WAG Flyaway Problems

[gymnastsupporter]

About a year ago my DD moved up from bronze to silver. She had been working very hard as her best friend moved up before her. She finally moved up and had an okay first year. Now we know that she is not going to move up(gold) as she would have a terrible year on beam and floor as she has always been nervous and her back walkover(beam) she is nervous on even in practice. As for floor she had started working RO BHS BHS but has injured her back and unable to do BHS now. Bars however has always been her strongest event and for a little while was the only thing she could try upgraded skills on. When she moved from bronze to silver she had worked a little on flyaway but not that much as in her gym bronze is the in which you do a lot of conditioning as their bar routine isn't hard. When she got to silver she finally thought she could start working on her flyaway she got with a little spot from the low bar but then competition season happened. Competition season is when almost no new skills are worked on. At the end she started doingtimers in to the pit she would do them over and over and would not flip. As a result almost every practice (bars was usually the last event) she would come home grumpy, frustrated and almost in tears. After a while of asking her coach to start doing the drills on low bar. She never did.

Now my DD has practically stopped doing timers as they help nothing as she never flips.(Her tap swings are some of the best on the team btw.) As her team has gotten quite large from people moving up from bronze they split up into to two different groups my dd was always in the the"worse" group aka the one with all the recently silver kids. Her two best friends were always in the higher group. Everyone knows they will move up. The little kid group when she is in it mostly gets the much less experienced kid who kind of acts like shes talking to 5 year old. That group always does conditioning as drills they did in bronze whereas the higher group does fun stuff and new skills. Of course as a result now she hasn't been doing low bar skills while many of the original ones have gotten theirs on a high bar. So now she never has gotten a chance to do the lower bar flyaway as you have to change the bar setting and either no one else in her group can do the drill safely or they have progressed passed that point.

Any tips for how to get my dd to flip into the pit.(She is not afraid of hitting her toes on the bar as she did once when she first got to silver and everyone else was more worried then her she simply band aided/taped it up and kept trying flyaways.) She claims her body doesn't "know how to flip". She can do a back flip off a spotting block with minimal spotting on to an 8 incher so she can..... Also when she does do timers she lands on her head cause of the height of her tap swings(Another reason she has stopped doing tap swings)

Any helpful tips would be great!!!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Please let the coach handle this. A flyaway can be a very dangerous skill, even in the pit. She should not work on that independently, at leasnt not yet.

They did not place her in the lower-skilled group just to bug her, they do that because she feels she is lacking strength/work ethic/whatever. This is not a bad thing, she is getting more time to work on the basics!

 

[mls529]

Speaking from experience with my DD, the flyaway is not a hard technical skill but it is one of the first "mental" skills on bars. My DD is competed level 5 (with a flyaway) successfully, and then started having blocks on the flyaway skill. Like your daughter, she just couldn't "go for it." She moved to Xcel and competed her entire Gold year without a flyaway because you can do the Gold routine with the level 4 dismount. She won 1st place on bars all season. She even started Platinum without a flyaway and competed a clear hip, and a kip-cast-handstand. You can move forward in Xcel without a flyaway, so please don't force it. It's a scary skill for many kids and there really aren't drills for something that is a fear. Tell her to keep working hard on bar drills and conditioning and not to be concerned about what group she is in.

 

[Flyaway]

My dd is STILL fighting the mental battle for the flyaway. I have stayed completely out of it. I know that she should be able to do it by now, but for whatever reason she isn't. I'm trusting the coaches to give her enough time on the bars to work on it, and I'm trusting her to be the athlete she is and work through it. Frustrating? You bet! I just don't go watch practice and don't ask her how it went. I know one day I'll pick her up and she'll tell me she nailed it.

 

[gymnastsupporter]

Please let the coach handle this. A flyaway can be a very dangerous skill, even in the pit. She should not work on that independently, at leasnt not yet.

They did not place her in the lower-skilled group just to bug her, they do that because she feels she is lacking strength/work ethic/whatever. This is not a bad thing, she is getting more time to work on the basics!

Maybe but I know for a fact that she can easily do 10 pull ups with good form and is one of the few who actually always does the required amount and doesn't skip pull ups and leg lifts among other things.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Maybe but I know for a fact that she can easily do 10 pull ups with good form and is one of the few who actually always does the required amount and doesn't skip pull ups and leg lifts among other things.

There are so many factors that go into deciding groups. There is no need to speculate about the reason. If you really want to know ask the coach (although they will probably label you a CGM, and I do not recommend going that route)

 

[FlippinPrincess]

There are so many factors that go into deciding groups. There is no need to speculate about the reason. If you really want to know ask the coach (although they will probably label you a CGM, and I do not recommend going that route)

You can ask in a way that does not make you a CGM. You can just schedule a meeting to discuss her progress and areas she needs more work. This should help clarify why they have her training where she is.

