WAG Bent knees on beam

[CameraShy]

DD is 7 and competing L5. She has competed both BWO and BHS on beam. Both of these have bent knees. She does a beautiful BWO on floor, but says she can't do it like that on beam without falling. Same with her BHS. Her coach doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. In fact, she told DD that she will be competing BHS on beam from here on out because it's faster and there's less of a chance the judges will see bent knees with that vs. the BWO that is slower and more obvious. That doesn't seem like much of a solution to me - at least for her long term gymnastics. I guess I see the bent knees easily in the BHS on beam, so I'm certain the judges are seeing it too regardless of how fast it is. Is this something that will work itself out and that's why the coach is handling it that way? I would assume form would get worse if not corrected now in simple tricks...

 

[Jenny]

I agree with you! Bent knees in her bwo needs work now. They won't become straight on their own. They will become a habit that she will have always. Hopefully the coach is working lots of drills in the background to correct it that your dd is unaware of.

 

[lovemygymnast]

My DD is 6 on L4 & they've been working BWO & BHS on beam & I've noticed the same. It's fine on floor. I'm being told 2 things, that will come with age and that it's a shoulder flexibility thing that makes her feel she has to bend her knees. I don't know really but she's been doing shoulder flexibility exercises and knee straightening exercises as well. I'm interested to see what advice you get here though since she's having similar issues.

 

[gymdog]

Well, 7 is extremely young for level 5. It unfortunately doesn't leave much time for preparatory drilling and conditioning to make the skills look polished, as they should for a period of time before they're competition ready. Some coaches have the theory of do it as fast as possible and fix it later, so hopefully that's what happening and maybe she will do more drills for it later. While I don't disagree with that on every skill, on beam I think the likelihood that they will have falls that scare them if they aren't in control means we shouldn't rush to get everything on high beam. So personally I would fix the legs in the BWO first by using drills (not a million BWOs).

 

[hearts_and_stars]

DD's HC would NEVER allow bent knees on a BWO and she would certainly NEVER allow DD to attempt a BHS without the BWO being nearly perfect. Having said that, DD is quite a bit older than your DD (she's about to turn 11), so maybe it is something that will come with age. However, as a parent, I would not want to risk DD having a fall or serious injury because this is not something being corrected, especially at such a young age.

 

[CameraShy]

The funny thing is that this particular coach is more of a perfectionist than others at the gym so I'm honestly surprised that she's let DD go this long without insisting she correct it. However, she thinks DD is so cute and little (has coached her since she was 4) that she kind of let's her get away with a little more... like she'll accept "I can't... I'll fall" as a reason to not have her try again... luckily her coach for optionals is not that way and I think it will be good for DD to be pushed a little more then. After State in November, I'm pretty sure she'll move up and therefore have a new coach.

I know DD is capable of doing BWO on high beam with straight knees as I've seen her do it... but I feel like her coach doesn't put much emphasis on it so it's not consistent - especially for meets because she's nervous. I've never seen her do a BHS on high beam with straight knees though - it starts off pretty straight but as she's coming around to land, they bend enough that it's not as pretty. Maybe I'll just have to ask her coach what the intention is there. Maybe she's working with her more than I've seen or heard about. None of the other girls on her team can even do a BHS on high beam yet, so I wonder if because she's the only one and she's sticking them all the time, her coach is less worried about form. I figured I would just ask here first if it was something that was common...