- Nov 16, 2012
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- 1,792
I've not posted anything in a while but now I feel like I need other coaches' opinions. I have this 10 year old gymnast who is super powerful, built like a real tumbler (Simon Biles type), really muscular overall. She's strong on bars which is her best event and on vault she runs really fast and her hurdle and punch on the board are super good. On beam she is pretty graceful, slow getting skills but when she gets something it stays. On floor she has very good and powerful round off, backward roll to handstand, walkovers, jumps and leaps, nice handstand and other basic skills. So she has all her level C skills beautifully on every event, except her front handspring on floor that she can't get. She's stuck with it, she has trained for at least 1,5 years. Everyone else (others are much weaker in strength and not as powerful as she is) got it pretty easily but she's not getting any better.
She competed level C last year even if she didn't have this one skill. She scored high 8's on every other event (which is considered really good score here since we use FIG deductions) except floor that was on 7's at best.
I think I have tried every possible drill I can think of for front handspring with her. Today I spent almost all the floor rotation with her giving her 1 on 1 time and corrections and spotted a lot, but nope, no progress.
We do the following drills:
- Spotted front handspring from a spotting block (without a hurdle)
- Spotted handstand hops on a edge of a spotting block, focusing on kicking up to handstand as fast as possible, then spotting the hop so she end up upside down on my shoulder
- Regular handstand hops
- Front handspring using a barrel
- Front handspring on a trampoline
- Hurdle and kicking up to handstand, pushing from shoulders and landing on her back on a soft mat
- Front walkovers from 10 cm mat, doing it faster and faster and almost ending up doing a front handspring
- Front handsprings landing on a pit
When she tries this skill alone it looks more like a forward roll. She pretty much lands on her butt or a very low squat on her best. She bends her arms on the push, closes her shoulders and bends the hips. When she's spotted she does it pretty well except her arms still tend to bend.
She can kind of do the skill on a trampoline but she lands on her heels and has so little arch that it's very undercut.
Is there something else I can do with her? Today I even made her do some mind exercises after watching someone else do the drills perfectly.
I feel that something in her brain is just not clicking. I've not been worried at all because I've felt that she's gonna figure it out very soon since she is so strong and I know that could physically do this skill very easily. But there is something that she doesn't get. I think that she has the image of the skill all wrong in her head.
This is not a fear issue. She's a happy child, always smiling and this one skill doesn't even seem to bother her that much. She's very hard working but also strongly relies on adults and doesn't have any doubts when I say she should not worry about it and that the skill comes soon when her brain gets it right.
Do you have any thought about what I should do with her or do I just keep doing the same drills and wait?
Edit: I may be able to get a video tomorrow if that helps to see the problem...
She competed level C last year even if she didn't have this one skill. She scored high 8's on every other event (which is considered really good score here since we use FIG deductions) except floor that was on 7's at best.
I think I have tried every possible drill I can think of for front handspring with her. Today I spent almost all the floor rotation with her giving her 1 on 1 time and corrections and spotted a lot, but nope, no progress.
We do the following drills:
- Spotted front handspring from a spotting block (without a hurdle)
- Spotted handstand hops on a edge of a spotting block, focusing on kicking up to handstand as fast as possible, then spotting the hop so she end up upside down on my shoulder
- Regular handstand hops
- Front handspring using a barrel
- Front handspring on a trampoline
- Hurdle and kicking up to handstand, pushing from shoulders and landing on her back on a soft mat
- Front walkovers from 10 cm mat, doing it faster and faster and almost ending up doing a front handspring
- Front handsprings landing on a pit
When she tries this skill alone it looks more like a forward roll. She pretty much lands on her butt or a very low squat on her best. She bends her arms on the push, closes her shoulders and bends the hips. When she's spotted she does it pretty well except her arms still tend to bend.
She can kind of do the skill on a trampoline but she lands on her heels and has so little arch that it's very undercut.
Is there something else I can do with her? Today I even made her do some mind exercises after watching someone else do the drills perfectly.
I feel that something in her brain is just not clicking. I've not been worried at all because I've felt that she's gonna figure it out very soon since she is so strong and I know that could physically do this skill very easily. But there is something that she doesn't get. I think that she has the image of the skill all wrong in her head.
This is not a fear issue. She's a happy child, always smiling and this one skill doesn't even seem to bother her that much. She's very hard working but also strongly relies on adults and doesn't have any doubts when I say she should not worry about it and that the skill comes soon when her brain gets it right.
Do you have any thought about what I should do with her or do I just keep doing the same drills and wait?
Edit: I may be able to get a video tomorrow if that helps to see the problem...