Women Mixed dominance twisting direction?

[Amber]

So my youngest DD (9), finished her season as a Level 4 this year. I have posted in the past about her older sister, (the Level 8).

So lil one is a lefty gymnast. Best split is left, cartwheels left, full turns left, and round offs left. I was sent a video of her doing a really nice full on the floor from her coach. The question: the full is right. Older sister sees this as a big problem....ie mixed dominance. What do you guys think about this? An issue, or no? She does the righty full effortlessly. Can anyone give input on this? Older DD is 100% left, so never had to deal with this potential issue. Thanks!

 

[M2Abi]

DD is dealing with this currently. She does cartwheels and round offs lefty, everything else righty. Her coach is making her change and do everything lefty.

 

[Amber]

Thanks M2. It's her first higher skill. I'm hoping this can be fixed.....

 

[Deleted member 18037]

As someone who knows very little about skills. From what I read here. I think this is less of an issue as it is an optional skill (I think). So since the routine is not compulsory, it can be worked with.

 

[M2Abi]

What dd's coach explained to me was that it was important for tumbling passes. You don't want to switch legs/direction in the middle of a pass.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

What dd's coach explained to me was that it was important for tumbling passes. You don't want to switch legs/direction in the middle of a pass.

Ahhhhh makes sense.

 

[Amber]

Yes, I think so. Older DD's floor has 3 long complicated passes and she is insistent that lil sis change that full to lefty! I wonder how hard that is? How is twisting direction figured out? From easy skills like round off, or the natural direction of harder twists, like full? In other words, change full direction or change round off direction? It's confusing!

 

[M2Abi]

I guess round off form takes a long time to teach. Coach said it would be much easier to relearn other skills than change the round off. So since round off is lefty, everything is lefty.

 

[GlobalNomad]

The round off and twist direction don't have to match. My advice would be to leave her alone and let her twist in the direction that came naturally to her.

 

[profmom]

There's been a lot of technical discussion on this issue on the boards over the years, but if I remember correctly, most of the most experienced coaches have said that consistent direction between roundoff and twist doesn't matter, but twisting consistently in one direction (whether front twisting or back twisting) is absolutely critical.

Both of my kids roundoff in the same direction but their twists rotate in opposite directions. Hasn't seemed to cause any problems.

 

[Amber]

Profmom, so everything left but all twisting right is ok?

 

[jlogym]

My dd had the same issue except she is a righty and I guess she was twisting left. The coaches told her she had topic it and twist righty. Luckily they caught it early and it wasn't hard for her to switch.

 

[jlogym]

Sorry typo coached said she had to fix it and twist righty.

 

[lindsaygymnast7]

I'm a lefty, and I twist right. I'm an optional and it has actually helped me with front twisting.

 

[calli]

My daughter is also a lefty in everything, except twisting, which she does to the right.

 

[ayyyrial]

It's pretty natural for a leftie to twist right. In figure skating, a leftie will usually jump/spin to the right so that the dominant arm does more work.

The only time it can sometimes be a problem is if she doesn't do back handsprings into her back twisting. Some girls I know have had trouble connecting a round-off directly to an opposite-side twisting skill.

 

[kris]

Mine is a left twisting rightie. Made for interesting looking half on/full twist off vaults (that she competed in level 8, when her wrists made the yurchenko impossible for a bit), but otherwise hasn't been an issue so far.

 

[Lyddie27]

a lefty round-off (hurdle on right, last foot on the ground is the left, then the first hand that goes down is left) does twist right

 

[gymjunkie]

There are some tumbling combos where you want the twist and round off to match (twisting that steps out into a RO), but then again their are some beam combos where you don't want them to match (initiating a twisting skill from a gainer).

 

[profmom]

I'm not sure why a coach would say that the roundoff and the twist have to go the same way. If you just look at the variety in vaults, you can see that it's not necessarily the case for some of the best gymnasts in the world.

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