WAG "Leftie gymnast"?

[Amusibus]

Coaches, parents more experienced than I am, I have been wondering why my daughter's developmental coach says a child that writes with the right hand is a lefty gymnast and vice versa. My daughter writes right handed, and the coach has her do cartwheels, round offs, handstands etc., all starting on the left leg. Why? This seems counterintuitive to me. She tried to explain to me it has something to do with the direction she'll twist when she's more advanced, but I don't understand.

 

[gymdog]

A right handed person can be a left sided gymnast, but it's not a general rule. I'm right handed, right sided, and twist left. People who have a different "side" in gymnastics than their dominant hand aren't rare exactly, but they aren't the majority either. I try to avoid/discourage the kids using different sides for everything when possible but sometimes it is what it is.

Right sided/left twisting is only an issue in limited situations (roundoff directly connected to twisting, and a certain vaulting style). I can still twist out of a roundoff though. Oh and 1/2 twisting into a step out into another roundoff (these passes are getting a little more common). But I would never change a kid's dominant roundoff or even their dominant twisting direction. So hopefully you misunderstood the coach and your daughter is just a different side than her dominant hand.

 

[Copelscope]

My daughter is a lefty (hand) but a righty gymnast -- not entirely sure why, but her coach watched her handstand & cartwheel to determine dominance and took it from there. It took her forever to get her "right leg" kick overs because she did them naturally with her "wrong leg", so technically I guess she's mixed dominant? (She can cartwheel, kick over, BWO with both now, and almost has her FWO with her "wrong leg"-- her coaches have stressed consistency with one dominant leg for later, but want them to essentially be ambidextrous gymnasts)

 

[fliptwisttwirl]

Hopefully the coach isn't actually doing this. It honestly just depends on the gymnast. Some righties are lefties in gymnastics and some lefties are righties in gymnastics..but a lot of the time righties are righties for writing and gym. And same with lefties. Twisting comes naturally..and often times you don't twist the same as you do your roundoff. It's usually better to just let the gymnast do what comes naturally.

 

[catou]

I'm right handed, but a lefty for gymnastics. I have gymnasts who are the same as me, some are right handed and right legged. I think it's important to go with the side the gymnast is more confortable with, as long as it's coherent for between the skills. For example, as a gymnast, I learned my front twist twisting toward the left and my back twisting toward the right. So I was always using my right arm to twist. I did trampoline for a while after gymnastics and I learned that can ben a problem for more advanced moves. I had to change by back twisting so I would twist toward the left.

As a coach, I don't want a gymnast to do a cartwheel with her right leg, a backwalkover with her right. I'm also pretty sure that it's not all right legged gymnast who are left handed.

 

[Kiwi]

I think that is a generalisation. I am left-handed and left-legged (into cartwheels, etc.). My DD is right-handed and left-legged.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Coaches, parents more experienced than I am, I have been wondering why my daughter's developmental coach says a child that writes with the right hand is a lefty gymnast and vice versa. My daughter writes right handed, and the coach has her do cartwheels, round offs, handstands etc., all starting on the left leg. Why? This seems counterintuitive to me. She tried to explain to me it has something to do with the direction she'll twist when she's more advanced, but I don't understand.

.
this topic is to complex to be discussed in a forum of this type. the coach is incorrect and your "counterintuitive" can't be applied in the mechanics of gymnastics.

these kinds of things are done on a individual basis and all sorts of considerations come in to play when deciding what direction they go. nothing is written in stone in gymnastics.

i can tell you that most gymnasts perform a left cartwheel/round off. but not all are right handed. if we knew why this was, Neuro Docs could cure all dysfunctions, disease and disorders of the brain and nervous system.

the discussion is just to complex for non-gymnastics people to understand. and apparently for some coaches also.

 

[J&A's mom]

Yes, I agree with the others. You can't make that generalization. It took my son a while to get the cartwheel, then the coach had him try it the opposite way and there it is on the second try....ok, probably exagerating, but you get the idea. Then, when my little guy was learning, they tried it a lot sooner, and he too, does it opposite than he "should."

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

.
this topic is to complex to be discussed in a forum of this type. the coach is incorrect and your "counterintuitive" can't be applied in the mechanics of gymnastics.

these kinds of things are done on a individual basis and all sorts of considerations come in to play when deciding what direction they go. nothing is written in stone in gymnastics.

i can tell you that most gymnasts perform a left cartwheel/round off. but not all are right handed. if we knew why this was, Neuro Docs could cure all dysfunctions, disease and disorders of the brain and nervous system.

the discussion is just to complex for non-gymnastics people to understand. and apparently for some coaches also.

How fortunate, then, that we find ourselves in a forum full of gymnastics people!

I'd love to hear what you can share on the topic (or if you can direct me to any articles or research). I've probably heard (and participated in) more debates between coaches about twisting direction than about everything else in the sport combined.

