Chalk Time

Other athletes may recognize the term “chalk time” as going over plays on a board while sitting in a room. Gymnasts, on the other time see chalk time as a whole different thing. Chalk time is sacred and not to be misused. That’s probably one of the things that I miss the most about practices, gathering around the chalk bucket and gossiping or complaining about our coaches. Often we would take way more time then needed, especially if I was at a station I hated, lazy me would take my sweet time getting chalk. I also remember the investigation that took place when one of us would “crush the block”. I can admit now, that it was always me, I was the weirdo that preferred the powder to the blocks. As casual as it is, chalking is an art. The perfect combination of water and chalk is needed, and the chalk can’t be too grainy. Some gyms even go as far as bringing their own lucky chalk to meets. The chalk that my girls prefer is Cramer chalk, it’s cheap and it sticks well to grips. This is their favorite kind of chalk, so they actually try to keep it in the bucket and not make a mess. I recommend this type of chalk because as a gymnast, the texture was good, it stuck well, and it worked for both beam and bars.

https://www.cramersportsmed.com/products/team-supplies/gym-chalk

Grandma Knees

Gymnastics is a sport, therefore it comes with the terrible territory of injuries. They can be easy enough to heal with rest and ice, and they can be enough to put you out of the sport for good. My guess is that once a month one of the seventy team members of our gym has a serious injury that requires physical therapy and time off from the sport. Injuries are crushing, especially in the midst of meet season or when states is around the corner, it just is not fair. Do not be fooled however, as a coach you see injuries all the way at toddler level. All it takes is a four year old tumble bee not to tuck their head in a forward roll and BAM they have a sore neck. Basic ways to prevent injuries: Stretch! I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times but here’s it a million and one- if you come into practice late you MUST sit and stretch. A solid twenty minutes is best for team members and advanced tumbling, rec classes only need ten to fifteen minutes since they have shorter practices. Next: Strength, And I’m not trying to trick you into doing more pushups then necessary I promise. The stronger your muscles are, the more resilient they will be and the easier it will be to catch yourself.

My favorite story has to be during my first year of coaching, one of my little girls came up to me and claimed that her eyebrows were hurting. As a coach, determining if a gymnast is faking or not becomes a weekly task. My best advice is to talk to other coaches, talk to the parents, but give credibility to the gymnast and take all injuries seriously. I find knee injuries to be the most common, especially around the new USAG level five. This is the level that flipping is introduced, which entails hard landings from punch fronts and back tucks. Also, the handspring vault and the fly away dismount is an easy way to hyperextend either knee which is extremely painful and can put you out for a week or two. As a gymnast, my knees were always one of my weaknesses and to this day they crack often as if to remind me. My right one put  me on crutches when I was in seventh grade and my left one blew out my senior year and took me out of a promising meet season. What I found was that my patella, the circular knee cap held by cartilage was just not able to handle impact like it should have been. It was my senior year and I wanted to go out with a bang, so I got a knee brace and did not miss a single practice. It was difficult to walk and practices were mostly strength, but it was important for me to compete at states my last year. The DonJoy Lateral J Patella Knee Brace was my life savior. I was back doing my normal practices within a couple weeks. This is because the brace allows the patella to be completely secured while the gymnast does tricks. It straps the knee so tightly that even the hardest landing did not phase my grandma knees.

http://www.betterbraces.com/donjoy-lateral-j-patella-knee-brace

Can I Borrow Some Tape?

