Coaches Latest Gymnastics Minute (Re: Front tumbling arm position)

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Geoffrey Taucer

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I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts on this. It runs counter to what I (and most coaches I know) regard as proper technique, yet it sort of makes sense the way Watanabe explains it. I wouldn't say I'm completely sold on this approach yet, but I'm probably going to have some of my boys experiment with this today and see what happens.
 
Saw and I'm going to try it tomorrow night. Would probably reserve it for higher level athletes but I think I do that when I do FHS front layout anyway...I just don't really think about it. I'm not sure what I do but I don't think my arms stay by my ears. It seems sort of natural to me. Maybe not that dramatically, but yeah... I wouldn't stop teaching L5 differently, because I think they have less of an ability to make this adjustment and also because they don't flip out of their FHS anyway.
 
I had two of my guys try this yesterday; one with very flexible shoulders, one with average shoulder flexibility. The flexible one had a better handspring front keeping the arms narrow, but the one with stiff shoulders did much better with the arms coming out on the front handspring.

I'll try it with some of my girls later if I get a chance.
 
Seems very similar to the technique of working a punch front layout, with the set.
 
Seems very similar to the technique of working a punch front layout, with the set.

Maybe, I am not sure if you mean a run punch layout (because if I understand the video well enough it seems to be advocating an open set only until about vertical from the front handspring, then the arms would go upward/forward) or a front layout bounding from another salto. However I would agree many gymnasts that have good rebounding skills out of saltos would naturally use this technique to punch out of a salto (opening out and then lifting upwards on contact). For example even out of back twisting I would do the last half and open out like this to stop twisting, and lift on the punch. This is important technique because lifting the arms early rather than opening out of the salto (preferably late, as you see the floor) will usually not work well. I have seen some gymnasts even throw their arms straight back to finish a twist, obviously this is not good technique because in order to finish rotation they will probably not finish in the correction position to rebound, even if they had the necessary speed and power going in.
 

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