Mas Watanabe

Part 4

Thoughts on full twisting double back on Bars

Now let us think about applying this same idea to other flipping and twisting skills.

How do you teach the full twisting double back dismount on bars? Do you encourage them to learn a “ full in” or “half in half out” or “full out”?

I would recommend teaching the technique of “half in half out” or “full out”.

One of the important aspects for the dismount from the apparatus is to have good height and dynamics of rotation.

When the gymnast tries the “full in” technique, usually the twisting motion is initiated on the bar, so that the power of lift off the bar is sacrificed. In addition, the body for the first twisting somersault needs to be very open which will make it even harder to lift off high from the bar. These actions will prevent the body from rising and generating good body rotation in the air. So, generally, the double back done with the “full in” technique will lack height and dynamics of rotation.

On the other hand, when a gymnast is using the other techniques, “half in half out” or “full out”, it will allow the gymnast to complete the kick (tapping action) and lift off the bar for the double back first before she initiates the twist in the air. Therefore, she will have ample height and enough rotation when she initiates the twist.

When the gymnast aspires to go beyond the full twisting double back (such as double twisting double back), she will definitely benefit by this technical decision.
The result will be extra height and rotation which will allow her to add another twist in the air easily.

Part 3

Thoughts on the double twisting back

The gymnast can learn the full twist with straight arms but when she advances to the double full, the arms should be brought up to her chest to twist faster.

I would encourage the gymnast to use the straight arm technique up to the 1& 1/2 twist (or at least get started with it) because the speed of the twist is not as critical to that point.

Moving up to the double full from the 1&1/2 twist requires a much faster twist and also a lot more air time. One reason we want them to have ample height and rotation for the double full is safety on the landing.

Whipping the double full and not having enough airtime is very dangerous. Many gymnasts have had a serious knee injury when they try landing a weak double full. Therefore, we need to make sure that they can make a good double full with ample height and rotation before they attempt one on the hard surface.

In order to gain more air time for the backward somersault, it is very important to emphasize the vertical take off. The vertical take off and the proper arm lifting action will guarantee great air time for the back somersault.

Emphasizing the early arm lift, however, has a potential problem.
The push off the floor to lift the upper body upward (to standing up straight) is the most important role of the arms and hands. Then (after the completion of the push), lift the arms upward to assist the body to rise up and rotate.

If the upper body is not up completely for the take off, the most common result will be the body whipping backward and also the power of the punch will be lost as well.

A flip flop should not be stretched out too long particularly in the second half of the flip flop. Rather she should be focusing on making the flip flop slightly higher and bringing the feet up as well as over and down quickly to increase the punching power.

The powerful flip flop should feel similar to doing a “whip back” and directly rebounding to the back somersault. The gymnast needs to feel a very light arm push rather than feeling a lot of weight to stand up for the take off.

The distance of the hands to feet in the last half of the flip flop should be shorter than the first half. In this way the speed of body rotation and the vertical lift of the upper body can be accelerated.

As we discussed earlier, the ideal way to flip backward is to create strong rotation from the lower body (legs and hips lifting up quickly) in the early part of the somersault.

When you have strong body rotation established in the beginning of the somersault, the double full will be completed in the first half of the somersault and the landing will be very safe and controlled.

Part 2

Thoughts on 1&1/2 twisting back to rebounding

Ending the back somersault in the half twist position (mainly to connect to the forward somersault) requires a whole different thought process and technique to do it effectively. Again, the details of developing the backward half twisting method and the technique is explained in my “Tumble Track DVD”.

All gymnasts learn to lift the arms up at the take off for the back layout. Then, the arms are brought to the side of the body in mid-air to increase body rotation. The natural arm action from that point would be to open to the side for the control landing.

When you are adding the half twist to connect to the forward tumbling, the body should be initiated to turn as the arms start to open to the sideward in the second half of the layout.

At this point, the gymnast will see the ground so that it is easy to orientate herself in the air (actually her body is just passing through the upside down position).

The body should continuously turn half to compete the twist but the eyes should be looking at the ground until the feet almost touch the ground. So that when she lands, the head should be turned sideways slightly with the arms open to the side. Good body position is one arm (the opposite side arm from the twisting direction) should be dragged a little behind while the head is turning toward front.

