WAG Extremely flexible gymnast that struggle with jumps!

[ALgymMom]

Most people assume that extremely flexible girls should have amazing jumps & leaps. My daughter, however, struggles with this & she is flexible in a freaky circus kind of way! I guess you could compare her to a very stretched out rubber band with no boing. Is there something the extreme flexible girls can do to help with this? Finding jumps for her floor routine is stressing her out. Leaps are not that terrible. People are always puzzled when they see her jumps though bc they just assume the most flexible girl in the gym could do them amazingly well.

 

[catou]

She might be laking the strength and power necessary to do the leaps. She could work on that by doing active stretching. Her coaches could show her some. For example, she could be standing on one leg and lift the other one in front, on the side and toward the back. She has to lift it rapidly and not held it. There are also these ones, Active Flexibility - Tammy Biggs - YouTube but I would do them with her coach first, just to be sure her technique is good.

 

[Aussie_coach]

In Australia it's not only Christmas but also Summer. The kids are on their long Summer holidays from school. Very few gyms will close for less than about 3 weeks, many for as many as 6 weeks.

 

[gymgurl]

Some exercises that will help for strength for jumps:
Do the jumps with ankle weights
if it is a split jump - use a theraband to tie her legs together and have her do her split jump like that
for split jumps again - hand on the bar and just do the leg motion of split jump (to get the muscles required for splitting the legs mid air
hope they help

 

[Deleted member D3987]

In Australia it's not only Christmas but also Summer. The kids are on their long Summer holidays from school. Very few gyms will close for less than about 3 weeks, many for as many as 6 weeks.

maybe i can move there... the Christmas is also summer part. died and gone to heaven...

 

[Gymmommy71]

How old is your DD? My daughter was exactly as you described her first year competing...yeah, her jumps met the compulsary requirements, but they were no way what you'd expect from seeing her circus-like flexibility during the stretching portion of class ... However, the following year she just "got it" w/ no major changes in her leap training and now her leaps and jumps are absolutely amazing (like more than 180 on everything)...my theory is that she just needed to get older ... Like the big change happened when she was about 8.5... I just have a theory that really young gymnasts (like under 8) are generally not that great at leaps yet. Many of them are fantastic tumblers and can do unbelievable stuff on beam, but I don't seem to see really good leaping start until age 9-10...maybe it's an aspect of coordination that doesn't develop until later.

 

[ALgymMom]

maybe i can move there... the Christmas is also summer part. died and gone to heaven...

Wrong thread guys...

She is 13, she could always do a regular leap, switch leg was a nightmare, but much better this year. It's the jumps that are bad! She needs some boing!!

 

[profmom]

What level is she? This is DD as well, who's now L7. About all I can say is thank goodness she will never have to do another straddle jump in a routine. That thing was a deduction magnet. And the kid has an oversplit all three ways! At her gym, girls start doing the kinds of drills Gymgurl describes during the L7-L8 years, so I assume she'll start this soon. Plus I see them doing the theraband thing on the tramp and tumble track.

 

[ALgymMom]

She's a level 9/10
I've seen her do thera-band drills for switch leg leaps before. I remember in level 5 that hop-hop straddle was awful for her! She was only 7 then though. I remember all the other girls just popping that straddle on up!! Sometimes flexibility is bad!!

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

To be able to leap and jump well a kid needs both flexibility and have dynamic jumping ability (we could go with the whole slow and fast twitch discussion again). I am guessing your DD may struggle with the power aspect. I often find powerful kids can hit splits better in a switch leg than they can on the floor or a regular leap. You need to be able to jump/leap high and quickly lift your legs into split (or other shapes) to be able to show the full motion. We do a lot of our jumps on trampoline in the early stages and one thing that helps is telling the gymnasts to pull their legs back together fast, giving them more time to hit the right position or angle.

 

[ALgymMom]

Yes, she is not a power gymnast for sure! Tall, skinny, graceful & flexible. She is not a power tumbler, but can twist like crazy.
I have heard her coach tell her to get her legs back together faster!

 

[iwannacoach]

See if the coach will let her work jumps on an 8" mat with a 4" landing mat stacked on the 8". She'll have to work like crazy just to get enough height for a split jump, and will compensate accordingly while on the stack. The "compensation" will stick with her when she works on a firmer surface, but only if she spends most of her "jump time" on the stack......like for maybe the next 2 months until she needs to polish everything for the post season qualifiers.

OR......incorporate a "stack jump" station into warmup or conditioning time as a substitute for working her jump skills on a stack.

 

[sally]

Not with this heat Dunno. I think I want to move over there

By the way we would love for you to come over here in Australia jobs going atm you know

maybe i can move there... the Christmas is also summer part. died and gone to heaven...