Coaches Squat-on Question

[sevenatenine2]

I have a Level 2 gymnast that is having the worst time with the squat-on, sole circle dismount. I'm thinking it's almost entirely mental at this point but in the event I've missed something technical, I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

She CAN do a very beautiful dismount. The ability is there, and she does it gorgeously maybe 25% of the time. The other times, she squats-on and either doesn't get her feet on the bar or will touch her toes and then take them off quickly. She has also peeled on the bottom side of the dismount once (which I think was just a freak thing), and she has also (only once, but at a meet), gotten her feet on perfectly and then swung down and not let go of the bar. She gets frustrated and closes herself off, so she's not really telling me that it's a fear issue, but I think she has focused on it so much it's messing with her head and not allowing her to do the skill that she can do.

That said, we do squat-ons on a low floor bar (she can do most of the time, but on bad nights doesn't even get her feet on there), and I also have her squat on beams mats.

Anything I'm missing that might be able to help her? I hate to see her so frustrated and I'm running out of corrections to give her other than the always helpful, "JUST DO IT!"

 

[iwannacoach]

Shrink the skill down to a size she feels is easy. Try having her jump toe-on into them from a low spotting block. Add a little height at a time, and let her choose how much more to add. Tell her she can keep it as easy as she wants as long as she works hard, tries to do them properly with thought about what she's doing, and keeps a good rate of work..... like do one walk back to the block and immediately do another. Start with 7-10 sets of two and add another repetition every two or three days while reducing the number of sets.

Sometimes kids try to use their arms by pulling to get their feet to the bar, or pressing down about half way down to slow their descent into the power portion of the swing. None of that works. It just makes the skill harder to learn and makes peeling and feeling uncomfortable more likely.

 

[gymdog]

She may not be ready to put it all together, keep working on the drills and do the Underswing option.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I have a Level 2 gymnast that is having the worst time with the squat-on, sole circle dismount. I'm thinking it's almost entirely mental at this point but in the event I've missed something technical, I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

She CAN do a very beautiful dismount. The ability is there, and she does it gorgeously maybe 25% of the time. The other times, she squats-on and either doesn't get her feet on the bar or will touch her toes and then take them off quickly. She has also peeled on the bottom side of the dismount once (which I think was just a freak thing), and she has also (only once, but at a meet), gotten her feet on perfectly and then swung down and not let go of the bar. She gets frustrated and closes herself off, so she's not really telling me that it's a fear issue, but I think she has focused on it so much it's messing with her head and not allowing her to do the skill that she can do.

That said, we do squat-ons on a low floor bar (she can do most of the time, but on bad nights doesn't even get her feet on there), and I also have her squat on beams mats.

Anything I'm missing that might be able to help her? I hate to see her so frustrated and I'm running out of corrections to give her other than the always helpful, "JUST DO IT!"

look at her hands. she is probably shifting her wrists (death grip) forward in a protective manner to 'hold on' instead of pushing her wrist pads against the bar. this is very common but goes unnoticed until the coach starts describing what you have above.