress and fears and injuries and crying and nagging parents (or at least not to the same degree). So, on SOME level, at SOME point, we’re all coaching competitive stuff because we like competing, and we like competing because we like winning.

So, we can probably agree Coach A wants to win, and accept that as a reasonable premise? Now, perhaps at some level, Coach A has begun to notice his kids aren’t winning at meets. That’s ok, Coach A thinks, because there are other ways of measuring how good his kids are, i.e., how good of a coach he is. Coach A can persuade his girls, his parents, and most importantly himself, that it’s ok not to win at meets, for any of a number of reasons (we don’t train for this level, we train for the next level, the other teams have older girls, second year girls, they only practice meet stuff and we work on next year stuff, etc.) And those are all plausible, believable, and even potentially valid reasons for why Coach A’s girls did not place very well at a meet. Indeed, there are effective gyms that train ahead, practice other things, and only compete at certain USAG level because they have to in order to move their girls up, etc. But that’s not Coach A, and Coach A doesn’t understand that.

Coach A’s problem may be that he subscribes to a very dangerous and sadly all too common perception of gymnastics, which incorrectly states: If Coach A and Coach B both have a girl competing the same skills in Level X, but Coach A’s girl is younger, then Coach A must be the better coach, because he got his gymnast to do Level X before Coach B.

For a million reasons, we know that’s not a true conclusion. But it is in Coach A’s mind, though Coach A might not even admit it out loud, it nonetheless exists on some level to some degree. We’ve all been guilty at some point of seeing a team with a dozen babies at whatever level and thought “holy cow, I wish I had that.” (Which is the sister perception, also incorrect: If Coach A has 10 kids in optional level X and Coach B has 5, Coach A is a better coach)

So, if this is an operational thought in Coach A’s mind, it’s going to affect his philosophy and approach toward coaching. Which means instead of trusting patience and discipline, he’s going to equate greatness with earliness, and if he’s in a large enough market or has even just a little bit of luck, there’s going to be a girl who moves through his program every once in a while (just frequently enough to convince him his approach is right) who is going to be able to pick things up at the speed at which he coaches. She’ll look narsty, (that’s intentional) but he either won’t care or won’t know. It will justify him to himself, and be reason to be upset with the other girls who aren’t picking things up.

So why would Coach A spend any more time on a handstand than is minimally necessary? He won’t, because he needs to feel like he’s a great coach, and, unfortunately for him, he thinks that means getting kids to do things before other people can get their kids to do things. If he slows down, he’s going to feel like he’s behind, like he’s losing the race, and like he’s a bad coach; and his kids, who have been raised on speed, will suddenly be resistant to this new type of slow coaching, which will create chaos, argument, etc., and he won’t have the courage to keep the foot down, the kids and parents will run over him, and he’ll be forced back into speed-coaching in a few months with nothing to show for it but a few angry quitters and some mean emails from parents accusing him of not knowing what he’s doing, which is every insecure coach’s nightmare.

I think the key here is that JAO‘s description of this type of coach is exactly the opposite mentality of what I wrote about on my post on “Why Spend More Time on Basics”.  Coach A is mostly concerned with his own ego and reputation.  Coaches who are more concerned about their athlete’s well-being and goals are much more likely to spend the time necessary on basics for ALL of their athletes to be more successful, and not just the ones who would be successful in any program. 

Thanks, JAO for an awesome comment!

Why Spend More Time on Basics?

There were several comments on my handstand post about coaches not spending time on basics.  You can read these comments, and add to them if you would like, but I wanted to address the other end of it.

I think there are multiple reasons why coaches skip through the basics and jump into more advanced skills sooner than what might be beneficial to the gymnast.  What is important to remember, though, is just that – “what might be beneficial to the gymnast”.  I know that we all have personal goals with our coaching (I do for sure), but I think we have to start by really thinking about where we would like to see our gymnasts “end up”, and more importantly what they are getting from being involved in the sport.

Too many times, in my opinion, I see gymnasts competing “over their heads” and training skills that are beyond what they are physically ready for.  Whatever the reason for this, it is not, in most cases, what is best for the gymnast. 

If we are genuinely concerned with what is best for our athletes, and we really want to see them come out of the sport better prepared for life, then we must weigh all of these things before we start planning our training, etc. 

Some questions that I would ask myself first and foremost:

• What lessons do I feel are important for my gymnasts to learn through their involvement in the sport?
• How would I like them to feel about their experiences in the sport when they are through with it?
• How do I want to be perceived by my gymnasts when they are done with the sport?
• What is most important to me for my gymnasts: their self-worth, their accomplishments, my accomplishments, their opinions of me, or other coaches’/parents’ opinions of me?

I have always tried (not always succeeded however) to make sure that the decisions I make and the following actions are based on the athletes’ feeling of success in the end.  This does not mean that I do what will make them happy right now.  This is one of the things that leads to doing more advanced skills earlier than we should…it’s more fun for the gymnast and the coach.  I have never been about immediate satisfaction or temporary happiness.  I want to keep the “big picture” in my head.  How many times in our coaching careers have we seen the gymnast that feels like a failure because she can’t get that next skill?  Well, in my opinion, many times this gymnast is frustrated because the foundation wasn’t laid out correctly, and the result is that the next skill can’t be learned.  If we care about our athletes, then this is a very painful experience for us as well as the gymnast.  I don’t want to be a contributor to that frustration and therefore I try my hardest to follow the proper progressions.  I can’t stomach the possibility of my impatience leading to a girl’s thinking she is a failure.  This sometimes puts me into a “too slow” approach, but I have chosen that as an acceptable fault, at times.

I remember an old quote from David Adlard many years ago that I feel is very true, “Learning a double back can be just as easy as learning a cartwheel if the proper progressions are followed.”  I para-phrased this, so I’m sorry Dave, if this is not exactly how you worded it.  I am a firm believer in this, as I have seen it played out through the coaching of myself and others.  It’s not easy to stay dedicated to the basics and the mastery of step 1 before step 2, but it does lead to easier progression to the next skill.

It takes enthusiasm on the part of the coach to get the athlete excited about doing hollow body work or cartwheels from a lunge for the 100th time.  But, it is this commitment to the bigger picture that leads to the greatest success, and the greatest feeling of success in the mind of the athlete.

A few years ago, a coach asked me how we got our kids to be so excited and motivated to do conditioning.  It was funny, because I hadn’t really thought about it, as our kids have always been that way at a certain level.  The reason for this “excitement” by our gymnasts is that WE are excited about conditioning.  It has never been something that we do just because we have to, or a time for us to take a break and get a drink, etc.  It has always been, to us, the most important thing that our athletes will do, so we are very focused on it and excited about the way the kids do it.  We encourage them by telling them how strong they will be and how great they will be at their gymnastics because of it.  This conditions them mentally as well, to look at conditioning as a means to a greater end.  They have, in essence, “bought in” to the idea of conditioning, and are therefore excited about it.  Imagine what this will do for them in their lives later on, when they are done with the sport.  They won’t exercise because they have to, but because they look at it as the work necessary to achieve a desired goal.  Kids who learn and understand what proper progressions are, will also gain the lesson that life is not just about doing what you want when you want, but putting in the time to be able to get what you want down the road. 

Another favorite quote of mine is one I saw on the wall at a Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop.  It said,

“If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them.”

This quote, in a nutshell, is what it is all about.  Thanks all.