Coaches First time teaching giants

[gymisforeveryone]

Like some of you may remember I started to coach the first optional level girls last January. Since then I have learned A LOT and become much better coach. Now I feel much more confident spotting them also.

Well, the girls already had their giants on strap bar when I started to coach them. We don't use PVC pipe, we prefer gloves. So they have to shift the drifts at least a little. They have now good giants on strap bar. I never sport them when they do these. They do them from tap swings.

I think we should transfer the giants from straps to real bar now. The problem is that I don't know how. The girls are old (12-15 yo) and the tallest is 170 cm tall. During summer I coach them two days a week and their other coach has the other two days. I coach in a different building to the other coach and we have worse equipment. NO PIT BAR! And only one coach.... In the other building there is a pit bar but I'm not with them when the'll have a access to it.

So please help me. Should we start on low bar with bent knees? The older girls are pretty good spotting each other so I thought maybe I should make them help me spotting the giants so there would be a double spot at first... We have very limited number of spotting blocks and they are quite unstable, yikes. I think I need the whole team to keep the blocks stable during spotting.

I would much prefer skip the giants completely and teach other bar skills but the level E requires a giant. Our girls have competed level E without giants and so do almost all the other gyms. But I think we have to take the bull by the horns and start learning the giants on regular bar also because the girls already have all the other level E skills and are getting bored during bar practice.

 

[Jenny]

could you stand on an old box vault that would be more stable? Lots of crash mats under. Lots of baby giants over the top. Not sure I would have kids spotting but maybe they are old enough to help. And good luck.

And why can't the other coach with the pit bar start them off and you can include them when they are confident.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Yes I could ask their other coach to start the giants with them. But on pit bar there is only a little "platform" the coach can stand and there is no way to double spot them. So which one is more reasonable way to do this: start on low bar with two spotters or on high pit bar with one spotter?

I also need to add that their other coach haven't spotted regular bar giants either. She is a former gymnast and just quit last year and this is her first year coaching.

When you talk about baby giants do you mean a long hand pullover missing hips? Spotted or not? One of the girls did that kind of thing by herself once because she had done those with their former coach but it looked awful and her form was horrible... So I didn't encourage her to do it again.

 

[JBS]

Was waiting to use this thread...

http://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/skill-directory/40434-uneven-bars-backward-giant.html

I would work swing pullovers until they can "miss their hips".

I would double spot on a lower bar with bent knees...something like this...

[video=youtube;6V2p0MvG5UQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2p0MvG5UQ[/video]

 

[mado4]

Like some of you may remember I started to coach the first optional level girls last January. Since then I have learned A LOT and become much better coach. Now I feel much more confident spotting them also.

Well, the girls already had their giants on strap bar when I started to coach them. We don't use PVC pipe, we prefer gloves. So they have to shift the drifts at least a little. They have now good giants on strap bar. I never sport them when they do these. They do them from tap swings.

I think we should transfer the giants from straps to real bar now. The problem is that I don't know how. The girls are old (12-15 yo) and the tallest is 170 cm tall. During summer I coach them two days a week and their other coach has the other two days. I coach in a different building to the other coach and we have worse equipment. NO PIT BAR! And only one coach.... In the other building there is a pit bar but I'm not with them when the'll have a access to it.

So please help me. Should we start on low bar with bent knees? The older girls are pretty good spotting each other so I thought maybe I should make them help me spotting the giants so there would be a double spot at first... We have very limited number of spotting blocks and they are quite unstable, yikes. I think I need the whole team to keep the blocks stable during spotting.

I would much prefer skip the giants completely and teach other bar skills but the level E requires a giant. Our girls have competed level E without giants and so do almost all the other gyms. But I think we have to take the bull by the horns and start learning the giants on regular bar also because the girls already have all the other level E skills and are getting bored during bar practice.

Your gymnasts are too tall to go on the low bar with bend legs..I've been there and tried it … I would ask one of the older girls to help you..put 2 boxes under the bar, one on the right, the other on the left side. Let them try without grips, but on straps…that is how we started because of the lack of equipment...

 

[Jenny]

I don't think you should use straps on wood bar. Is that what you mean

 

[gymisforeveryone]

We have a single wooden bar that can be adjusted to different heights so that is not a problem. But I would never make them wear straps on wooden bar!