RIPS: One of the most unforgettable, inevitable, and painful part of the sport of gymnastics. We normally compared our rips to coins: the baby dime sized rip to the gaping quarter sized rip, and everything in between. Like I mentioned earlier, rips are going to happen whether you like it or not, they are simply unavoidable. Especially when you’re working high bar skills such as tap swings, dismounts, and giants. One thing that I learned from my coaches was to actually praise my gymnast for getting a rip, the bloodier the better. It makes sense when you think about it, a rip symbolizes hard work and dedication. During the off-season, for example during summer workouts, it’s best for the gymnast to let the hand rest and relax. I’ve gotten in the habit of just giving them strength for the rest of the workout or having them do drills that don’t involve much stress on the hand in order to give the ripped hand a break. However, things are a lot different when one of the girls rips the day before a meet. Unfortunately, as painful as it may be, your gymnast has to rally, tighten those grips, and crank out one last routine before the meet. The process can be a lot less painful if the rip is taped properly!  Tape is a necessity and should be carried by every coach and gymnast. My advice is to get creative with the taping process, poke holes for fingers, wrap around the wrist and twist it if you must. The show must go on, with or without bloody hands. The tape that is easier to maneuver and stays the longest is definitely Mueller sport tape. This tape is found in many gym’s pro-shops, and if not can be found  at any athletic store. An added plus, it comes in many fun colors, but I recommend white for meets to look the most professional. This tape lasts as long as you need it and is useful for injuries too.

http://www.muellersportsmed.com/archive/tape.htm

Kips Kips Kips

I titled this post “Kips, Kips, Kips” because in order to get a kip you need to do a million of them. One of my favorite traditions in my gym was that when a girl was close to her kip, the entire gym would stop what they were doing and watch her try to get up to a front support. Usually, the girl got the skill just because of the pressure! A kip is such an involved skill, in order for it to be performed right it requires a perfect glide swing and a strong front support. The glide swing is so essential to this skill, the form, extension, and aggressiveness are the components that make a kip. Speaking of form, if one of my girls who is working on a kip does the glide swing with bent legs or drags her feet I immediately forfeit the spot. I encourage all coaches to practice this way, bad habits like that WILL stick and are completely unacceptable. Getting a kip is a defining moment in gymnastics. It represents so much hard work and so many corrections. Gymnasts make a kip look like the easiest thing in the world but those in the gymnastics world know the truth. This has to be one of my favorite skills to coach just because the corrections are mostly black and white. Most common corrections: extend the glide, switch your wrists, and throw your shoulders. Stride circles, also called mill circles in some other gyms, are a great preparation for this skill because it allows the gymnast to feel the wrist switch. Another great way to train is by using the kip machine. It does not allow for proper glide swing work but it does let the gymnast feel her/his wrist switch enough for them to land in a front support. I recommend spotting this drill at first, that way the gymnast doesn’t have to worry about getting enough power the first couple of tries, only what his/her hands are doing.This drill should be incorporated into every “new kippers” bar workout. In addition, this drill can be beneficial to those working on a straight arm kip…which should be everyone!

http://www.american-gymnast.com/shop/Assets/ProductImages/kip-trainer.jpg

Handspring Machine

Every beginner comes into gymnastics with one goal in mind: to be able to do a back handspring. I can’t tell you how many cheerleaders come into the gym with the expectation that a back handspring will only take a few a weeks. They are so disappointed when it has been a couple months and they are still unable to do one by themselves. This is because the skill of a back handspring is not for the average person. There are so many factors that go into “getting” this skill. Furthermore, doing this skill correctly is even harder. This is a level three skill (according to the new level system by USAG, previously it was first competed at level four) and it carries on to every level of gymnastics and is needed to built on for every back tumbling pass out there. When I first got my back handspring, I remember that is was a Friday during an open workout and I was wearing a purple leotard. The fact that I remember that much detail can attest to the significance of this move. Now let’s talk about the logistics of being able to do a back handspring. These questions may help narrow down how close you are to doing it by yourself.

