Please help my daughter with her roundoff! (Video)

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My daughter is 6.5 yrs old, on Preteam at her gym. We are told she has a lot of talent, and right now she is on FIRE for gymnastics! She loves it! The one thing she is really struggling with - and has struggled with for two years - is her roundoff. Seems simple enough, but she has cried and cried over it! She's got a beautiful bhs, walkovers, etc. All sorts of great skills for her age. She is likely to be moved to L4 this summer, but she is so worried that this roundoff will hold her back. She knows it's a basic skill, but just can't seem to get past it. She tries so hard to land in a hallow body, and rebound... but none of this is coming to her.

Would you guys mind watching her video that I took (in the living room :eek:) and help out with some basics to try to make this better?

Thanks so much!

Roundoff 2/12 at One True Media - share slideshows, slide shows, Facebook slideshows, free video sharing, video montages.
 
Well, obviously in a real gym environment she would take a few steps. What I'm seeing is that she is not pushing off her arms...her left arm is still on the floor when her feet are landing. She needs to push off the floor so both hands are off the floor when she lands, and then rebound.
 
she should also be bringing her feet together @ the top of the roundoff. they are still kinda cartwheel landing but closer together. she will get it. if she could try it with a panel mat long ways run/ hurdle front foot goes on panel mat hands on panel mat landing/rebound occur off the other end of the panel mat. this gives her a little more time to get to the right position for hollow landing & rebound. and don't land flat foot then you have to jump instead of rebound should land on balls of feet.
 
Thank you! :)

Yes, it wasn't an ideal video since it was in the living room... but honestly, even with a few bigger steps and a bigger hurdle, it doesn't look much different than this.

Most girls on her preteam have the roundoff pretty well down, so they just aren't working on it much in practice. She's really trying to work on it at home too.

She OFTEN lands with her hands (or at least one) still touching the ground when her feet hit??? Then she's all crouched down with no momentum.

Yes I see the biggest problems being no spring off of her shoulders, and proper feet placement. Does anyone have any suggestions for the pushing off of the shoulders? This is something that no matter how many times she practices, she doesn't get.
 
Coach hat on: please please please don't let her do round-offs in the living room. It will not help her any and she could injure herself. Number two: please don't coach her, leave that up to us coaches! They will tell her how to fix it.

Gymnast hat on: I once had to ice my ankle FOR DAYS because I was doing round off's in the living room.
 
She's also finishing bent over and looking at the ground. So make sure she pops off the ground and lands with a straight back and head up (on a spring floor in the gym, not in the living room by the fireplace!)
 
She probably can't push off her hands quickly enough because she has not developed enough strength in her upper body and shoulders to be explosive. This is not an uncommon thing as she is a young preteam kid.

Quite honestly, no gymnast needs to take a few running steps or a hurdle into the round-off. Either have it's uses but since they generate more momentum, they can hide errors in the technique of the RO. There is a time and place for a step into hurdle, power hurdle or short run into the hurdle.

A living room floor is quite a hard surface. At best it's carpet over wood and has very little give. Or perhaps it's concrete covered by carpet. Basically no give.

Notice in attempt #2, one of her hands goes way out to the side as she tries to push off her hands.

She should be focusing on upper body strength, especially as she is a little thing. She needs a base of strength before she can be expected to be powerful in something like blocking off her hands in a round-off.

HS shrugs, dips, pushups/explosive pushups besides blocking drills. Hopping pushups are pretty useless if she cannot perform a fair amount of competent pushups. Pushups are a good drill where the shoulders and hop off the floor with straight arms. I would not do this at home since again, your living room is a much harder surface than a sprung floor (and thus harder on the joints).

So if anything, more HS or walking HS (even just Wall walking HS), shrugs and HS blocking/popping.

I do know one blocking drill off-hand but it's something she should only be doing at gym anyways.

Place hands on wall and get into a scale. Push hands off wall while swinging elevated leg toward the base leg while focusing on getting the chest to rise. Keep head inside of shoulders, of course.

A super basic drill any gymnast needs to be able to do is simply Lunge HS Lunge focusing on a strong push off the floor, keeping the head inside the arms and getting the chest up quickly.
 
"Round off sounds simple enough" or something like that. I personally thing the round off is one of the hardest skills she'll ever learn simply due to the fact that most people almost never do it correctly. It's a little hard to tell in the video. A fall step round off takes a lot more physical strength that a running round off. When she lunges into a round off or cart wheel, she should get her weight past the front foot and let the momentum do more work. I try to tell the kids not to put their hands down but let the back leg going up make the hands go down. On the 2nd half of the skill, I say not to put the feet down. Let the shoulders coming up be what puts the feet down. A good drill for the falling round off would be off a panel mat.
 
Coach hat: position 'on'

Please don't try to 'fix' her roundoff at home. Every coach has a different way of approaching it & advice that tries to help can go against what they've been working on for months & then the coach has to nearly start over. A roundoff is one of the most complex skills in gymnastics & developing a useful one takes a lot time. Developing a technically excellent one takes even MORE time, & should be done in a gym rather than a living room.

