Coaches Clear hip from the beginning

[BarCoach]

How do you like to teach a clear hip, from beginning to end? Favorite drills, what to focus most on? My kids have decent shapes though they still need work.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Well I introduce a clear hip once the kids can connect kips on low bar. So the first step is working those connected kips. That way they can actually kip out of their clear hip.

The next key is to understand the body shape of the clear hip and we do theraband exersizes pulling it down to clear hip shape.

Once they can do that the next goal is to be able to do a back hip circle in the clear hip position with the hips off the bars.

From there I have them clear hip to a box, and then spotted out to horizontal.

 

[BarCoach]

I'm not concerned with their being able to kip out of it yet, and we will work push away kips simultaneously. I was looking more for drills on teaching an aggressive drop.
So far I've just been spotting a hollow baby cast to drop under the bar and hold the shape and feel it start to rock back up the other side.

 

[coachmolly]

I have problems with kids being afraid of dropping their shoulders back as they first learn them. I saw a drill on youtube where they placed a port-a-pit type mat under the low bar and the girls cast and then drop back to hollow on the mat which looked good, I haven't had much of a chance to use it though. The idea seems to be a good one and one I would probably use if I had any kids ready to clear hip.

 

[iwannacoach]

Plat around with them standing on a block that puts them at a height where their hips are just above the bar with their shoulders open to 45 degrees (or more) and a slight lean forward.

Now have them hop/jump into a cast position and clear hip around to the block. Have them start with the block a little close at first. but not so close they'll hit their head, and gradually move it away from the bar until you get the results you want.

Once they have that, have them land softly on the block, like one that makes no noise or doesn't rock/shake the block. This will promote the idea of proper hand/wrist shifting to get their hands to the top of the bar in time to support their weight at the peak of the circle, and there's almost no chance to land soft if they lose the correct shape on the way up.

If you have them do sets of five where they circle, land and plie', and immediately jump into the next one they'll tire a bit by the 4th, and will have to resort to excellent technique to make the fifth....... or something like that.

Maybe start this out as a fun game/experiment, and see how it evolves for a few weeks before tweeking it to get it the way you want.

 

[jpow]

One of our busy stations is a bar where they just hang in an inverted candlestick position with hips just barely touching the bar and for them to bounce. They do it 10x before moving onto the next station. I like it because I think it teaches the drop position decently well, and several of my 4s have moved onto the next drill which is where the stand on a block by the bar, and jump into the clearhip and end up pushing away back on the block, and it only took them about a week to get it to horizontal.

Good luck!!

 

[BarCoach]

Thanks everyone. Will try all those!

 

[gymjunkie]

I've had the best results teaching the fast shoulder drop by physically pushing their shoulders back while I spot them thru the skill.

 

[eucoach]

Start them in the strap bar. I have never started the free hip circle on the real bar. They are far easier to spot and the fear factor of dropping the shoulders backwards gets eliminated. I only move to the real bar once they can take them to handstand with a light spot or (and) can do at least 10 in a row to above horizontal (where I briefly stop them) with perfect form.

I have the gymnasts lift into a free hip position and then circle them around the strap bar several times. Once they can do that without changing position, I lift them away from the bar into a push up position. Once they can do that, I drop them from a cast position into a free hip circle and catch them in a push up position. Most kids have been able to do those assisted free hips within one session. Of course, I keep doing the body shaping drills for quite a while even if they already can do the free hips. I actually don't let the kids do a free hip from a cast on their own until they are capable of technically sound free hip circles.

For the fast drop I do the aforementioned drill of casting and dropping onto their backs. I also like to have them stand up with flat hips, a rounded upper back and hold a stick or any bar shaped object out in front of them. Then they have to jump and land on their upper back in a free hip position on a soft mat.

 

[BarCoach]

Thanks! Will add those things in too. We just did strap bar for the first time last night so I'm sure they'll be happy to so more.

 

[CoachTodd]

my start is ,Can they do 2 back hip circles in a row? If not, they won't shift their hands for the clear hip.
After that we'd do the drop from a couple of spotting blocks into the clear hip then back to the blocks (kind of like a trench pit). Then build from there.