WAG Arms/Shoulders by Ears on vault and tumbling

[Krisztina10]

I recently noticed that my daughter - who just finished level 4 - seems not to keep her arms by her ears during the "flight" (?) phase of her tumbling and fhs vault. On vault, as soon as she raises her hands, they're sort of in a V and she never gets them by her ears as she flies towards and contacts the table. Although once she blocks and starts to leave the table, they do get up to her ears. Her vault is her weakest by far and her arms bend when she lands on the table. (Usually scores in the 8.2-8.7 range)

On her robhsbhs, when she's in the air going back wards, her arms again are in a V and then when she makes contact with the floor, they are by her ears but then when she stands up enters her second bhs, her arms are in a V again. She placed second at state on floor and had a top 20 floor score across all age groups - but her robhsbhs has always looked to me like it lacked some power and speed.

She's mentioned that her coaches have told her to keep her arms by her ears. I am trying to understand whether this is something she just needs to think about and do (and of course undo the muscle memory doing it the other way) or could there be some issue that makes it hard for her to keep her arms by her ears? Her coaches used to say she had great shoulder flexibility; though I suppose that can change? And on beam she's usually in the top 1-3 at meets (4th at state; 9.65). I would think that if it was a real issue, she'd have trouble on beam.

Also, if she's not keeping her arms by her ears throughout the whole robhsbhs series, would this make it less powerful, even though she seems to get her arms by her ears when she hits the floor and blocks?

I'd appreciate any insights. While her coaches have mentioned it to her, it seems like a comment they make every once in a while whereas now that I watch videos of her this past season, to me it looks like a consistent/pervasive issue.

Thank you!!

 

[&bs]

Was she particularly small for her age when she was younger? i e. toddler proportions for a long time. Many of the girls I see with this problem were the ones that were tiny with proportionally big heads when they were learning handstands etc so their muscle memory and patterning was that v position because their head took up that much space. Now their shoulders are broader but their natural position is wide.

If she is pulling her arms into her ears at some stage of the skill she seems to be trying to make the correction.

If her arms aren't travelling through in a straight line she won't be maximising the force that she is applying to the ground/vault plus the wider her arms are in her block on the vault the stronger she will need to be to apply the same force.

A lot of drilling the correct action to enforce the correct patterning for example jump backs for the back handspring and handstand pops for the vault would be my suggestion.

 

[Krisztina10]

Thanks for your reply! Interesting thought about why the habit may have developed. She did have somewhat of a bigger head but I don't recall ever thinking it was that exaggerated. I wonder if it's just that her coaches didn't drill the arms by ears into her well enough. I'm sure the best girls on her team do it right but I wonder if some of the other girls may have the same issue. Not sure how to get her to work on this correction without butting into the coaching process...If I tell her she should work on keeping her arms by her ears she may be able think about it but not sure that is enough to change this habit. I want to let the coaches do their job but my concern is that, with 20 plus kids to focus on, I am not sure they're recognizing how pervasive this issue is for her.

 

[coachmolly]

Closed shoulder angle is one of the most common problems on vault with my current group of kids. We drill it tons and it's getting better, but I think 2 of the most common reasons for the error are 1. lack of shoulder flexibility- these kids tend to have this problem in multiple skills and 2. fear- almost like the gymnast closes her shoulders to brace for impact. One gymnast is a combination of the 2 and I honestly have no idea how she gets over the vault other than brute strength. This girl has been doing drills for over a year to correct this particular issue and cannot figure it out- so it can be a lengthy process.

 

[Krisztina10]

Interesting - I think she has good shoulder flexibility - she has no problems with the back walkover on beam. Although her back is very flexible so it's possible that helps her. What's a relatively easy way to tell if she has poor shoulder flexibility? Re the fear being a cause - she is definitely not someone who attacks the table on vault and she still sometimes hesitates on her run. And she took a long time to learn her BHS when she was in level 3 b/c she has fear issues with backward tumbling.

 

[ayyyrial]

It sounds like she and her coaches are working on it and it's not about shoulder flexibility, so it might just be a pervasive habit that will take a while to change. I've known gymnasts who could not get their arms by their ears due to flexibility issues who were quite good on tumbling and vaulting, so I think it's unlikely that this is the one factor limiting her on vault and floor. It might be one of several things she will working on as she learns to develop more power and efficiency.