Clear Circle and Giants - Problem with wrist shift

[marie83]

Hi all,

Just beginning to teach these skills to one of my gymnasts who just doesn't get the wrist shift and I'm a little bit at a loss as to how to fix it!

She can do giants on shiny bar in gloves and loops, but she obviously doesn't have to shift her wrists for them!
She can do really nice backward roll to handstand with straight arms - she manages to turn her hands to face forwards.

Her lack of wrist shift makes her really difficult to spot because it is causing her to bend her arms (on the clear circle) With the giants she manages to shift one wrist but not the other (she can't seem to shift the wrist on the side I and another coach spot on so perhaps that is something to do with it?!)

Do you know any drills which can help?

She is very small and light, so perhaps the bar isn't working as much for her as it is for some of the others, but I'm not convinced that's the entire problem!

Thanks in advance! I'll find out whether I'm allowed to post a video or not!

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

My experience is the wrist shift usually isn't the problem, but rather a symptom of some other underlying issue. I've usually seen this in girls who either 1) didn't have enough power in the ascent phase to allow the momentary lack of pressure on the bar during the wrist shift, or 2) were scared and therefore had the grip-of-death as they went around.

 

[BlairBob]

Try making your own "Tom Forester Bar". Get them to understand that death gripping will not help.

 

[marie83]

What is a Tom forrester bar?

 

[BlairBob]

http://www.tumbltrak.com/equipment/1:15:126/forster-bar-gymnastics-bars.html

 

[BlairBob]

you can easily make your own with some PVC pipe, duct tape and or cut some octagonal blocks and drill a hole in them and glue them to the pvc. Our HC just wrapped duct tape around the PVC and then slipped over knobby tread like tire over them.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

3 clear hips in a row.

 

[marie83]

Thanks all, progress report... Tonight we finally got somewhere, she made a conscious effort to shift the left wrist (the one she just couldn't seem to move!) and she did actually do it! She is still bending the arms though, but I think it's habit. Still a long way to go... I'll use some of your ideas over the next week or so!