WAG Twisted splits help

[putri]

Hi! I need to find out if there's anything else besides doing the splits on each side for a couple minutes a day to help dd straighten out her splits. Her hips ate slightly twisted. Dd's doing ok now but if she ever wants an opportunity to do quicker acrobatic moves where the legs are split up or even have nice split jumps, she needs to straighten out her splits. Right now she can cartwheel, tic toc and walkover on beam. But she really has to work hard to straighten herself to stick it. Because the moves are slow, she can make do. But her coach said that she may have a problem doing a bhs on beam for example if her splits are still slightly twisted.

Suggestion? Thx!!

 

[bogwoppit]

She needs to keep her hips square and not allow her hips to twist. Unless she uses good straight hips when she practices they will never improve. Of course this means she will not be able to go all the way to the floor, and it will hurt. Best ask her coach to show you what square hips should look like as she will find cheating much easier than working on good form.

 

[putri]

Thanks for the reply!! I am already holding her hips like how her coach does it. The splits at home is coach's homework for my dd. Three minutes on each side.

I am wondering if there is any other exercise to help with this hip issue besides what we do now.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

he can check if her hips twisted by bending her back leg. If it goes straight up then she is square. A big problem we found was girls trying to line up their front and back leg - without leaving a hips width between them.

 

[Jenny]

he can check if her hips twisted by bending her back leg. If it goes straight up then she is square. A big problem we found was girls trying to line up their front and back leg - without leaving a hips width between them.

Sit them on a line - front leg goes one side and back leg goes the other.

 

[BlairBob]

There are various different stretches for splits but you have to do them square if you want square splits. For many kids, this will bring on the tears as it is not comfortable at all, which is why they turn out the back leg or turn in the front leg to decrease the stretch.

Do not let her lean forward. To do this I basically stand right behind them and hold their torso vertical by holding their arm/pits.

Basically though, it's either hamstring or quad or both. She can do the wall lunge stretch where her rear shin will line up along the wall and she stretches in a lunge with her back knee on the floor. This is a doozy.

Single leg hamstring stretch.

 

[putri]

Thank you for the replies!! I spoke to one mom today and she told me to see a physio. Her daughter had squaring issues and a month later, with exercise, she fixed it. So I have a physio appointment in a couple of weeks In the mean time, I'll try the holding her back method mentioned above. Thx!!

 

[Jenny]

I would be really interested how you get on. Let us know. Twisted splits is a problem lots of girls have and I haven't come across using a PT before.

 

[BlairBob]

Not necessary imo. Only thing you gotta do is physically keep them squared. Little ones will cry while the older ones may not be very happy with you.

 

[putri]

Out of curiosity, is this usually fixable? The physio did a quick look (further looking in a couple weeks) and said it's not too bad. A few exercises will help. But before I spoke to physio, dd's coach made it seem like there's no future in high level gymnastic due to this not square issue. This twist is bad enough that it's effecting dd's splitty moves, e.g. Front/back walkovers on beam, cartwheels, tick tocks. She'll manage but needs to work on aligning/adjusting hips mid moves or upon landing. Coach said no way she'll do back flip on beam because she'll hurt herself. Which basically means dd would never experience optionals. Thoughts?

 

[BlairBob]

It's called stretching correctly in the first place. I hate to sound skeptical about her coach, but...

What's her flexibility like now in a handstand or cartwheel? I probably only have somewhere between 90-120 degrees in my split jumps/leaps and walkovers but it's more than enough to do a cartwheel, cartwheel step together on beam. Yeah, it's pretty sucky but I was never a dancer and never really cared about how much active split I had besides what was necessary for scissors or flairs and yes, at one time I had all my splits, squared though I've kind of let them go the last couple of years ( I still have my middle but my front is maybe 3-6 inches off the floor at best unless I really want to push myself and strain something to one-up the girls while stretching ).

Standing back on beam has nothing to do with hip flexibility besides the necessity to compress in a tuck or pike.

