WAG bar routine - strength or technique?

[mandy]

How much of the bar work (kip, clear hip, cast handstand, giant) is strength and how much is technique?

My son is really strong and a great tumbler, but was not allowed to work on p bars, rings and high bar due to an growth plate issue, but now he is allowed to!

He is strong, he can do a press handstand from standing, various pull-ups (I think 12) and hanging leg raises (I think 18-22) and is good at tumbling - will this be an advantage for the high bar?

His coach wants him to learn a kip, a clear hip, cast handstand and giant in 12 months. I just can't believe this will ever be possible?!


What do you think?

 

[Flossyduck]

I think you should post this under MAG for more specific experience.

However I have learned that a year is an awfully long time in gymnastics

 

[iwannacoach]

How much of the bar work (kip, clear hip, cast handstand, giant) is strength and how much is technique?

His coach wants him to learn a kip, a clear hip, cast handstand and giant in 12 months. I just can't believe this will ever be possible?!

What do you think?

It's a matter of having enough strength to get functional enough to work the skills and learn how to use technique. That only happens more quickly and easily when the correct techniques are presented to the child, and the child is in the right frame of mind to accept the technique as gospel. The right frame of mind is going to come about more slowly, if ever, when either the parent, child, or coach can't believe it will happen.

You get a free pass as far as I'm concerned, but I may not be so understanding in 8 months if you continue to express them. Kids have a knack for picking up on a parent's doubts, which may then become the child's doubts. It is then that those sentiments may may become a self fulfilled prophecy.

The most slowly skill has nothing to do with with time spent in the gym, but it does make every moment spent in the gym 5 times more productive. It's called believing, and it delivers a message that the beginning and intermediate skill such as giants are really pretty easy once you wrap your mind around their concepts and can keep a clear head to concentrate efforts on the correct motions that make the skill happen.

In other words, these skill are somewhere at, or between, the extremes of impossible and a piece of cake!

 

[gymdog]

Boys are different. Different bar, usually fear is not such a problem.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Only speaking from a parent perspective (I coach as well, but only preschool level!)... A year is a really long time. I remember last year, looking at the team girls (then L5) practice while dd was in TOPs practice. I remember thinking how cool it would be if someday, a few years from now, dd would progress enough to be able to do that stuff on the bars. Those girls looked so amazing swinging around the bars, practicing their form with pieces of paper between their toes. If you had asked me then, I would have said I thought it would be several years before dd would be even close to that level.

Well, now dd is holding that piece of paper between her toes, every practice. She *is* on that level! It is really amazing to see how far she has come in just a year. She did rec for a long time and isn't any sort of wunderkind whatsoever but she works hard and doesn't give up. There are lots of times I watch her practice and just can't believe she's actually doing those skills, I'm very proud of her!

A year can bring amazing change in a gymnast! Best of luck!

 

[BlairBob]

Depends on his body awareness and head issues but kip and giant should be doable. Clear hip...dunno.

 

[CoachTodd]

Time frame all depends on the gymnast. Some can do skills right away , some take years to do the same skill. Core strength is a big bonus. Some core strength is required to do the skill, extra core strength helps if the technique is slightly off. Bar skills are mostly timing and technique.