WAG Need serious beam help

[BarCoach]

My level 4s and 5s look awful on beam. I wish there was a nicer way to put it. I don't know what I've done wrong. Mostly it's the leaps. It's bent legs, flexed feet, see-sawing, not being able to control landings, lots of falls. Ahhh! I can't watch any more. Please help! I don't know what to do.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

get a beam coach?

 

[BarCoach]

Well yes, that would be fantastic, but unfortunately, not an option. It is up to me to figure this out.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

don't get me wrong...i coached beam, as well as other male coaches during my time. but for some reason, the girls respond better to a female coach and preferably one that was a former gymnast and speaks "their" language. kinda like the ya-ya club for gymnasts. the gymnasts just respond better.

 

[LizzieLac]

Take them off the beam and have them work on the poor form on the floor on a line. Also they may need to learn to hold a position to "feel" the tightness of their form before they try to take it to a jump.

 

[kgymn]

Lots and lots of drills on the floor. Lots and lots of practicing splits, making sure they are sitting in them correctly so they can feel where their legs need to be on leaps. Work on split jumps on a tramp or off a mini tramp. Utilize a mirror so they can see what their legs and feet are doing mid-air. Get a reward system going, so they earn something based on doing them correctly. Get everything perfect on the floor, perfect on a straight line, then move back to the beam. Personally, when my leaps on beam aren't good, it's a confidence issue, and the best way I have found to deal with it is to perfect them on the floor on a line until I have the muscle memory so good I can pretty much land on the line with my eyes closed. There's just something about landing on one foot that is scary.

~Katy

 

[sglemon]

Have them work on the floor on a line. When you have them in a "T" position, physically, straigten their knee for them. My older DD had a coach who just tried to explain things to them, like "Straighten you leg, point your toe" sort of things. She would do it, or she would think so and it wouldn't be. We had a young coach come in, one year, and she would physically fix their form, as they went trough the motions, slowly. She would fix their arms by their ears, physically manipulate their body, where it needed to be straight, point the toe for them etc... The gymnasts would then get the feel of what those positions felt like. Whether working trhough each position in a handstand, to backwalkovers, that coach would be on the floor physically fixing their form as they went along. She had some of the highest scoring girls that year.

Another thing that works well for my girls, is watching someone doing it correctly, then the coach videotaping how they look doing it. My youngest had the worst time figuring out how to make her run look with her level 4 vault. We had a little girls on our team, who consistently scored 9.7s on vault. Her coach sat her down and had her watch her team mates run and vault several times, concentrating on her run and how her steps need to look, etc.... Her 9.0 vaults immediatelt jumped to 9.5s.

We also had a Level 4, whose had the most amazing leap on the beam, she would do a 180 split before landing one footed. Again it was the same sort of thing, the coach had the team watch her leaps several times, and all the girls started attempting them. It made my DD leap look much better, not as good as her team mates but a marked improvement.


As for controlled landings, maintaining balance, my dd coach stresses keeping their cores tight. So as my dd is working her beam she is always remerbering her "core"

If falls start getting bad, you know sometimes girls get lazy and just jump off instead of fighting to stay on, how about making them do 10 V seats or something everytime they fall. They would have incentive to stay on the beam.


Good Luck! It already sounds like you are a wonderful coach, the girls are lucky to have you!

 

[gymnast695]

As other's have said, work on floor lines and low beams to improve the actual skills, but my piece of advice is get them more comfortable on high beams. My beam coach always had us run and skip down the beam and back a bunch of times before starting complex, as well as doing bunny hops, walking on releve, pivoting, and tight straight jumps to stick. Just to get us used to staying square and tall on beam and make it seem less scary. Little basics and lots of time spent on the beam itself definitely helped my jumped and leaps get bigger and tighter when I was little!

 

[dmytv]

Is there an older gymnast, maybe an optional or highschooler that could mentor? Kinda like a big sister program.

 

[iwannacoach]

a coach who just tried to explain things to them, like "Straighten you leg, point your toe" sort of things. She would do it, or she would think so and it wouldn't be. We had a young coach come in, one year, and she would physically fix their form, as they went trough the motions, slowly. She would fix their arms by their ears, physically manipulate their body, where it needed to be straight, point the toe for them etc... The gymnasts would then get the feel of what those positions felt like.

my piece of advice is get them more comfortable on high beams. My beam coach always had us run and skip down the beam and back a bunch of times before starting complex, as well as doing bunny hops, walking on releve, pivoting, and tight straight jumps to stick. Just to get us used to staying square and tall on beam and make it seem less scary.

