From Mushroom circles to flairs

[munchkin3]

DS has circles pretty much down......how can he start transitioning to flairs???
Whenever he even begins to separate his legs, it throws the whole thing off....

It is like the opposite of nice straight tight M circles.....

thanks

 

[BlairBob]

Flair on Pommel Horse

 

[Hammy20]

Good Flairs start with good circles and good splits. One of the most common mistakes when starting flairs is to begin to pike the circles, this is especially true at the 1/4 circle.

One drill I use, and I'll try to get it in video form (along with the progressions I use for teaching mushroom circles) starts on floor mushroom. The gymnast swings a 1/4 circle stopping in a side support with their legs apart in a wide straddle, with their hips forward. Next they swing to a 1/2 circle shape, going through their 1/4 circle flair drill and stopping in a support with their hips up and legs apart in a wide straddle. Once confident with the this they swing to a 3/4 circle shape, going through the 1/4 and 1/2 flair drill shapes, and stopping in a side support with legs apart again in a wide straddle. Finally, I have them do a full flair on the floor mushroom. Once they show me good flair drills at each spot, and the full flair on a floor mushroom. I have them go up to the mushroom and do circle, circle, flair, circle.

Hope this helps a little bit.

 

[BlairBob]

Thanks, it will help next year in L6. I'm just trying to refine our L5 circles so they will blow away everybody else's besides making 5 circles being the minimum he does. He hit 12 today but form was sacrificed. Then we went back toward as good as possible form with extension. Just a lot of floor circle work which should make loops easy when we start with them ( not quite yet ).

Do you start loops after the gymnast can hit a few floor circles ( without pommels at first )? We don't have a floor buck right now though we do have an extra side horse that the kids use to get on the men's bar/strap bar.