1. Can you perform a handstand properly? Yes, I said properly! The most fundamental skill in gymnastics, it is a level one skill and should be one of the first skills mastered. To briefly describe what I mean by properly, an ideal handstand includes a stacked body, meaning the weight is evenly distributed and the hips are directly stacked above the shoulder while the feet and toes are stacked about the hips. In simpler terms, everything is in a straight line. Okay, now you’re wondering what this has to do with a back handspring. If you are unable to hold your body weight up in the correct fashion, you have no chance of doing a back handspring. This results in bent arms. As soon as you bend your arms, you lose the shoulder block power that comes from the shoulders, which means the back handspring has no chance of gaining in acceleration throughout the tumbling pass. If you’re confused let me just give you the cure for this problem: Do more arm conditioning!
2. Are you able to do a bridge? Once again, PROPERLY! This means straight arms, feet shoulder with apart and head is no where near the ground. This is important because back flexibility has to be up to par. Without it, there is no way your hands are going to find the ground before your head does, resulting in the classic back headspring that I have seen to way to many times because of lack of flexibility. So my advice: Stretch often!
3. This is probably the easier variable of this trick to understand. The straight jump. Can you jump up and down? That should have been an easy yes. Can you do it with the proper arm swing and set though? If not, do not worry it takes a total of five minutes to correct this problem. This means that the set for the back handspring is all in sync. Without it, your power is going to be seriously lacking. Your coach can help you with this all you have to do is ask. Specifically ask if your getting the full range of motion in the arm swing, I see that problem more often then not.

Like every skill, your going to want to do drills. What better way to do this than use a mat and do it in slow motion? The Mancio Rotella Handspring machine allows for just that. These mats are circular and they are shaped like a pacman. The gymnast is able to train all the body positions I just talked about. It is nice because as a coach, back handsprings can be tiresome to spot. This “eyeball”, as we call it in my gym, is safe because there is plenty of time in between the take off and landing for the gymnast to put their hands down. Used for every type of gymnast, including rec classes, team, boys, and cheerleaders, this mat will have your gymnasts getting back handsprings left and right.

http://www.mancinomats.com/Gymnastics-Equipment-Octagons-Handspring-Trainers-Mats-s/55.htm

The Floor Beam

The beam is without a doubt the apparatus that requires the most focus. When you are flipping and spinning on a piece of wood four inches wide there is no time to get distracted. The smallest error could result in a fall, which costs the gymnast an automatic .05 deducted from the start value. Acquiring new skills on a beam can take months and it can be a very frustrating process. As a gymnast, I often struggled with the correct hand placement for the back handspring. Luckily, the back walkover was never a problem for me, I was able to take it to the high beam within the first couple weeks of learning this skill. However, when I started coaching I found that the floor beam was a life saver. This piece of wood is literally two inches off the floor, ensuring safety, since there is very few ways that even a klutzy gymnast can find to fall off this beam. To add to the learning process, I have found that it can be beneficial to even put mats on top of this little beam, especially for the tumbling toddlers that have little to no sense of balance. On average, I tend to send every gymnast to the floor beam at least once per practice. This beam induces bravery because of the nonexistent space between the floor and the beam. This way, the gymnast can work on pesky hand placements and blind landings while building confidence to take it to the high beam. This beam is also ideal for drill work and it is extremely easy to pack up and move around, so it should be utilized often for simple drills, complex, and conditioning. The Nastia Liukin pink suede foam beam is great addition to your home or gym because it adds color and attracts kids. This beam is so much more than a piece of wood, it is an open door to a whole new world of tricks to be learned.

http://www.amazon.com/Nastia-Liukin-Balance-American-Athletic/dp/B001E3EDRS

The Smallest Details Count

Let’s talk about the hair. Most heard in the gym is definitely “This is not a beauty salon” and “Quit playing with your hair”. Hair: its just everywhere during practice, especially when the practice is a hard one, its hard to control the crazy flyaways. As a gymnast, we were always using our hair to get out of things. Didn’t like a particular drill? That’s okay, pretend to be doing your hair every time your coach looked over. Now that I am a coach, I see right through it and often offer to do the girl’s hair for them, that way its going to stay put. Now let’s talk about what’s worse on our locks, bridge walks or back extension rolls? That’s a close tie. Back extension rolls were always the worst, the skill is hard enough without ripping strands of hair out every turn. I have started to stock my gym bag with Scünci no slip-grip evolution hair ties. These things are made of rubber and refuse to budge during activity. They come in a great set of colors and are cheap, you can locate them at any drug store. Much to a lazy gymnast’s dismay and a coach’s delight, these hair ties make it possible for one to only do their hair once before they come to practice. Throwing your hair up in a bun with one of these evolution hair ties ensures an efficient practice.

