Coaches underarm swing on front tuck

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

I

isaelijohjac

Hi there. I have 2 questions--
---Is it correct for a female gymnast to do an underarm swing on her tumbling...tucks, round-offs, etc.
My daughter has a new coach and is telling her to make sure she does, while she knows she has been told by others NOT to underarm swing.
---In a layout is the gymnast supposed to arch, or be hollow. This same coach is saying to arch, which conflicts again with what her other coach has told her.

Thanks so much.
 
Hi there. I have 2 questions--
---Is it correct for a female gymnast to do an underarm swing on her tumbling...tucks, round-offs, etc.
My daughter has a new coach and is telling her to make sure she does, while she knows she has been told by others NOT to underarm swing.
---In a layout is the gymnast supposed to arch, or be hollow. This same coach is saying to arch, which conflicts again with what her other coach has told her.

Thanks so much.

Some coaches do prefer the gymnast to do under arm swings before a front tuck. We let our gymnasts choose what they like better some gymnasts find they like it better than others. Some find that they don't set if they use an under swing. I dont really like the under swing myself...i found more often then none they don't set when using the underswing.
 
Wow, how confusing. Those coaches definitely need to get it together. Is your daughter around L6/7 or a L5/6 compulsory. Definitely don't need to be confusing them at that level.

I like to teach an underarm circle though there are many elites who don't.

Underarm swing on round off? Way too complicated IMO. Sure, I guess. So long as she have an open shoulder angle by the time she reaches the floor and isn't diving into her RO, ok.

When learning a layout, it's almost necessary to arch at first to ensure the body is moving ( " heel drive " ) and their butt is tight. Eventually they'll learn to keep the body accelerating without having to be in such an exaggerated position. They learn the movement, " big " before refining it and making it " small. " Gross to fine motor control and all that.
 
Thank you for your response. i am glad to hear that both are correct, I was getting concerned about the coach.
Could you tell me please by what you mean when you say "set".
thanks.
 
Over the last few years, we have changed all of our kids from overarm to underarm...but no "arm circle"...just an underarm swing. Really, with the way front tumbling is nowadays, the arms only need to be raised to shoulder height. Unless a gymnast is doing a double front, there is no point in tumbling much higher than shoulder height anyway, so a "set" is really counterproductive. The arch-to-straight progression which BlairBob described works best in the long run, so I wouldn't bother teaching a hollow front layout.

It is also becoming more and more common for high level tumblers to reach down for the floor earlier and earlier in their hurdle into the roundoff. It's sort of pointless to reach the arms way up in the air to just reach the hands down to the floor again. I'm not sure it's a true "underarm reach", but it's the same basic idea: the arms lead the body forward, not upward.

It sounds like the new coach is planning for the future and is current with what's going on in the gymnastics world.

BTW..."setting" is delaying rotation while the body rises above the point of impact on the floor
 
Last edited:
Is it for vault? If it is for vault then it is normal. I don't know where you are from, but here in Australia a front tuck from a beat board is the Level 2 7.00 start value vault and the Level 3 6.00 start value vault and they must be performed with an underarm action. But for floor it is generally an overarm action.
 
For front tumbling, I have no preference about how my kids swing their arms as long as they can get a good set out of it. As for tumbling on the hands (ie roundoffs, front handsprings), I definitely would not use an underarm swing.

A front layout should be arched. The way I tell my kids to do it is to watch where they're going to land for as long as they can while lifting their heels up over their heads.

To me, a front layout is NOT analogous to a back layout -- it's analogous to a whipback. You will very rarely see a front layout go above chest height. While a certain amount of height is necessary to complete the skill, the primary concern isn't generating height, it's generating rotation.
 
I am thinking they are using the underarm circle like most kids tend to in handstand hops on floor. Basically underarm circle, pop on the floor. Bleh.

In coaching a layout I first drill a 3/4 layout to back in the shape of a hollow. Generally this is done onto a portapit or mat stack or maybe into a pit.

Then somewhere after is the full arched layout into pit, on tramp or tumble-trak.

If training front full, then we use the hollow layout or possibly the arch snap to hollow layout to help the twist speed. Generally, I coach a half out of a front pike before teaching the half out of a layout. I still would like a gymnast to able to differentiate between using the front layout in a front whip accelerator fashion and flipping it hollow. At some point, they will be doing the front layout arched with a heel drive that changes to hollow somewhere between a 1/2 and 1/2 of the rotation.

I agree with Geoffrey, the arched front layout is an accelerator like the whipback. In the process of teaching a back layout, I don't generally teach the whipback; but expect a gymnast to go through phases of an arched layout in getting a decent hollow layout before working twisting layouts.
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

Back