When the gymnast’s feet touch the ground, the feet should be directly underneath the body and the arms are still opened to the side. It is very critical that the head should not be moved forward too soon and the arms up above the head too early for the punch. These are the most common mistakes you will see in this part of the sequence.

Note:
*When the arms are brought up above the head too early, the upper body will fall forward quickly and the front somersault will go too far forward and/or does not to go up.

**When the head starts moving forward too early, the body will get into a slight hollow (or pike) position rather than maintaining a slight arch (open) position. When this happens, it will slow down the speed of the feet coming down. As a result, the gymnast will punch the feet too far forward (the feet in the front of the body) and the take off for the front will become weaker.

Again, the ideal final position for the backward flip with a half twist will be the feet directly under the body and the body in a slight open position with the arms open to side. From this position, any types of forward somersault should be executed easily.

This exact same concept and the technique should be applied to the back somersault 1&1/2 twist and the back somersault 2&1/2 twist as well.

If a gymnast is doing the back somersault 1&1/2 twist, she should try to do the back with a full twist first. Then, the half twist with using the same technique described above should be used to finish the second half.

This technique is the best way to develop the consistency in rebounding the backward half twist to forward somersault.

Part 1

“Thoughts on Full twisting Back”

When you are working with a gymnast who is trying to learn twisting a flip, we often tell the gymnast, that “it is much easier to make the twist if you have plenty of rotation”.

Sometimes, you see a gymnast who is learning “a back full”, who goes for the twist so early that she crashes due to lack of body rotation. When she starts the twisting action too early, most of the energy goes to the twist and the power for the body rotation is lost.

Once the body initiates rotation on the horizontal axis (flipping) with enough speed, the lateral rotation (twist) in the vertical axis is much easier to complete.

On the other hand, the gymnast could whip her head and arms back very quickly to get the backward rotation and initiate the twist at the same time. In this case, most likely, she would complete the twist, but she will be over flipping and will not be able to stand up when she completes the full. Her lower body whips around too fast at the end of the somersault to land in control.

So, what kind of technical suggestions should we typically give the gymnast?

Thinking logically, we should encourage the gymnast to:

1. Lift the lower body (legs and hips) upward quickly as soon as the gymnast punches the floor.
2. Initiate the twist later – hoping that she would initiate the flip strongly before she starts twisting.

If she would pay attention to the technical advice above, she would have a better chance of making the back full to her feet safely.

This is the very reason that I use the late twisting method to teach back full at first (please refer to my Tumble Track DVD).

To create an ample body rotation for the back layout, the arms are lifted at the take off and need to be brought down to the side of the body in mid-air (shortening the radius of rotation) for the layout. This action will increase the body rotation in the air.

For the backward full, the both arms go to one side of the body toward the direction of the twist. This action will increase the rotation of the lower body to flip upward stronger and the body will twist (in the lateral axis) at the same time.

Thus, you will accomplish the ample body rotation without whipping the somersault and complete the full twist safely.

In the last technical discussion of the “round off”, I pointed out two of the common mistakes we see in the skill.

The mistakes that we identified were:
1. Round off does not go straight
2. Diving to the hands so that the round off gets long and slow

In the previous discussion, we addressed “crooked round off” and what we can do to fix this problem.

Today, we will focus on the second common mistake which is, “diving to the hands so that the round off stretches long and turns over slow”. When this happens, the round off has no power and gymnasts cannot accelerate the flip flop.

Now, let’s think about what is happening when a gymnast “dives to her hands”.

A gymnast is “diving to her hands in the round off” means that the push off leg is finishing the leg extension early and the entire body leaves the floor before her hands touch the floor.

When this happens, most likely the body is turning in the air before the first hand touches the floor. The body will likely be turned more than a quarter (close to a half) by the time the second hand touches the floor. In many cases, the complete half turn is done in the air.

We have already discussed, in the previous issue, the efficient turning action from forward to backward direction. That is to turn the body a quarter on the first shoulder and the other quarter on the other shoulder to complete the half turn.

Especially, when you are doing the round off with lots of speed, a smooth and correct sequence of this turning action is very critical.

