Body type and implications in training a Tak or Jam on high bar

[Geoffrey Taucer]

[youtube]4fsFtaA_dLI[/youtube]

In watching this video, I was struck by the gymnast's ability to reach his hands out past his toes. I have a couple of gymnasts who appear to be completely flat in a closed pike stretch, but whose arms still do not extend nearly this far past the tips of their toes.

Is this just an issue of body type (meaning that such kids simply will never be able to do a clean jam)? Or is there some hidden element of flexibility that I'm not seeing here?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i think it's a combo of flexibility, technique and then body measurements. when you said "clean jamb", maybe you were speaking specifically to the slight knee bend that you see in some athletes. i've always attributed this flaw to the first 2 prongs. look at horton...endomorph...and you can see that he can't get his hands beyond his feet because his "arms are too short to box with God" so to speak. yet look at his body position and shape when he jambs and when he is compressed at the bottom. good technique and good flexibility.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

The two kids I'm talking about both have a completely flat pike stretch. I had them try, while sitting in a pike stretch, taking a dowel rod and simply reaching it past their feet to try to move it past their toes without bending or flexing. Neither could do it without flexing their feet.

Does this mean they are simply not capable of learning a jamb?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

no, i don't think so. what you decribed is pretty typical for boys under the age of 13. is this so?

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

One is 11, the other is 14.