WAG Advice on squat on bar

[Solar_Flower]

Hello everyone!

I have a problem with my squats on. The issue is that I struggle to jump on the bar, my coach says I don't bend my knees enough and therefore I hit my shins a lot. There were like 50+ attempts yesterday and yeah my shins are now covered in bruises and bumps

I have no issue doing it on the springboard or soft steps, or when my coach assists me a bit. I've done all the possible drills, everything was fine.

So what is preventing me from bending the knees enough to jump on? Well now there's a certain mental block on it because I don't want this excruciating pain when I hit my shins over and over again.

I'd say my cast isn't enough (the coach says otherwise but I doubt it) or maybe it's the shoulders fault. My balance is fine and for now I have no fear of falling down from the bars.

Any advice on this? Thanks

 

[JustAGirlWhoLovesGym]

Based on what you wrote here, it seems like part of the problem might be that you are not lifting your hips up enough to complete the squat-on.

There are other issues that you addressed here that could be part of the problem here too. If your shoulders are behind the bar in your cast and in your squat-on, you will go backwards. Casting high enough is important as well because it (ideally) gets your feet and hips above the height of the bar so you can put them (your feet) on top.

This gets me back to the issue of lifting your hips. When you try to squat-on, you should feel your hips lifting above the bar height so that your feet get high enough to actually squat onto the bar. Don't focus all your attention on bending your knees in the squat-on because if you don't get enough height from the cast/hips lifting and you try to aggressively bend your knees to get to the squat-on, you will hit your shins pretty badly. In fact, if you were working on a pike-on, you would not bend your knees at all.

Also, based on the description of the drills, I am assuming that you are starting in a push-up/squat position on the floor and then proceeding to "squat-on" to the springboard (?). If this is the case, then you would be able to successfully complete these drills because they would put you in a position where, if you were actually on the bar, your feet and hips would be over the bar enough for a squat-on (i.e. push-up position on floor is roughly equivalent to horizontal cast on bars).



Here is another good drill that could help you get better at the squat-ons. You could do this from front support on a bar too.

 

[GymDadWA]

Try working on a pike on, it will get your hips up higher and some girls just like it better anyways.

 

[charsgymnastics]

i had this struggle too, i did dozens of drills to get my hips up and to lean my shoulders forward to get my feet onto the bar. you just need to lean and trust yourself