Wood vs. Metal

This is actually quite a popular topic in my gym, which do you prefer to vault on, a wood or metal springboard? Personally, I prefer wood. As a gymnast, I just liked the sound a solid underset made when I pounded the board. I suppose that’s an immature way to debate the wood vs. metal argument, but I actually like wood better as a coach too. When my girls accidently “balk” I find it is so much more painless for them when its a wood board. Often times toes get stubbed on the metal and things get ugly. While we’re discussing vault, no matter what board you use, a proper underset it ESSENTIAL to any vault whether it be a squad on or a yurchenko. I could spend days describing the details of an underset, instead I’m going to share the best vault advice that I can give. Chest up on the board. This is so important for heel drive and fuels your vault in the right direction, whatever it may be. One other tip, because I can’t help myself with my pet peeves, make sure you jump on the right part of the board! This would be at the top of the board but not too far up, pretty much directly above the first row of springs. Coaches, put duct tape as a guideline for the gymnasts so they know exactly where they are aiming for. The type of board can play a large role in how comfortable a gymnast is in vaulting. My thing is, when you go to a meet, you don’t get a choice, so get used to vaulting on any springboard. However, when training, comfort is key. I recommend the Gibson springboard, my gym has a few of these carpeted springboards and they’re loved by all. In fact, when one of our girls when to nationals, she took the board with her! These boards make it hard to slip because of the carpeting and furthermore, getting springs in and out is not a huge hassle so as little time as possible is wasted.

http://www.gibsonathletic.com/inventory.asp?CatId=%7BB084FF25-D971-47D6-AC8F-1B7B269B8717%7D

Practice Panels

The panel mat is an institution at a gymnastics center. Hands down, we have more panel mats than any other type of mat at our gym. It can be used for every event and so many purposes. I would say the most common purpose would be for floor drills. I especially like to use this mat for beginner classes to practice cartwheels.The cartwheel is one of my favorite skills to teach because its so easy to figure out what the gymnast needs to do in order to improve. The skill can be seen as scary for a beginner, you are literally diving onto your hands and expecting your arms to hold you up while simultaneously keeping the motion going and hoping to land on your feet. I find that using the panels can be so helpful because gymnasts can place their hands on the top of the mat and just kick their legs over. Once they get the hang of this action, the coach can open up the panel and make the hand placement part lower, which gets the gymnast going closer to the ground. And eventually, the motions will all come together and the gymnast will be able to cartwheel perfectly. My pet peeve about cartwheels would be the bad habit of starting out in a poor lunge. If I was to give a crash course on how to do proper lunge here would be the main tips:

• Lean forward. This gives momentum for the skill, there should be a straight line from the top of your middle finger to your heel.
• Turn your front foot out. Not just for beam, this will help you tumble straight and keep those ankles safe from injury.
• Arms in tight! Your arms should be glued to your ears before and after the skill, this way you are prepared for the next skill, also it looks cleaner.
• Hips square. This again helps the direction of your tricks, and is a good habit to get into in order to take new skills to the beam.
• Feet apart enough. Not too wide, not too narrow, think about fourth position in ballet.

Combine all those tips and you’ll have a great set up for a cartwheel. When teaching beginners, insist that before they place their hands on that panel mat, they must show a lung the right way. This is a good habit to get into, and while using the panel mat, your gymnast is on their way to a great cartwheel. A panel mat that I find stores great and folds easily is the ten 0 panel mat.

http://www.ten-o.com/Gymnastics-Folding-Panel-and-Tumbling-Mats.html

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/

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/