my only comment, and after coaching several elites, is that NONE of them ever did tick-tocks on high beam. was that one of peggy's bright ideas??
and if tick-tocks were relevant, i'm sure marta or tammy would have put that in the skills testing at some point.
spoke with my russian coach/friend about this. his response was "stupid".
Plenty of relatively high level US programs do them though. I'm a pretty big fan. I actually saw a Tammy Biggs presentation on beam basics that stressed trying a different combination of exercises like these, even as simple as having the kids bridge up on the beam and be able to lift arms and legs 5 times. The basic point was many programs are not assessing the readiness enough and so you have a lot of girls doing say, forward skills, struggling to consistently and strongly make them.
Personally they really helped my alignment and helped with forward skills. I don't think they should be in skills testing, but there is forward acro in skills testing and for girls with less than adequate flexibility or alignment, this is more of a "drill" for them that can help them gain some of those skills. Many girls who reach the higher levels of gymnastics can do FWO on beam easily, but not all. For those who are weaker but still working on the USAG progression and will compete say, BWO back handspring on beam as their highest series, this can be used as a really helpful tool (in my opinion). It's just another option, though similar results could be achieved through other exercises. The nice thing about this is that it helps with forward alignment/full kick into forward handstand, and also the alignment passing through handstand backwards and lunge landing position. not too bad for one exercise. Clearly we need to use care not to do too many, but the anecdotal response i've seen (and would personally agree with from my own training) is that it's easier on the back and wrists than BWO.
Not with 5 year olds, but clearly we have a very different systems in the US and I can't really comment. It would largely be considered not an appropriate skill to teach at that age, per many USAG programs. As with my comments above re: basic exercises and readiness, I would make sure the kids could confidently do several things before: bridge walk on the beam (able to lift arms and legs several times consecutively - without fear or falling), handstand forward roll (can they consistently kick past vertical, but with control?), and back walkover (standard progressions - I include the kid being able to do just the first part - arch back and leg lifts, no kickover - without falling sideways. this is too often ignored and the kids don't have this control). These are all important. It drives me crazy when you have coaches who see the only goal as "get the skill on the high beam" but the kid has no consistency or control because readiness in these basic positions was not emphasized. And i can say there are many girls coaches who think it is just a race to high beam, and you'll come into conflict with many of them if you try to implement something based more than "do 10 of x skill on high beam and 20 more if you fall on one." Such an approach may have its place but i often think it's overused to a detriment especially on this particular event.
