Transition to Optionals 7-9

[Jacob Marks]

I have been coaching compulsories for 8 years in PA Region 7 and have a group of boys who are level 7 . I am asking for help on methods and philosophies on how they go about training optional skills during season.

We are predominantly a girls gym, and our boys train 4 day a week 16 hours. It is not easy to fight for floor vault or bars time with the millions compulsories girls.

I have started many drills for C and D skill on Parallel Bars and High Bars, worked pommeless travels single pommel loops, followed the gb progression for planche strength and hs work on rings.

I guess my main question is whats important to be successful to be prepared for level 9.

Also are there any good lead ups for giants on rings front and back. Is it recommended to swing to handstand, dislocate to handstand , or bail from handstand to handstand?

Any input or help from this forum is greatly appreciated and Coach Sommer thank you for being a great mentor for our boys program and I and to all in this Forum!

Jacob

[Gregor]

I don't know US system at all, so I don't have any clue about your levels. But I can tell you about giant swings.

1. Ordinary swings as high as possible (perfect would be from handstand to handstand)

2. Handstand drops on a mat (lower the rings to the ground and do forward and backward drops )

3. Swing dislocates (higher and higher-perfectly done dislocate is acutal giant swing)

[Jacob Marks]

Gregor

Thank you for your insight...

Is it best to spot the gymnast and help them to handstand when ready or let them keep building the dislocates and inlocates up until a handstand is achieved?

Do you recommend any strength protocal to develop certain muscles to facilitate a higher swing???

Respectfuly

Jacob

[Gregor]

They will be ready for giants when they will get from the swing t the HS. You can spot them just in the begining in basic swings to correct their thecnical incorections.

Do with them both with swings and dislocates and inlocates to the HS.

No special strength protocol is needed. They must have just good basic strength and flexibility.

[Coach Sommer]

I have been coaching compulsories for 8 years in PA Region 7 and have a group of boys who are level 7 . I am asking for help on methods and philosophies on how they go about training optional skills during season.

Great question.

Here are several points for you to consider:

Level 7 Bonus Skills

All of the bonus skills in the various USA Gymnastics compulsory levels are designed to make the transition to the next level much easier. As such, in order to make a successful transition to optionals, it is very helpful to have developed all of the event bonuses in Level 7; for example endos and stalders on HB. Without having done so, the new entry level optional gymnast is starting at a distinct disadvantage.

Core Routine

Do not reinvent the wheel each season. Construct a core routine that will be the template for all of your athlete's future routines on that event. Base this core routine on not only what the athlete is capable of now, but what your developmental plans are for him six years down the road. Then as your athlete progresses substitute the new more advanced skills for the older basic ones.

Special Requirements

When constructing optional routines for entry level optional gymnasts, the most important focus should be ensuring that your athlete has as many of their event special requirements as possible. This is key. A clean basic routine of As and Bs that fulfills all special requirements will usually substantially out score more ambitious routines that only have two or three special requirements.

Some events are of course easier to achieve this than others, most notably floor and parallel bars. On the other hand, without careful planning, you will quickly fall behind on pommel horse and high bar.

Clean Clean Clean

Be reasonable. Be realistic. The most common error new optional coaches make is attempting to insert more difficulty into a routine than the athlete can handle flawlessly. Remember that the proposed Start Value of a routine that you have designed on paper is only a potential score. Unless the athlete can execute the routine well, you may have just constructed an unending flow of .3 and .5 deductions.

Refining Basic Swing

Make continual refinement of basic swing the foundation of your program. This approach will by far have the most long term ramifications for the development of your athletes. Unfortunately most programs provide only lip service to this essential program component as they are busy trying to develop more difficult skills without ever realizing that it is exceptional basic swing that will make these more difficult skills possible in the first place.

Strength

High level optional gymnastics is a game of refinement and raw power. You may survive on basic swing as a level 9, but at level 10 and beyond without exceptional strength and explosiveness your athlete will quite simply be physically outclassed with the most difficult skills forever beyond his reach.

Maintain Flexibility

Not as difficult with an 11-13 year old athlete, but this will become increasingly more difficult as the athlete begins focusing on more advanced ring strength at fourteen years old and beyond. The shoulder girdle will require particular attention. Failure to consistently address this issue will gradually deteriorate an athlete's ability to swing well.

Joint Prehab

Essential. Without a healthy physical structure there will be no gymnastics, period. More great athletes have had their careers come to a grinding halt through inattention to this component than any other.

Plan for the Future

It is very valuable to attempt to be one year ahead in your training. By this I mean that you should always have new skills in development that are not going to be utilized until the following season or beyond. This developmental work should continue even in the midst of the competitive season.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Guest Ido Portal]

Maintain Flexibility

Not as difficult with an 11-13 year old athlete, but this will become increasingly more difficult as the athlete begins focusing on more advanced ring strength at fourteen years old and beyond. The shoulder girdle will require particular attention. Failure to consistently address this issue will gradually deteriorate an athlete's ability to swing well.

I find this very interesting. No matter how much people (and science too, in a number of research papers) say that strength training does not hinder flexibility, I am afraid they are talking about normal ranges of motion and not what is required from a gymnast/acrobat/mover. Also, Isometrics is another contributing factor here, I believe.

The basic ruling concept here is that mixed type adaptation is a problematic signal for the organism when contradicting demands are imposed upon it. (Relaxation / contraction in this example)

If optimal flexibility is hard to MAINTAIN and with 13-17 years old gymnasts due to their emphesize on strength, people much older and without that base need to realize - their quest for more flexibility is not an easy one.

Instead of children, we are talking about adults with much less pliable nervous system and musculature. Instead of maintaining we are in a quest to improve... This is not a simple thing to achieve.

I have done a lot of things to improve my flexibility (and I still do. A lot.) but as long as I was strength training at the same time (the same joints and muscles, of course) methods that usualy produce results with normal people were not doing much for me. The aproach to such a situation needs to be completely differnt, in my opinion.

Some food for thought for many of us.

Ido.

[Blairbob]

Thank you very much Coach Sommer for this post. Recently I've been thinking of "what-if" and my plan for Erik as he enters L5 as a 10yo which ideally will mean L5 again more than likely or L6 as an 11yo, and possibly where to go once he hits the age of 12 (L8 or L7).

[Jacob Marks]

Coach Sommer

Your detailed analysis of the transition into high level mens gymnastics was amazing. It is also very refreshing to see that I am very close all ready to being on a track that is close to meeting these guidelines!

I hope to be soon posting new videos in the digital coaching forum of some of my students progress for critique!

Thanks Again for your Thoughts

Much Appreciated

Jacob

[Blairbob]

Cool.

I'm supposed to get our media release waivers done over the break and then I may see about posting some of the boy's footage as well, but they are currently only compulsory guys.

I have high hopes and expectations that I can take one guy to L8 in a few years due to his age and use that to bridge him into optional gymnastics if he lasts that long. His shoulder flexibility really limits his tumbling proficiency so I'm pretty sure we'd get killed by the compulsory connected front tumbling. He is literally only flexible in his shoulder extension though the rest is progressing slowly.

I'm not looking to skipping basics at all, but I'm not sure of the point of having him get butchered in L7 due to FX. By then, I'm quite sure he will be further ahead on the other apparatus than FX. Currently he will compete L5 this year, and I'm thinking we will repeat or compete L6 next year as an 11yo (though his bday is in Feb). He is pretty much too old for future stars right now and would be by the time he could catch up (in which he'd be past 12 anyways which makes it moot).

It's just a thought at this point. Competing NAIGC as much of a joke as it is, is helping me learn to create routines since I never was a proper gymnast.