Cast Drills please

[sportychick]

hi all,

my gymnasts need to be able to do a cast to horizontal (most of them can not)
does anyone have any good drills to improve their casts that they want to share??? please

Thanks =)

 

[BlairBob]

from a kip or front hip circle or neither?

if its from the kip or front hip they simply need to have their chest and feet(knees) in front of the bar when they hit support and cast from it

if it's just from a support on bar they need upper body strength and the lower back strength to kick out (lots of superman leg lift/reverse hypers possibly weighted)

 

[sportychick]

hi,
they do one straight after a chin up circle over and then another after a backhip circle

thanks =)

 

[Kiwi]

I'd be interested to know about this too! My DD struggled with the step 3 bar routine all season. She could get to about 5 degrees below horizontal but struggled to get any higher.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

conditioning, conditioning, conditioning...

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

As well as the strength, I would set up activities to get them confident with leaning over the bar. Many little children are not confident with this.

 

[Kiwi]

conditioning, conditioning, conditioning...

They do heaps of conditioning! Can you recommend specific conditioning exercises that would help with casts?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

2 drills our girls were doing last night -

1. Kneel on floor, palms flat on floor beside legs so fingertips are level with knees. Press to budgie perch and then exted to handstand.

2. In pairs - one girl in front support, shoulders forward the other lifts her legs to handstand and lowers. Helps with core strength as they have to maintain body tension and should angle. They were doing it on a line on the floor imagining the line was the bar and where to keep their weight to keep balance. If their weight was too far back the other girl couldn't lift their legs.

hth

 

[Aussie_coach]

For a lot of them the issue is fear, they are happy to cast to a position similar to a front support on floor, but when they have to start driving up higher they are scared. Spotting them helps to get them in the position and get more comfortable with the position.

Put a crash mat under the bar and a mini tramp can help and encourage them to jump to handstand while holding the bar, to get them used to going Up and over the bar.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

They do heaps of conditioning! Can you recommend specific conditioning exercises that would help with casts?

lower the bar or raise the floor. jump off something/block/panelmat up to support immediate cast back down to something. sets of 10. each cast they do must go higher each time. and no pausing on the jump part. it must be immediate jump right back to support then cast. elbows must stay straight at all times. 5 sets of 10 daily is a good number to start with. only takes a few minutes in the work out session.

 

[marie83]

Anything which encourages the shoulder angle to open...

1) Lie on back with hands by thighs, sit up and lift arms above head, lie back down to start position - this can be done with some sort of resistance or with wrist weights on

2) Press up position planches - in press up position rock forwards so that shoulders go in front of hands, then pull back to press up position

3) Knees to handstand (start kneeling down, hands just in front of knees flat on the floor, lift bottom into the air (moving shoulders forwards over the hands) and raise feet to handstand.

4) Have the gymnasts cast 3 in a row on the bar. Catch each one at their highest point and tell the gymnasts how far they have to go to get to horizontal - You could even put them into horizontal from the position they reach on their own. It might not be as far as some of them think!

5) Straddle press to handstands

A lot of gymnasts don't realise how far they need to lean forwards to get to horizontal and/or are scared of it as the others have said, so try putting more mats under the bar or have them do it over a pit if you have one.