 

[3cats]

Flyaways are a hiccup for many gymnasts. It sounds like you are quite invested in who goes where in her gymnastics group. Just leave her at gym and let her work on these things at her own pace. My daughter has been separated several different times over the years from her best friends in various practice groups. It happens. Luckily gymnastics is an individual sport and how others do has no bearing on how successful my daughter should feel about gymnastics.
Likewise your daughter's successes have no wieght in how others do.

 

[Flippin'A]

Keep in mind it can be almost impossible to put a kid in one group for one event and another group for other events. If she isn't ready to move up on beam and floor, then it makes sense to me that she's in the lower group even though she's likely very ahead on bars. Just in terms of making sure she gets equal time on all events it probably doesn't make sense to have her jumping between groups. I don't have any specific flyaway advice, but we have a couple girls who are slightly older/more experienced on my DD's team and what I really appreciate is that they are great leaders. They demonstrate good behavior, help the other girls with non-gymnastics things (grip fastening, snack opening) and are always the first ones to give encouragement and support. If you reframe her position with the younger girls in that way-- this is her chance to set a good example and be a leader-- that might help her not feel like she's behind or being held back.

 

[raenndrops]

About a year ago my DD moved up from bronze to silver. She had been working very hard as her best friend moved up before her. She finally moved up and had an okay first year. Now we know that she is not going to move up(gold) as she would have a terrible year on beam and floor as she has always been nervous and her back walkover(beam) she is nervous on even in practice. As for floor she had started working RO BHS BHS but has injured her back and unable to do BHS now. Bars however has always been her strongest event and for a little while was the only thing she could try upgraded skills on. When she moved from bronze to silver she had worked a little on flyaway but not that much as in her gym bronze is the in which you do a lot of conditioning as their bar routine isn't hard. When she got to silver she finally thought she could start working on her flyaway she got with a little spot from the low bar but then competition season happened. Competition season is when almost no new skills are worked on. At the end she started doing timers in to the pit she would do them over and over and would not flip. As a result almost every practice (bars was usually the last event) she would come home grumpy, frustrated and almost in tears. After a while of asking her coach to start doing the drills on low bar. She never did.

Now my DD has practically stopped doing timers as they help nothing as she never flips.(Her tap swings are some of the best on the team btw.) As her team has gotten quite large from people moving up from bronze they split up into to two different groups my dd was always in the the"worse" group aka the one with all the recently silver kids. Her two best friends were always in the higher group. Everyone knows they will move up. The little kid group when she is in it mostly gets the much less experienced kid who kind of acts like shes talking to 5 year old. That group always does conditioning as drills they did in bronze whereas the higher group does fun stuff and new skills. Of course as a result now she hasn't been doing low bar skills while many of the original ones have gotten theirs on a high bar. So now she never has gotten a chance to do the lower bar flyaway as you have to change the bar setting and either no one else in her group can do the drill safely or they have progressed passed that point.

Any tips for how to get my dd to flip into the pit.(She is not afraid of hitting her toes on the bar as she did once when she first got to silver and everyone else was more worried then her she simply band aided/taped it up and kept trying flyaways.) She claims her body doesn't "know how to flip". She can do a back flip off a spotting block with minimal spotting on to an 8 incher so she can..... Also when she does do timers she lands on her head cause of the height of her tap swings(Another reason she has stopped doing tap swings)

Any helpful tips would be great!!!

A ROBHSBHS is not needed at ANY level of Xcel unless the gym requires it. They do not need a 3 skill pass.
In Gold, we have girls that do a FHS(stepout)-RO and a choice of Front Tuck, ROBT, FHS(stepout)-FHS(2 feet), or ROBHS.
On beam, a BWO is not an official requirement in any level either. Our Golds mostly compete a Handstand and a Cartwheel... but some compete a Handstand and a Handstand connected to a jump or turn.

As for the flyaway ... only 1 of our Golds competes a flyaway. We even have a Platinum that competes without one. A "flipping" dismount is not needed until Diamond. My OG has had a flyaway block since she was 11 and has repeatedly left and returned to gymnastics to try to conquer the beast!

As for the grouping, I would schedule a meeting with the coaches (as suggested by others) to find out what their plans are for your DD and what they think her strengths and weaknesses are. You could also ask what she needs to do to be moved to the other group or to move up or however you think you should word it.

Remember to breathe. Good luck.

 

[GymAir]

I would say let the flyaway go. It’s not allowed to compete it on silver, and she can get a fresh start when the group starts to work on them later in the year. I understand it’s hard to let that go since her back is hurt and she can’t work as much on other events. Maybe her coach would let her work on other upgrades on bars that she could compete this season. On the flyaway, if she continues to do timers into the pit, she needs to let go AT horizontal - not higher. If she does a flyaway like that it will travel backward toward the bar because she is letting go too late.