http://www.scunci.com/

Shoes That Make ‘Sticking It’ Easy

“Why didn’t you stick that trick?!” you hear your coach ask you for the ten millionth time. Likewise, for the ten millionth time, you use the excuse that your feet slipped. Well, with the help of these shoes, these words will never come out of your mouth again. My gym always had a strict policy that insisted on socks when practicing. We complained often about this rule, after all we compete barefoot, it would make sense to practice barefoot. As we grew up and understood the concepts of warts and athletes foot, our appreciation for this rule grew as well. However, socks could sometimes have a negative impact on our gymnastics. The most common problem were that they were too slippery, and falling off in a beam routine because you slipped on a skill you otherwise would’ve been able to save but couldn’t because of your socks is unacceptable. The solution we found was Pegasus gymnastics shoes. Warning: these shoes are not colorful, not particularly comfortable, and smell terrible after a week’s worth of practice. Why do I swear by them? The bottom of this shoe is gripping material that enables the gymnast to control their landings easier and feel more secure when doing tricks. They aren’t cheap, but these shoes will give you a solid year or two before they let you down. I have not found any shoe that even compares to the Pegasus shoe, and I would rather the girls that I coach wear shoes than socks. In fact, I recommend wearing socks and shoes to avoid an unreal odor. I feel better spotting when I know that the grippy shoes will catch my gymnast if I accidently slip.

http://www.gripsetc.com/index.php?products&category_id=4

The Practice Leo

One of the essential things in this sport is the leotard. Often shortened to leo, us gymnasts need to have at least six or seven practice leotards. For me, my leotard could make or break my practice. If I wore my favorite one, I knew I would get the trick I was working on or have a really fun practice. As a coach, I also see girls more motivated when they wear a new leotard. Everyone loves answering the question “Hey, that’s so pretty, is that a new leotard?”. As a team, matching our leotards was a special thing we did at the practice before meets. In order to do so, each gymnast needed a variety of colors to choose from. GK leotards was the most popular, they have every color, style, and material imaginable. Whenever I went leotard shopping I never even considered looking anywhere else but GK, a new collection comes out so frequently that it was rare the same leotard was spotted twice in my gym.

http://www.gkelite.com/

Graduation from the velcro to buckle

Every gymnast remembers when they first graduated from the little Velcro grips to the big buckle grips. Most likely, the leather part was hanging on by a thread as you did your tap swings on the high bar and finally your coach says ” Okay, it’s time”. Gymnasts don’t have a lot of equipment, just their body and the apparatuses. That’s why our leotards, our gym shoes, our grips, hold so much sentimental value to us. Without grips especially, the whole bar workout is pointless. That’s why every gymnast knows, if you don’t want to get stuck doing drills on the side, or even worse, conditioning, BRING YOUR GRIPS TO PRACTICE! Getting new grips is one of the bittersweet parts of gymnastics. Your grips are formed perfectly to fit your hand, and your personal sweat and blood cover every inch of them. Saying goodbye to your old grips is like losing a year long friend, and most people hang onto them so long that it becomes a safety issue. When you get the new grips a feeling of frustration is common. They don’t know you like your old ones did, and it’ll take at least a month to get aquainted with the new ones. However, I found that using the ten.0 grips can help make the transition period easier. When I switched to the ten.0 brand, I was more excited than sorrowful over tossing an old pair of grips. These grips have a variety of colors, which can mean you stick with your lucky color or venture out and get a new one. The piece of metal is firm and the pocket forms within a couple practices unlike most other grips. These grips are honestly made for the biggest swingers, the fastest circlers, and the most aggressive routines. As a coach, I am constantly recommending them.

http://www.ten-o.com/Girls-Grips.html