weak level 5 bar routine

[mimi]

My daughter is 9 years old and a level 5 gymnast. She scores all 9's except bars which is very weak. She has one bent arm in her kip and cannot seem to connect anything, it starts out bad because she has to correct the bent arm before front hip circle, etc, etc. She also cannot make the high bar kip well when she jumps with her feet together. Are there any specific exercises that she can do to improve this? She is regarded as one of the strongest in her gym, can do multiple press to handstands, wins chin up contests consistently, so I'm a little confused as to why she can't fix her bars. She is really frustrated! Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[gymgal]

I am sure that coaches will weigh in but dds coaches have always told me that bars is not about strength - It's about timing of the glides and angles of the casts. Dd has always been a little weaker in the upper body and I worried that bars would be hard for her but it turned out to be an event in which she gains skills more easily than other events.

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[Deleted member D3987]

time and patience. it too will pass.

 

[BlairBob]

If she is strong with decent enough bent arm strength (pullups and dips) then it's just a matter of working the skills and numbers and cleaning it up.

 

[profmom]

Time, time, practice, and more time. My DD was a mediocre bars worker until near the end of last competitive season, when she finally started connecting everything and looking beautiful. Now she's moved up to become stunningly mediocre at L6 bars!

 

[mado4]

yes, it will take time …
but I have to say that having body strength is really important on bars, especially upper body strength.

 

[nevertooold]

stunningly mediocre at L6 bars!

This makes my day!

 

[Chocoholic]

One thing my daughter's bar coach told her to get her arms straight was that she should keep her arms straight even if that meant not making the trick during practice. He got after her whenever they were not straight and explained that she needed to work on that correction. If it got close to a meet and she was no longer making her front hip circle then she could backtrack a little, but in practice he wanted the arms straight at all costs. It did seem to help my daughter and did not take long to correct when she focused on that one aspect of the skill.