Just collecting a few gems of advice.

The idea that sglemom put out for correcting form and positioniong is a good one. I do that with a slight change by putting them into the desired position and then trying to force them out of it. The effort they put into remaining in position against my resistance helps them to immediately understand with out question which muscles to use and how those muscles need to feel. It is that "feel" that makes it possible for them to know when they're properly in the position.

Gymnast695 summed it up well by advising the floor lines and low beams for initial skill development, and the high beams for basic posture, take-off, landing, and turn drills, Just working stretch jumps or bunny hops gives them a tremendous lesson in how to initiate and finish skils that take-off from and land on two feet.

You should make a big deal out of having them do the "safe and easy" stuff as well as it can possibly be done. Celebrate out loud if a kid makes it down the length of the beam doing bunny hops with-out so much as a single corrective twitch. That's the stuff that really count's....making a single pass of warm-up drill with-out a twitch will show all the kids that it's not so hard to do after all. I mean geez, how can you expect them to cozy up to inverted skills and split positions when they can barely walk down the length of the beam. X 10 = lots more

 

[BarCoach]

A HUGE thank you to everyone who replied. I've got some great ideas to take with me into practice today. I do think they're probably a little scared, so taking a couple steps back, going to the lines, and helping them be more comfortable on the high beams will hopefully go a long way. They need a lot of work still on leaps on floor so expecting them to be better on beam was probably unrealistic. Thank you also to whoever said I was a good coach. Made me feel great. I certainly do my best for them.

 

[ginnymac]

I think that the girls just need to become more comfortable on the beam. Every practice, even if beam in not in your rotation, they should try to spend 10-15 minutes at least going through a simple complex. Like a PP said, walks (fwd, bkwd, sideways), mini jumps (focusing on correct foot placement), bounders (like giant steps with a bit of leap to it, gradually getting bigger), leg kicks forward, v, and back while emphasizing tight leg position and tight core, holding releve...holding passe position, squat, squat on one leg...

In the beginning of the drills, take the arms out. Put their hands on their hips. This takes away a piece so that they only need to control leg and core. Then, once they are able to do the basic skill, add the arms. Once you move the arms away from the body, things change. If they had mastered the basic positioning without the arms, when you add in the arms they can focus on that because the rest is in muscle memory and confidence.

We also used to play games. Who could hold positions the longest, me trying to give a little resistance to the girls while they were holding a position to try to "knock them down"...They need to learn to be tight, but also confident. That will happen only with time spent on the beam.

Good luck. I used to love coaching lower level beam

 

[BarCoach]

We've been breaking down the leap into the kick with the first leg, the push off the back leg, and the lift of the back leg, doing it all on low beam. It seems to be helping. Need to do more basics. Thanks for the list, ginnymac and others. I'm not feeling quite so terrified for the meet season to start. Feel like we might get where we need to after all.

 

[iwannacoach]

I love that sense of optimism! It reminds me of the guy asking a girl to consider him for a relationship. I'll condense it to keep from adding too many details.

Him......I don't suppose you and I could ever......

Her, cutting him off....You gotta be kidding, there's no way you and I will ever be together.

Him.......Well, if I was the last guy on earth, how about then?

Her.......No!

Him......Well do you suppose the odds might be like one in a million?

Her......Yeah, about one in a million.

Him.....So you're saying there's a chance!!


So BarCoach, grab onto that "chance" and make the most of it. I'm sure you'll have better luck with beam than this guy had with that girl. It seems, at least, that the kids are lucky to have you caring enough about them to look for help. Good luck with your season with them.

 

[coachmolly]

You've gotten some great advice, and I agree with most that fear plays a huge part in sloppiness on beam for little ones. Do you have a wall/dance type mirror in the gym? Having them work in front of that might be eye opening to see what their skills actually look like. Or videoing them and playing it back. Sometimes they really just have no idea how "off" they actually are and it feels perfectly fine to them. I also agree about physically correcting the movements, helping them feel the correct position, whether it's on the floor, a low beam, or a high beam.
I think it sounds like you're doing a great job and it will eventually show in the girls performance (at least some of them), though it might take most of the season for some of the girls to catch on. Good luck!