Coaches Twisting direction and mushroom circle direction

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Is there a relationship between twist direction and the direction kids go around the mushroom? My kid recently started gymnastics and learned mushroom from copying other kids. He goes towards his right hand from front support. I think he is a left twister but I’m dyslexic and get confused about directions. Here is a video of him doing a birani on the trampoline. Can you tell me which direction he twists and if he is going the correct way around the mushroom for his twisting direction? Thanks!

 
Last edited:
He does appear to be a left twister - though I've seen some kids do a barani opposite the way they twist other skills. Not sure about the mushroom though - maybe someone coaching boys can weigh in on that?
 
That was a bad video because it was one of his first attempts and I think he turned his head the wrong way on takeoff. This one is better. (A day 2 attempt).
 
Also, is left twisting or right twisting more common? He’s going around the mushroom in the common direction but if he’s twisting in the uncommon direction, he might be doing the mushroom the wrong direction.
 
He is doing a right twisting barani in the video you posted.

As he stands up at the end, notice that he is pulling his body towards his right shoulder and to complete this twist (into a full) he would need to keep turning towards his right shoulder.
 
He is doing a right twisting barani in the video you posted.

As he stands up at the end, notice that he is pulling his body towards his right shoulder and to complete this twist (into a full) he would need to keep turning towards his right shoulder.
My old HC said that left twisting is towards the right shoulder...was at a fairly horrendous gym originally though so could be wrong. Guessing my old HC is wrong. I coach lower levels so twisting isn't usually brought up.
 
My kid turns towards his left shoulder when he does a pirouette and steps into his cartwheel/roundoff with his left leg. Does that make him a left twister who does a birani the wrong way?

Which direction of twisting is most common? I thought left twisting is less common. He’s doing mushroom the more common direction, which makes me think he might be going the wrong way.

I twisted different ways for different skills as a kid and it was a problem eventually. I want to help him avoid the same issues.
 
Good news! An experienced person walked me through it and my kid is a left foot RO, left twist, and counter-clockwise pommel, which is all consistent. The only thing that is going the wrong way is the barani, which his dumb mom taught him and now must unteach him.
 
This is very normal.

When most kids learn to do a barani, they will basically do a round off with no hands. If you look at his right twisting bars I, you will see that if he put his hands down, then he would be doing a left round off, just as he does when he does a normal round off.

A right round off is a left twist, as the body twists to the left coming out, and a left round off is a right twist.
 
Update:

Fortunately, it wasn’t hard for him to fix his barani twist direction and now he can twist a lot faster!



But holy cats! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this crazy flipping kid! He’s just started gymnastics a couple months ago and he’s going into level 4. What level do they start learning twisting skills?
 
It appears he's a right twister. Looks like he's pretty good at it as well. We've had a few twist different directions on different events, and "fixing" it won't be easy. I'd say just let it be.
 
It appears he's a right twister. Looks like he's pretty good at it as well. We've had a few twist different directions on different events, and "fixing" it won't be easy. I'd say just let it be.
Unfortunately, he steps into his round-off/cartwheel/front walkover with his left leg and he pirouettes to the left. If you have him do a 360 leap, he turns left. I had a mixed-up twisting problem as a kid and it was a royal pain to fix.

Fortunately, he is 7 and has only practiced twisting skills two days in his life and so it should still be fixable. He was doing his front twisting to the left earlier the day I took this video but he switched directions at some point and I didn’t notice.

Thanks
 
Unfortunately, he steps into his round-off/cartwheel/front walkover with his left leg and he pirouettes to the left. If you have him do a 360 leap, he turns left. I had a mixed-up twisting problem as a kid and it was a royal pain to fix.

Fortunately, he is 7 and has only practiced twisting skills two days in his life and so it should still be fixable. He was doing his front twisting to the left earlier the day I took this video but he switched directions at some point and I didn’t notice.

Thanks
Coach him how you like, but in my opinion, that video shows that he is a natural rightie and quite good at it-given only a couple of days of practice. (Round-off direction vs back twisting never seems to have a direct correlation-and a left foot roundoff is a right twist when you examine the movement of the torso.) In my experience, changing twisting directions is going to be a frustrating experience for all involved. You'll have to keep us posted!
 
My son had major twisting issues as a young gymnast. He leads with one foot on his roundoff, and a different foot on his front handspring. He could twist both ways. This was a problem. This was one time he actually had privates for the coach to determine which way was stronger for him, and then pattern him to go that way. It still took a lot of time as he would sometimes change directions (and sometimes, mid twist! That was comical to watch).
 
In my experience, there's no solid relation between which foot somebody leads with in a cartwheel/roundoff and which way they twist and which way they circle. The only things that really need to coordinate are their forward and backward twisting direction; those need to be the same.
Otherwise, it's usually easiest to let them go whichever way feels natural, and where necessary plan skill progressions around that.

EDIT: Regarding barani confusion, that generally applies to kids who learn their front 1/2 like a roundoff in the air. That's not the technique he's using in any of these videos; he appears to be doing a properly delayed twist, which means whatever direction he's going is probably correct for him and he should probably stick with it. His front and back twisting need to match up to each other, but they don't need to match any of his other skills.
There maybe 3 or 4 skills high-level skills for which are affected by a match/mismatch between the direction an athlete turns in various leadup skills, but that list is so short that I think it's easier to work around this when you get to it than it is to actually try to change a kid's natural twisting direction. As long as they twist the same direction flipping forward and backward, you're fine.
 
Last edited:

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back