Backhandspring on beam has nothing to do with hip flexibility. Back handspring step-out possibly but I'm sure even I could have enough split flexibility for BHS-SO, except for the lack of split deduction as I can do BHS-SO on floor and on a low beam with mats on each side ( It's not worth the risk of splitting the beam in my case ).

 

[putri]

Thanks for the answer!! Her coach is pretty good. She has some national girls and so I think she knows what she's talking about.

The bhs on beam she's concerned about is bhs-so. I am not sure what level that will be. While dd wants to one day do high level gym (lots of tumbles, jumps etc) I just want her to get to optionals. I think she'll have more fun

I am now holding dd up under armpit as you suggested and also having her go against the wall. She can feel the area needed being stretched than just doing splits on each side as coach suggested for homework. I think it may just help!! I am still going to see the physio, I just want a professional opinion on her not squareness, and see what she puts for stretching exercises to loosen up the hip flexor and hamstrings.

 

[BlairBob]

To note, front splits stretch the hip flexors/quad in the rear leg and hamstrings in the front.

BHS-SO used to be a L7 skill in the US. Now maybe it's L5/6, arggh new quaddrennium changes.

[video=youtube;-EirhhXeS5Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EirhhXeS5Q[/video]

I personall really hate these, you can also do them in a front split which should keep the hips squared if the rear leg stays vertical. OTOH, I feel bad for your kids just as I do whenever spot their splits or did private stretching lessons.

 

[putri]

Thx for the video!! Will show dd!!

I want dd to get to optionals when we get back to the US. I think she'll just love it more. She's right about (old) level 5 now and working on forward/backward wo on beam and tick tocks. She's working on summersaulting into pit too. Her friends are starting to bhs 2x and back summersaulting on floor but while dd is same age as them, 9, she just started gym 1.5yrs ago and so still working on bhs 3x. Her vault, at 115/120cm, is hit and miss. She's not running well and some 7yrs old are taller than dd :/ Coach said I can practice running with her at home so we'll see how she does soon. Dd runs like a penguin, arms flapping left and right in front of thighs! We're trying to move her arms to side, like most normal people on bars dd can't giant yet. Not sure when she has to do that. She does baby giants.

So it's just her splits that is supposedly holding her beam back and that her fast muscle twitch is not fast enough coach said. Ok for now but may need more bounce and speed for higher acro on floor. I think her bounce/jump is getting better though. But we'll see.

Think she'll get to optionals? Once there she can level 7 forever for all I care

 

[BlairBob]

I'm not that familiar with the UK system but...isn't all this stuff the coach is supposed to handle?

Stretching technique

Power Development

Proper running technique.

Coach said I can practice running with her at home so we'll see how she does soon.

How old and tall is she? 115-120 cm sounds a bit high but I'm just comparing that to what some of our compulsory vaulters do Front Handspring at. I'd have to go dig around and look around for the vault settings but I don't think our taller girls around 12 or 13 (and roughly close to or near my height at 5'1/1.55m)

Simplest way to increase sprinting technique besides gross form errors is to enhance Mass-specific Force. Basically get stronger so that each foot strike pushes off the ground more.

In gymnastics, that's basically means lots of sprints ( and let's face it that most gyms will only have probably up to 25meters to sprint, if not 20 ) and stronger legs/hips. Lunges, squats, deadlifts, jumps, whatever. You are basically born with a % of muscle fibers being slow twitch and quick twitch and some muscle fibers that seem to be able to switch depending on necessity ( though they are never really as quick as true quick twitch, they can be pretty quick ).

 

[Jenny]

I'm not that familiar with the UK system but...isn't all this stuff the coach is supposed to handle?

Stretching technique

Power Development

Proper running technique.



How old and tall is she? 115-120 cm sounds a bit high but I'm just comparing that to what some of our compulsory vaulters do Front Handspring at. I'd have to go dig around and look around for the vault settings but I don't think our taller girls around 12 or 13 (and roughly close to or near my height at 5'1/1.55m)

Simplest way to increase sprinting technique besides gross form errors is to enhance Mass-specific Force. Basically get stronger so that each foot strike pushes off the ground more.