 

[Amusibus]

folks thanks for your replies but honestly they have left me just as confused as before! My daughter did a beautiful, perfect righty cartwheel, but her lefty cartwheel kind of stinks! I feel bad for her that the coach is making her go against what seems to come naturally . Dunno, please, can you tell me more about this? I have some medical background (I'm a chiropractor ) so hopefully I could understand at least the neurological aspects of this discussion.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

okay. it's very late here now. i'll address this tomorrow. and remember that i said that the dominant round off everywhere gymnastics is done is by left cartwheel. which means that they will push off their dominant arm/hand...the right hand.

i'll also attempt to explain trampoline (purist) twisting and then gymnastics twisting. and then the problems that arise in women's gymnastics at the balance beam when doing dismounts.

good night for now.

 

[Faith]

I find this really interesting . I'm your traditional right-handed/left sided gymnast. But oddly, reading above, most gymnasts I know are right sided (not sure about handed ness).


My own daughter is right sided. So is my sister. When I did acro I partnered many other girls in pairs and trio's, and I always had to work the right side, as no-one else could do left handed cartwheels/splits etc.


As far as I know here you work both sides as much as possible, but for things like RO, walkovers etc you work which is strongest. I've not come across a coach who prefers all gymnasts to work the same side. For me, if an individual child was working one leg for some skills, and the other for others, I'd be working on the assumption that either the child is truly ambidextrous, or has picked up a "bad habit" almost, where they've not been taught a skill properly according to their dominant side.


I always had problems with rudi's on tramp- the first full was a lovely left twist, then I'd right twist for the last half...

 

[gymfun]

Hi! My daughter is right handed and does everything left handed/footed in gymnastics. She even uses left foot for soccer when kicking the ball. When I first noticed it in gymnastics years ago the coach said NOT to correct her....she will do what comes naturally

 

[Amusibus]

Hi! My daughter is right handed and does everything left handed/footed in gymnastics. She even uses left foot for soccer when kicking the ball. When I first noticed it in gymnastics years ago the coach said NOT to correct her....she will do what comes naturally

But it doesn't come naturally to my child. She wants to use the right leg, and is more coordinated on the right, but the coach is trying to train her to do everything lefty.

 

[sglemon]

I have 2 right handed DDs, who both took gymnastics. One was a lefty and the other a righty gymnast. So I am batting 50%. My "lefty" gymnast, when they split the girls into 2 groups based on what side was dominant, seemed to always be in the smaller group. I don't know if that means anything or not.

I guess she gets that from me, when I played basketball, I dribbled with my right, but I could only shoot/lay up/etc.. with my left.

 

[emorymom]

My son is right handed and has always lead with his left foot. He kicks left, and he leads left into his roundoff. In preschool gym from what I remember they would ask what hand they wrote with and try to lead with that side on cartwheels. But he always wrote right (though I could have raised him ambidextrous with just a little effort) and lead left.

My daughter is right/right.

 

[thefellowsmom]

I asked my daughter about this. She leads left into her round off. But, she said that most of the girls in her group (14 girls with two coaches) are right. There are maybe three or four of this group that go left so interesting to hear that most should be going left.

This whole conversation must be frustrating for you. I'm sorry that the coach is trying to force her to go her unnatural direction. When dunno lays it all out, the mechanics and science of it will probably make more sense to you, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still happening for your daughter.

Maybe the coaches here could suggest a diplomatic and effective way to approach the coach about this without offending. Is this the head coach at your gym or just some young new coach that may not know better? If the latter, maybe you could express your concern a little bit higher up?

Coaches, if this is the philosophy of the gym, would this be a reason to look elsewhere?

 

[AmandaLynn]

I write with my right hand, throw with my right hand, kick a ball with my right foot. However, I'm all mixed up in gymnastics. I prefer to lead with my left leg in handstands and cartwheels, back walkover with my right leg in front (well, back before I got old and couldn't do those anymore... lol), turn with my left leg as my "base" leg, leap with my right leg in front, etc.

However, all of those skills use the left leg as the "Base" or the "pushing" leg. *shrug*

 

[gymdog]

But it doesn't come naturally to my child. She wants to use the right leg, and is more coordinated on the right, but the coach is trying to train her to do everything lefty.

It's not generally accepted to have a kid who can do things already on the right switch to the left, if that's the question. Usually we evaluate both sides and go with the dominant side cartwheel (does not necessarily correlate to their dominant handedness).

Is your daughter in a developmental program/preteam? When did they start trying to have her switch sides?

 

[Gymmommy71]

My daughter is a righthanded writer and a righty gymnast, but she has done grmnastics w/ several girls over the years who are/were righthanded writers, but lefty gymnasts...and IMO there are way more lefty gymnasts than lefty writers...like in her teams/groups of 8-12 girls over the years, there was usually at least 5 lefty gymnasts, sometimes more...when you just don't see that high of a percentage of lefthandedness when it comes to writing in school. I do know that whatever hand a girl *is*, it's important for competition that she's consistent for an entire routine with using that hand/side...like you can't do a left handed/legged cartwheel in one part of the routine and then switch to the right leg for a turn or leap later on (unless in the case of a compulsory routine where they force something to be on the "bad leg" - like the one turn in the L6 beam routine). My daughter, even though she's better w/ her right side on almost everything else, actually turns slightly better with her left side/leg...because of this she just needs to work a little harder on her turns in her routines...but it's all a part of building coordination I guess. I guess the point of my response here is that it is not unusual *at all* from my experience for a kid to write w/ their right hand and be a lefty gymnast , or do some things better w/ one hand/leg and not others.