 

[Gymsanity]

I don't think you should use straps on wood bar. Is that what you mean

Yikes!! No, I don't believe straps on a wooden bar is what Mado4 meant. You would NEVER want to do that. I think he was saying to do giants on the strap bar, but without straps which is a great idea. If you do, please remember to NEVER EVER let the girls use dowel grips to circle the bar. It can, and usually will result in a severe and horrific injury called 'grip lock.' As for having another athlete help spot, I know some clubs do that, but as a coach/owner it give me shivers from a liability standpoint! Not sure how I could go in front of 12 of my 'peers' and explain that 8 year old Suzy blew the spot (hate it when that happens) and that's why Mary now resides in a wheel chair for the rest of her life, so they will have to sue Suzy! OK, back to giants. There are as many different ways to teach them as there are coaches, but with your setup, here is a way that I've had pretty good luck with.....OK, very good luck. Once they have them good in straps, I have them put one hand in a strap and the other hand on the bare bar. It gives them a great feel for shifting their hands around the bar. Be careful of wearing out their free hand as the bar is really hard on them and they won't be wearing their dowels............right?? I usually have them wear their old pair of palm guards so we can get more turns in. I alternate which hand is free every day until they are ready for the giant, 3/4 giant, or baby giant. I have found it to be an easy and effective transfer. Hope it helps.

 

[iwannacoach]

This is making me feel like poor, little Gilligan who's head would often spin from the skipper, to the professor, and back through an entire conversation while saying "the skipper's right....the professor's right....the skippers right..." I really think both progressions have value when used to build the swing characteristics each has to offer.

The 3/4 giant is great for giving kids a means of circling the bar is a way that feels safe t that can be done from progressively higher casts to increase the energy of the tap swing through the bottom of the swing. It also takes the emphasis away from the something that kids seem to include in their mental model of the skill..... the handstand position that many kids stretch into on the way up. This progression helps them understand that the tap turns them over and can create elevation by decreasing their radius as they aggressively work to create shoulder and hip angles that have muscular effort and sustained tension instead of the brief "knee jerk reaction" that results from their tap, but quickly vanishes in their mistaken efforts to make it to the handstand position.

The tuck giant is can be used to teach them to rotate their hips to created the shoulder angle and, if positioned correctly, create the hip angle as well. Because it can be done so easily, I have them casting progressively lower as soon as they learn how to tap through the bottom, create their shoulder and hip angles, and maintain those angles until they're 10 degrees past the handstand. That gives them a better understanding of the energy and effort they need to provide to the circle upward portion of the skill, and how to compress that energy into a very brief instant as they are mid way through the tap swing.

You could easily include both of these drills in their work without concern that you're wasting their time as long as you're there to convince them this is a toe first skill, rather than a hip and chest press up to the handstand.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Get a small kid on team and practice on her first prior to the big kids!

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Coachp, yes I will definitely do that! I have one 12 yo girl who is very tiny and she is also one of the best girls. So I always practice spotting new things using her : D

And the oldest girl who is 15 and also the tallest (172 cm) is a great spotter. I would say she is sometimes better than I. She has always spotted her friends when the coach is busy elsewhere. I know it may not be desirable to put a gymnasts spot each other but I only let her spot when the skill is already mastered by other gymnasts and they just actually need someone to stand there or when we need double spot (i.e when the girls were learning flyaways for the first time). She also teaches rec classes. I think she will become an awesome coach one day

 

[mado4]

Yikes!! No, I don't believe straps on a wooden bar is what Mado4 meant. You would NEVER want to do that. I think he was saying to do giants on the strap bar, but without straps which is a great idea. If you do, please remember to NEVER EVER let the girls use dowel grips to circle the bar. It can, and usually will result in a severe and horrific injury called 'grip lock.' As for having another athlete help spot, I know some clubs do that, but as a coach/owner it give me shivers from a liability standpoint! Not sure how I could go in front of 12 of my 'peers' and explain that 8 year old Suzy blew the spot (hate it when that happens) and that's why Mary now resides in a wheel chair for the rest of her life, so they will have to sue Suzy! OK, back to giants. There are as many different ways to teach them as there are coaches, but with your setup, here is a way that I've had pretty good luck with.....OK, very good luck. Once they have them good in straps, I have them put one hand in a strap and the other hand on the bare bar. It gives them a great feel for shifting their hands around the bar. Be careful of wearing out their free hand as the bar is really hard on them and they won't be wearing their dowels............right?? I usually have them wear their old pair of palm guards so we can get more turns in. I alternate which hand is free every day until they are ready for the giant, 3/4 giant, or baby giant. I have found it to be an easy and effective transfer. Hope it helps.

Yes thank you, that is what I meant…