Before we go any further, let’s stop here for a moment and think about what is the purpose of the “round off”skill.

I can think of at least a few things we need to accomplish by doing the round off.

These are:
1. A smooth directional change from moving forward to backward direction
2. Develop additional speed and power (going in the same direction)
3. Develop rotational force going backward

We have already addressed the first point of how to change the direction smoothly and efficiently.

Now let’s think about the second point of developing additional speed and power by doing the round off.

How should we develop added speed and power?

When we tumble in general, where does the main source of power come from?
Which part of the body is contributing to generateing the power when we tumble?

Yes! It is coming from our legs. We also use arms and hands but still the main source of power is coming from our legs.

In the process of doing a round off, if the gymnast is diving to her hands this means her front leg is finished extending very early. The arms and the body are stretched long in the air and the upper body is making the half turn as well.

When you are trying to develop speed and power for a sequence, a very long and stretched round off is not ideal.

So, what should we tell her to do?

I would simply tell her to drop her first hand and put it on the floor before the back leg completes the kick.

In other words, the first hand should be on the floor while her back leg is kicked up. This way she is able to increase the body rotation as she kicks her back leg upward. At the same time, she will be able to convert the forward momentum to backward momentum smoothly since her body is turning half on her hands (a quarter turn on each shoulder at a time).

If her first hand is on the floor when she kicks her back leg upward, naturally it will increase the whole body rotation. Also, when this happens, her leg extension should contribute to develop more backward momentum and body rotation.

Many times I hear coaches making a correction to a gymnast, that she needs to keep her shoulder open and reach out when she places her hand down. When she tries to extend her arms forward to keep her shoulder angel open, commonly the diving action happens.

Once the body is up in the air, inevitably the turning action happens at the same time. As a result, she will do a stretched out very long round off and a half turning in the air.

This is not the ideal technique, when you are trying to create a fast body rotation and trying to gain backward momentum by doing the round off.

Then, how far forward do we need to tell her to place her hand?

I believe that the ideal distance will vary by each individual and also it will depend on how fast she is running or moving forward during the hurdle.

I think the key factor is that the first hand needs to be on the floor before the front leg completes the leg extension.

And also, we must remember that the upper body should be brought done to the ground as squarely as possible when she is bringing her hand down to the floor.

When our gymnasts can accomplish these parts of the technique in the round off, you could say that she is half way there!!!

Before I stop our discussion here, I would like to bring up one more point very quickly.

That is how high the arms should lift up during the hurdle step.

You have noticed that all Chinese gymnasts are hurdling with arms lower than their shoulder height. But you have also seen some other gymnasts lift their arms higher than the Chinese gymnasts and doing the successful round off as well.

So it is hard to determine what height is the ideal height at this point.

However, my logical sense tells me that when you lift the arms high up overhead, it requires more time to bring the arms down to the floor. So that keeping the arms lower might help the gymnast to bring her arm down quickly and straight to the floor.

I have seen a good round off both ways so I am hesitant to tell you one way is better than the other. But you should keep this in mind and experiment it with your own gymnasts.

One thing I am sure of, is that arms should not be lifted wide to the side. Because doing the round off from this wide open position will naturally promote the strong upper body turning action.

So the arms should be simply lifted up and brought straight down to the floor.

That’s it for this issue’s discussion.

We will further talk about some other aspect of the round off in the next (future?) issue.

Until then, have fun coaching!!!

Imagine if your gymnasts can do a technically efficient round off, it will be easy to make them improve quickly in many areas. I found myself correcting the round off technique everywhere on a daily basis.

As I worked more with the gymnasts on this skill, I realized how complex this skill is.

I struggle myself fixing my own gymnast’s round off technique and they still can’t do an efficient round off yet.

I picked this skill “round off” as a subject to discuss with you and think together first because if we can develop better approach to fix an efficiency of this skill, it will make our job so much easier.

To make it practical, I will first pick some common faults that we see every day in the workout and give you my thought to get started the discussion.

Let’s assume that she is doing a round off – flip flop – back layout.
Here are 2 typical faults that often I see:

1. Round off does not go straight
2. Diving to the hands so that the round off gets long and slow

First, we should focus on the problem “crooked round off”.