(my pet peeve on this one is 'put your feet together at the top'. No. They don't meet at the top. The 2nd one catches up to the first one somewhere between the top and the floor. Making them meet slows everything down and just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
 
Sadly, I cannot get the video to play! She is only young, it will come with time and good coaching. My DD learned round-off for Step 3 last year and for a lot of the year all the girls' round-offs looked really horrible. They only started to look half-decent towards the end of the season and still have a long way to go to being technically good. It is actually a difficult skill to do well.
 
I think she needs to (for one) spring off the ground more and I also think a strong hurdle would help. It doesn't seem like she has enough power.
 
Thanks so much to all of you for the suggestions! :)

I do agree that she shouldn't necessarily be working on skills at home. Sadly though, I can't keep her from doing things like handstands, splits, cartwheels, round offs and walkovers! She does them everywhere we go, and I know she does them all over at school too! I don't think it's too different from even when I was a kid - 30 some odd years ago - and I wasn't even in gymnastics! We just did them for fun all the time too! I really try not to "coach" her, because I'm not a coach. But when she cries and struggles with this one thing, I was just hoping to get some suggestions to help her since she's doing them all the time. I appreciate all of the feedback! LOVE these forums!
 
I am not going to offer any advice on fixing her RO, as I am not a coach, but I do want to echo what Nicki said. She is young and skills come with time, lots of practice and consistent coaching. My DD is 8 and it took her at least a year to get a decent round-off with a real rebound out of it. Her round-off's were positively horrid looking for the longest time (once she figured out how to push off the floor, she started hurdling crooked - it's always something!). But, once it clicked (this past summer/fall, I'd say), they started looking much prettier. Give your DD time and let her coaches sort it out - there's no rush. Welcome to the CB! :)
 
Coach hat: position 'on'

Please don't try to 'fix' her roundoff at home. Every coach has a different way of approaching it & advice that tries to help can go against what they've been working on for months & then the coach has to nearly start over. A roundoff is one of the most complex skills in gymnastics & developing a useful one takes a lot time. Developing a technically excellent one takes even MORE time, & should be done in a gym rather than a living room.

(my pet peeve on this one is 'put your feet together at the top'. No. They don't meet at the top. The 2nd one catches up to the first one somewhere between the top and the floor. Making them meet slows everything down and just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)


this is precisely why this child is dragging/stuck her left hand/arm on the floor. a good round off is a cartwheel untill the near end. THEN SNAP! 2 feet to the floor.
 
My daughter is 6.5 yrs old, on Preteam at her gym. We are told she has a lot of talent, and right now she is on FIRE for gymnastics! She loves it! The one thing she is really struggling with - and has struggled with for two years - is her roundoff. Seems simple enough, but she has cried and cried over it! She's got a beautiful bhs, walkovers, etc. All sorts of great skills for her age. She is likely to be moved to L4 this summer, but she is so worried that this roundoff will hold her back. She knows it's a basic skill, but just can't seem to get past it. She tries so hard to land in a hallow body, and rebound... but none of this is coming to her.

Would you guys mind watching her video that I took (in the living room :eek:) and help out with some basics to try to make this better?

Thanks so much!

Roundoff 2/12 at One True Media - share slideshows, slide shows, Facebook slideshows, free video sharing, video montages.

1.)As others have said it really does more harm than good to "help" them at home. And I know how tempting it is because I've been there.
2.) if "she has a lot of talent" then she will learn a round off easily when the time comes. But at 6 just let her be "on fire" for gymnastics and love it.
 
like said before : her legs are way to slow and don't give her any power to push of the floor.
My suggestion: I would not let her do RO at home …BUT depending on your knowledge about gymnastics!!!!! I would do drills for it if she REALLY insists on doing something
If you have a mattress you could put it against the wall (has to be really soft !), I assume she has a solid handstand!, then she should do handstands against the mattress :key point: she should swing her feet really fast against the wall …
Another good drill : making a cartwheel but bring both feet together into a handstand, no piking in the hips, you have to hold her when her feet are in the air.

BUT if you are not familiar with gymnastics, DON"T do it…let her coaches do it in a save environment..trust me..have seen a lot of broken legs and arms from either too ambitious parents or too ambitious kids ! :)
 
like said before : her legs are way to slow and don't give her any power to push of the floor.
My suggestion: I would not let her do RO at home …BUT depending on your knowledge about gymnastics!!!!! I would do drills for it if she REALLY insists on doing something
If you have a mattress you could put it against the wall (has to be really soft !), I assume she has a solid handstand!, then she should do handstands against the mattress :key point: she should swing her feet really fast against the wall …
Another good drill : making a cartwheel but bring both feet together into a handstand, no piking in the hips, you have to hold her when her feet are in the air.

BUT if you are not familiar with gymnastics, DON"T do it…let her coaches do it in a save environment..trust me..have seen a lot of broken legs and arms from either too ambitious parents or too ambitious kids ! :)


The very smart coaches have just told her not to coach this skill at home. Please don't suggest this home coaching. Round offs are so important and need to be learned in the gym.
 

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