Coaches Throwing head back on front tucks

[Redford]

Hello there,
as the title suggests, I have a gymnast who keeps throwing her head back on front tucks, especially punch fronts. She has an excellent hight on take off and although she could tuck in a little more, she still lands on her feet.
But the head throwing thing really starts to concern me mostly because it slows down her rotation, looks absolutly akward and I can see a bad habit establishing itself. Not to mention, she must have a very stiff neck after practice.
I'm new to this, I had a few gymnasts who would throw their heads back on back tucks and BHC but those could all be fixed with beanbags and giving fix points. I'm clueless in this case as she says she doesn't notice it, so just telling her not to do so hasn't worked so far...

Any ideas? Any drills to help her pay attention to the position of her head?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

they're supposed to 'spot' something in front of them. put a sign up!

 

[Redford]

Thanks, definitly worth a try.
I'll just put myself up, I make an excellent sign.

 

[gymjunkie]

I had a gymnast go through this. She started out with very nice front tucks, but in her first few days of throwing them would err on the side of over-rotation. To correct this, she started throwing her head back (2 wrongs that did not make a right!). I am not sure if your gymnast is tossing her head back for the same reason, but regardless, it quickly becomes a nasty habit! I corrected it with mine by having her do "peanut rolls" on the tumble trak (hopefully you know what these are, if not I can describe). At first, she even threw her head back on these, but once she was able to correct her head on the TT, she could then correct it in the punch front. What's odd about this kid is she learned a beautiful front handspring-front tuck, before she was able to correctly do the punch front!

 

[Redford]

I'm not quite sure where it comes from. She had them right on trampoline it only started when we took it to floor. For me it looks like she throws all her power into that punch but her head just doesn't rotate as fast as her body.
A description for the "peanut rolls" would be great, as I'm not from an English speaking country I'm not familiar with the name.

 

[gymjunkie]

Here's my best try at a description: stand on the tumble trak with your feet apart and hold the back of your knees (semi-squatted) from the outside. Fall forward with some rotation to the upper part of your back, then rotate to your feet. Repeat this in a series all the way down the tumble trak. Does that make sense?

 

[Redford]

2:25?
(Although here they took a name from the fruit section)

 

[gymjunkie]

Yes, that's what I was talking about! See if your gymnast throws her head back on those too and if so correct it there first. That's what helped mine (as well as working fhs-front tucks, which she learned first).

 

[caraburn]

FORWARD ROLLS FORWARD ROLLS FORWARD ROLLS!

Reiterate the "rolling" action because that is essentially what a front tuck is. A forward roll in the air.