The possible causes of the crookedness:

1. During the hurdle step, she starts to turn her upper body  sideways too early.
2. Stepping the last foot to the side (too far left from the center-line for the left round off)
3. Stepping off line will cause the first hand to be too far right (left round off) which will cause the second hand to cross the center-line quickly placing the right hand to the other side (left) on the floor to make the round off. When this happens, the lower body will go around the side and the round off to go off toward left.

Now let’s us think about the first point above, which is “too early upper body turn”.

“When” should she turn her body to sideways?

“I tell my gymnast to bring her body down to the floor as straight as possible meaning that the shoulders should be as square to the ground as possible until her first hand reaches to the floor.”

As she places her first hand, her hand should be turned to 90 degrees (sideways) as if she is doing a cartwheel. Also, her second hand should be turned to the sideways as well. Hence, she is using a basic skill “cartwheel” which is where the round off originally developed from.

I normally teach a cartwheel starting sideways first. Have them stand sideways on the line, then, step onto the line and side cartwheel on the line just like a wheel rolling around.

As a progressional step from a cartwheel to the round off, I normally use “forward step in cartwheel to quarter turn step down” drill. They should do the first quarter turn on the first shoulder, and the second quarter turn on the second shoulder to complete the half turn then, step down one foot at a time. This is exactly how the cartwheel on the beam is done.

I believe that how we approach to this step is the critical point of our discussion.

I mentioned earlier that the upper body should come down to the floor as straight (square to the floor) as possible until the first hand is placed on the floor. However as soon as the first hand is placed on the center-line sideways, the body will turn naturally a quarter on the first shoulder while the leg is kicked upward.

The second hand should be placed straight forward approximately a shoulder width apart during the very brief cartwheel phase. The last quarter turn happens immediately on the second shoulder while legs are stepping down to stand.

The ideal round off should look very much like this “step in cartwheel quarter turn and step down” skill. A round off is done more with a running speed and legs are snapped down together at the end.

Here, let’s us look at your gymnast’s “round off” very closely.

I can almost guess what is happening.

Most likely, your gymnast is turning her upper body early on the way down during the hurdle.

What is so bad about turning the upper body early on the way down?

What is the benefit of bringing the upper body down square to the floor?

If you turn your body early:

1. It is hard to place the first hand down to the center.
2. It is easy to arch the body (in the hips) as you kick up the legs.
3. When the body turns to sideways, you can’t kick the leg strong upward

As you well know, when the gymnast cross her first hand too much off center-line, she would not have smooth turning action and she also the entire pass could go off line easily.

When their upper body turns early, usually the legs are kicked up in the arched position in the hips that will make the weak snap down in the second half the round off.

Gymnasts can kick their leg up much stronger and faster when the first leg is kicked up straight back. But upper body early turn makes first kicking leg to go up sideways which makes the kicking action to be weakened and slower.

When a gymnast does a round off, she will be approaching with fast forward running speed. It is much easier for her to think about bringing her upper body to straight down to the floor than turning the body sideways.

Then, the first leg should be kicked up straight to accelerate the round off.

Now let’s us try with your gymnasts.

If you have a success with your gymnast within few days, you are lucky!!

I have a hard time changing my gymnasts because the early body turning action is ingrained to their body for such a long time it is very hard to break their movement pattern.

One thing what I do is that have them do the slow down (with 1 or 2 stets) round off over the line and /or step in cartwheel to quarter turn step down drill.

They need to do this every day very diligently.

The key to success is that first, the gymnast need to be convinced. Explain why she needs to change and how it will benefit her.

She needs to believe the change is necessary and she really wants to change it.

Even if you can convince your gymnast, still it is very hard because the drill is so simple and it will take so long to see the benefit of change.

I guess we need to be patient as much as your gymnast and keep encouraging her every day.

Today, we discussed only one aspect of the round off. As I mentioned early, round off is a very complex skill and as you study more, you realize how complicated it is to teach it correctly.

I see that the discussion of the round off technique must be our ongoing project for a while. In the next segment, we will discuss the aspect of “diving to the hands”.

Until then, have a fun coaching!!!