Coaches Turns - Turning body as a whole

[Liv...]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone had any tips/advice/drills/sayings that they found helpful when teaching turns. So far we've strengthened their releve so they seem to be getting adequate extension in their toes but their biggest problem is moving their hips then chest or vise versa. They are doing it from a side passe (foot to knee, knee pointing sideways) then lift to releve as they bring their knee forward for a half turn. They compete it as a Passe Turn.
Any comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[iwannacoach]

Teach them which muscles to use to keep their shoulders aligned with their hips, Have them stand, one at a time, with their feet slighly farther than shoulder width apart. Gently grab them at/about their shoulders and try to turn their shoulders out of alignment with their hips and feet. Do this in both directions.

The idea is to get them to have a physical awareness of the muscles used to maintain alignment, to remember the sensation those muscles had within to hold alignment, and to get on the beam/floor and re-create that sensation during the arm sweep and lift into releve', and maintain the tension that creates the sensation through the remainder of the turn. If it wobbles, maintain the tension and forget the wobble, because they'll fall anyway, and keep falling, and falling, and........

Make the "sensation" the only thing that counts as a success.... nothing else matters...... absolutely nothing else matters until they can consistently hold their alignment..... the arm sweep doesn't count, the releve' has no value, and spotting to mark the two phases of the turn won't help. None of it helps if they can't hold alignment, because every turn will become a "Frankenturn" that does whatever it wants no matter how much the person creating it protests.

 

[GymBeeMom]

The simplest advise changed my DDs turns from terrible to beautfiul. "Look down, go down, look up, stay up." That didn't just mean falling off an apparatus, it also meant your posture and movement stays up when you keep your eyes and chin up. WHen your posture is up and tight, turns turn It was simple magic advise for my DD.