Hi all...I'm seeking some advice. I had my daughter evaluated at a new gym for their compulsory program and their feedback was that she would have a ton of work to do to correct her form and clean up/relearn her skills because she does some skills with her left (like her cartwheel and roundoff) and some with her right (like her split and back walkover). When she tries to do these skills on the opposite side, it looks like she can't do gymnastics at all. It's awful! She is 8 and currently does Xcel Gold, and this has never come up as an issue with her coaches. Has anyone's child faced this? Was it hard to overcome? I'm thinking it will be a problem for her to advance to optionals if this isn't corrected now because her current gym uses Xcel in place of compulsories. Don't you have to score out of Level 5 to mobilize to optionals?
Parents Compulsories and right vs. left
- Thread starter blueberrygym
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My daughter had a similar problem. She is a righty and was hurdling with the wrong leg for her vault. Funny because she hurdling with the correct leg for her ROBH. They caught this when she changed gyms. At that time she had been hurdling with the incorrect leg for a year at the old gym. It was awkward to make the change at first and looked liked she didn't know how to vault. It took her about 2 weeks to get used to vaulting on the correct leg. Prior to the correction she was getting a 8.9 on vault. After the correction her high was 9.6. A big difference! Glad the new gym caught it. So no worries she will get it quickly enough
Thanks for the responses! Wow MickeyDGym, I can't believe your daughter had been doing it on the wrong leg for a whole year. It's been two years for us and it makes me sad to know no one ever stopped her to focus on developing one side. But it's encouraging to know that it took only a few weeks for you and Sasha's DD to make the change. I was worried that this could be a deal breaker.
At our gym, team girls work both "good leg" and "bad leg" for acro skills and leaps.
Both of my gymmies came thru rec without a "good leg" meaning cartwheels, etc were equally good. For compulsories, they chose which side based on their preferred splits..
So by working "good" and "bad" legs, the gymnasts build their strength on both sides? I never knew this was even a thing! My DD just works her good leg. The bad one gets ignored. She said she just does the side that feels natural. Does this sound atypical?
When starting out, what feels 'natural' may be a mix (like your DD and mine). To build the skills with proper connections later, it is important to have a dominant or 'lead' leg so that you end up on the correct foot / direction to go into the next skill (as I understand it). Maybe a coach can explain better.
Training both sides (like raenndrops described) equally is, I think, less common, though certainly would make for a very well-rounded gymnast. Gyms we have been at have just had girls train one dominant 'side' for skills. I'm sure there are gymnasts who are equally good with skills like leaps on both legs. I just don't think it is super common.
Like yours, my DD originally did her back walkover with the 'wrong' leg and had to switch. She also did her splits and jumps 'wrong' compared to the way she naturally did a cartwheel and roundoff. So she kept the cartwheel and roundoff lead foot as 'dominant' and changed the back walkover, jumps, and splits. She can still do a back walkover and splits with either leg, but her leaps and jumps are far better now on her dominant side (that she switched to).
My son also has a little mix. To this day, he hurdles onto the vault springboard with the opposite leg compared to how he hurdles into floor tumbling. It works for him, though, so coach has not asked him to change it.
I think your DD will be fine! Just takes a bit of time, but if she is dedicated, she can adjust.
Most people have a dominant side or a way that feels natural.
In most gyms, they work all 3 splits (left, right, and middle). There are a lot of girls at our gym who aren't as strong on their non-dominant side. Part of the reason we work both sides is to work the muscles equally. The other reason is to get the girls to think about the process. Doing bad leg cartwheels actually helps them with their good leg cartwheels.
Ironically, my kid is a full on lefty....and is right handed.
My daughter cartwheeled wrong for a long time and we couldn't figure out why she was so awful at it! 
ALL my kids (and myself) are gym leftys but rightys in life. Except her. She is a lefty in gym and life. She just though since she wrote and ate opposite us she would also cartwheel opposite. Nope. Cartwheels are much better now
ALL my kids (and myself) are gym leftys but rightys in life. Except her. She is a lefty in gym and life. She just though since she wrote and ate opposite us she would also cartwheel opposite. Nope. Cartwheels are much better now
This was exactly Puma Jr...it was not noticed during L3 (maybe it wouldn't have mattered-I can't remember that routine well) nor in Xcel Gold where it was apparently hidden, but in L4 they picked up on it after a gym change. She started right, but about 40 seconds in after the chasse, she snuck in an extra step then leaped with her left leg. She did the BWO left as well (which she still does on beam) but then finished the ROBHSBHS right. Her coaches decided to not change since she had so many other issues. They thought in optionals eventually it wouldn't matter, but I think most coaches would change this. Now in IGC, she still does it, but they are optional routines so I don't believe it matters and she is scoring well. So, I'm sure her coaches will fix it, but you are not alone! And yes, she must score out of L4 and L5 before moving to optionals. But you only need a 31, which is only four 7.75s, so even if they choose to not fix it, that score should still be easy enough to obtain if she can do the skills and her form is decent. Puma Jr still had a lot of form issues and scored out of both just fine. Good luck! Keep us posted!
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Thanks Mrs. Puma! I didn't realize the minimums were only 31 so that would probably be o.k. for her to stick with her dominant side for certain skills if she stayed in Excel with the current gym. She is a powerful tumbler, but only on the left side and she would probably need to make that the dominant side if she had to choose. The split and walkovers are awful on the left though. In everyday life, she is a lefty.
My DD just told me they work all three splits but don't really work the non-dominant side for acro skills. It's likely because it's not necessary in Xcel. Now I'm wondering if compulsories will be too much of a shock to the system for her. Some of you might remember that we are evaluating new gyms for her to focus more on form/technique and were turned down by the first gym we tried. Last week, we visited a powerhouse gym that is open to her doing Xcel at their gym and not compulsories. The gym we just visited yesterday quickly picked up on her mixed dominance and is at least open to working with her for compulsories. It's a smaller team so she could get more attention. She also has a really good friend on this team. Both gyms we visited were shocked that she practices 12 hours a week and doesn't have stronger form/conditioning. Anyway, now I need to consider whether she stays where she is, moves to the powerhouse gym for Xcel, or goes to the smaller gym for compulsories. We have one more trial coming up at another gym and then will make a final decision. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
That's cool that you work more than splits on the non dominant side. Maybe more gyms should do that!
Our girls work the splits all 3 ways, but I don't think they focus on any jumps/leaps/turns or acro skills using the 'opposite' leg.
Interesting post. Good luck to your dd in finding the right fit for her. My dd is still new to gymnastics so haven't thought about this yet. I notice they do practice splits all 3 ways and they have them practice cartwheels with their "bad side" too. My dd only has split all the way down with right leg and I believe she also hurdles with right leg. Does anyone know for the level 3 floor routine if they can use whatever side is their "good side" for splits leaps and hurdles or do they all have to use same side? Sorry if this is slightly off your original topic OP.
They can choose their dominant side. They are not supposed to switch dominance within the routine because it requires an extra step here or there.
At our gym, when learning the routines, we split the girls into lefties and eighties to teach them.
My dd did her cartwheel and roundoff lefty, everything else righty. Her coach in Level 4 noticed and made her switch to doing everything lefty. Some of the skills she learned on the other leg fairly quickly, but the front handspring took a few months to get lefty.
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