Coaches Making the transition from overlow to Giant

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Jabba

Coach
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I have a gymnast who can't seem to make the change from overlow to giant. Every time we work giants, she closes the shoulder angle at the last second (even spotted). I cant posted a video, but she gets almost to handstand and then closes her shoulders. She casts to handstand fine. Her fall from the handstand is slightly arched, but not bad (and we are working to hollow out). She's also short, so no low bar issues. She can do strap giants, but we don't have access to straps too often.

We do extension drills and bounce/tramp bar drills. Any other drills/ideas/different ways to think about it that could help her to to open up her shoulders???

She has everything else needed to go Level 7 and it would be a shame for this to hold her back, but we are almost out of time.

Any help and ideas is very much appreciated!
 
Does she know how to bail out of a giant that comes up short? If not, that's the first thing I'd do.
Next, I'd have her do some giants that deliberately extend too early and therefore don't make it over top; this should force her to open the shoulders and push on the bar.
After that, it should just be a matter of trying to meet halfway in the middle.

Back extension roll - forward roll might also help (so they roll back to handstand, and then forward roll from that handstand) might help, as might free hips to handstand (spotted, if necessary -- and all the better if she can fall/bail forward out of it, rather than coming back down to the bar). Any drills that force her to fall forward out of that giant/back extension roll/free hip motion should help by forcing her to extend her shoulders.
 
Tell her to stop thinking about making a giant and start thinking about ending in a handstand. It sounds simple, but it worked for one of my kids who had trouble with the same transition.
 

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