In gymnastics, that's basically means lots of sprints ( and let's face it that most gyms will only have probably up to 25meters to sprint, if not 20 ) and stronger legs/hips. Lunges, squats, deadlifts, jumps, whatever. You are basically born with a % of muscle fibers being slow twitch and quick twitch and some muscle fibers that seem to be able to switch depending on necessity ( though they are never really as quick as true quick twitch, they can be pretty quick ).

Vault heights are set in the UK depending on the level or grade you are entering. 115 is usual for an 8-9 year old. 120 for a 10-11 year old roughly. Above that it is full 125 FIG

 

[BlairBob]

Well, that sure sucks. I have had some 8 and 9 year olds, and even be as fast and powerful as they were, they would have been tiny to vault @ 115.

 

[putri]

To answer your question, yes, coach is suppose to handle that and she's a great coach (techniques etc) but I don't think she's given the best homework for dd's issues. It's been a year now and after seeing dd do the splits exercise that was given to her about 6 months ago, which I actually just saw a week or so ago (before I posted this), I am almost sure it's either not enough or not done right. Please don't think I am not an involved mother (for just looking at the splits a bit ago). I am! I just don't want to be a pushy gym mom. I am already pushy with her academics and piano But, since it's frustrating dd, I stepped in. So here I am!

I think, after the above suggestions, we're actually getting somewhere. But since I am no pro and the physio has helped other girls, I am going to still take dd. I will use what I've learned here and via Googling as reference in case I need to ask questions or confirm physio's recommended method.

The vault sucks. My baby's short But, she's not the shortest, she can do it sometimes and so will just have to figure it out. I can't remember for sure but I think dd is 132-35 cm. She's 9 but wear Children's Place/Gap size 6-7 pants :/

 

[BlairBob]

4'.

Geez, she is a midget. She is barely taller than the vault.

How long is she doing her split durations?

Is her vault run good? No stutter?

How fast is she. For a 20m run and her age and size, I would like to see 4.0 seconds, up to 4.3, ideally under 4 if she is gonna hit that board hard.

And I'm guessing if she is that short, she probably weighs nothing.

 

[putri]

Ha! Yes, she's the shortest in her age group and in class. Actually she may be the 2nd shortest in the class below her She's a 3rd grader.

Her splits is 3 minutes on each side per coach's request. I have been holding her up as you suggested, my hand under arm pit, and knees bent (foot pointing up) and the combo, we think, is helping with the process. Dd is actually feeling her hips twisting and she'd square herself automatically now. So this is great!!

The physio thought the splits exercise we're doing is great. Yay and thank you, BlairBob!! And she added two things. She'd lay on the side flat and straight. I'd put my thigh (me kneeling behind he) against her bum so that she'll stay straight. Then I'd pull her top leg back so to stretch her hip flexor muscle. After a couple minutes, put my hands in front of her thigh, have her bend her knees, and push forward.

the later bit is where I may be doing this exercise wrong. So I need to consult with physio again. But it was like arm wrestling with somebody 3x your size. The first time I did it at home, I thought I was going to be propelled forward by dd's leg!!

Vault is improving!! She's now at 50-50 but still flat backing instead of going into pit like most of the girls are doing in her group. I will test her speed! Great info on the time!! Her coach said she's a bit slow but I honestly have no idea how slow. Dd doesn't strut but she doesn't swing her arms on the side and above hips. She is starting to but she was running like a penguin (if penguins could run). Her arms were swinging low and to the front a bit. So they look like they're swishing her front and side thighs.

In terms of weight... She's skinny but built. Her teammates are mostly waify looking with little muscles (but strong little ones). So not sure what the weight to height ratio need to be but she may be on the average to a smidge high. If she keeps gym up her body will look like Shawn Johnson. Her friends will be Nastia Luikin. Makes sense?