Parents Shoot through question?

[mom2newgymnast]

Hi! My dd is a new level 3. They are getting closer to the beginning of competition season and overall her skills are all coming along nicely. The one bar skill that she still has some struggle with is the shoot through. When she gets it, it looks great, but she only gets it about half the time.

The other day I watched a little of practice and I noticed that she looked different than the other girls when she did it and finally I realized the difference. When she does the shoot through she does not bend the leg that is going over the bar at all. She casts and keeps her top leg completely straight as she tries to shoot over the bar. All the other girls bend the top leg and then straighten it over the bar. They seem to have a much higher success rate than she does. I asked her about it just out of curiosity and she said that you have to keep it straight. I showed her the level 3 bar routine tutorial on youtube where they clearly bent the leg before straightening it, but she isn't buying it. Anyway, I told her to of course do what the coaches tell her, but I was wondering if any of you all had any thoughts as to what she is doing. It it allowed? Is there a reason why her coaches would tell her to do it that way (keeping in mind that none of the other girls do it that way)? Or do you think she misunderstood? I would think the coaches would correct her if it was a case of misunderstanding, but you never know.. Thanks!

 

[Firefly]

I think she probably misunderstood the coach. They're supposed to keep their legs straight throughout the routine, yes. Except for the shoot through. In my experience, that is always done by bending the leg ad "shooting" it over the bar. Have her ask her coach to confirm the expectation.

 

[lovegymnastics22]

I can't picture how you can do a shoot through without bending the leg. She must be very flexible! Will be awesome when she is learning toe circles.

 

[sce]

The leg is supposed to bend on the shoot through.

This is a screen shot from the illustrated routines:

Maybe encourage her to ask the coach for clarification?

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I can't picture how you can do a shoot through without bending the leg. She must be very flexible! Will be awesome when she is learning toe circles.

Well she might be bending it a little, but it's definitely not like in the pictures/video where they bring the knee into the chest and then straighten. She is flexible and she casts pretty high so I think she kind of just raises her top leg from the cast and kind of splits them with one going over the bar. It's hard to see though and I'm not sure that's exactly what she is doing, but that's what it looks like.

The leg is supposed to bend on the shoot through.

This is a screen shot from the illustrated routines:

Maybe encourage her to ask the coach for clarification?

It sounds like she is doing it wrong. I don't understand why none of the coaches have corrected it though. She's probably worked with 5 different coaches on the bars since January. Maybe she does it right during the drills but then when she does it on her own, she thinks she is supposed to do it the other way. I'll try to get her to ask the coach today, but she's only 7 and I'm not sure if she'll do it or not. She's kind of shy around them and we've had a problem with lack of consistency this year with coaches/coaching so she's not that comfortable speaking up with some of them.

 

[lovegymnastics22]

I'm not a coach, but maybe if she can actually do it from a high cast with a straight leg than that would be a better way to train it? The coaches may think at this point it's better to have her keep trying to perfect it that way and will suggest she bend her knees as it gets closer to competition time. Just like some girls do a kip in lvl3 even if they don't have to??

 

[mom2newgymnast]

My dd asked her coach, who has only been at the gym about 1 month, today and was told by her that it didn't matter, either way was fine. I was wrong though, there are a couple of other girls that do it with a straight leg. Then I talked to another mom of a girl that transferred to this gym 6 months ago and is repeating level 3 and she was told when she started here by a more experienced coach that straight leg shoot throughs are what is expected at this gym. Strange. Anyway, I watched for a while today and she did make all of them I saw, so I guess she'll stick with it. Thanks!

 

[mom2newgymnast]

By the way, I do have a short video clip I took today of what I am talking about if anyone wants to see it. Maybe I am just not explaining it well..

 

[sce]

By the way, I do have a short video clip I took today of what I am talking about if anyone wants to see it. Maybe I am just not explaining it well..

Glad she asked the coach, so at least she can feel okay if she needs to bend her leg to make it. I'd love to see the video, as It sounds like quite the difficult way to do the skill.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Glad she asked the coach, so at least she can feel okay if she needs to bend her leg to make it. I'd love to see the video, as It sounds like quite the difficult way to do the skill.

Sent you a link to the video. Let me know if it doesn't work. Thanks!