Putting the Brakes on too Many Activities
Do your kids need a daily planner to keep track of all their extracurricular activities? Does your typical day involve hours in the car, shuttling kids to practice, clubs or games? Or maybe you only see your teenager in between her running to and from her numerous commitments. If so, your kids are probably overscheduled. That’s when kids are involved in so many activities that they have very little or no downtime to relax or do something just for the fun of it. For younger children, that means time to play. For teenagers, it means having time to “chill out.”
Reasons Behind the Trend
Overscheduling is a trend that has been steadily growing for the past several decades. A study of hundreds of kids over a 16-year period shows that children today spend twice as much time in structured sports or activities. Researchers believe there are several reasons contributing to kids’ highly structured lifestyles today. First, many parents perceive planned or organized activities as safe. It’s not like when you were a kid, where a typical after-school routine was to come home and find some neighborhood kids to play with. Now, arranged activities are more common because we tend to live greater distances from school and friends. In addition, there are more families where both parents are working, and they need these structured activities with designated time allotments for their children.
Another contributing factor to this trend is that the intensity of the activities is greater today than it was a generation ago. It’s not unusual for organized sports to require participants to practice three times a week and also have a couple of games.
Also, kids today are getting involved in organized activities at a younger age. In fact, if you want your preschooler to play soccer or take ballet, there are programs available for this age group. Years ago, many kids weren’t involved in extracurricular activities until they were at least six years old. Developmental experts believe many young children are in age-inappropriate activities today. They also say at this young age, kids’ attention spans are very short and they can’t grasp the dynamics of a game.
But researchers say probably the biggest reason for the over-scheduling trend is very well-intentioned parents trying to expose their children to a multitude of experiences. Psychologists say parents’ hearts are in the right place, but the end result is often frantic families with little or no quality time. They say parents need to get out of the mind-set that today’s kids should try everything or do everything. While it’s great to expose them to a variety of experiences and opportunities, it’s also important to let them have some downtime.
Downside of Overscheduling
While children’s involvement in activities can be beneficial, the key is moderation. In fact, some researchers say the average today is families having two or three kids involved in several extracurricular activities each. Experts say this can be detrimental to children in many ways. When kids have no free time, they are missing out on time to be creative, imaginative and the opportunity to make their own choices. If parents are planning all their children’s activities it’s hard for over programmed kids to know what to do with free time when they have it. It’s not uncommon to hear these kids say they are bored, and it’s because they’re so used to having everything figured out and arranged for them. It’s equally important for older kids and teenagers to have some free time too, especially with the intense demands of school today. Experts say what every kid needs is a healthy balance of structure and relaxation.
Activity overload not only affects the child, but everyone in the family. For parents of young kids it means spending a lot of time in the car, keeping kids on schedule to meet the demands of all their commitments, or only spending 15 minutes with your teenager before she races off to another activity. This hectic pace can make parents stressed out, even short tempered with their kids. And younger siblings who have no choice but to accompany their parents to their older brother or sister’s activity can become resentful of these demands. The reality is that when kids are overscheduled there is less quality family time. In fact, families today eat together less, take fewer family vacations and do fewer spontaneous things, mainly because of overscheduling.
Are Your Kids Overscheduled?
Every child is different, so it would be a gross overstatement to suggest that every child involved in two or three activities is overscheduled. However, there are a few ways to gauge if a child’s busy lifestyle has become problematic. If your child is tired a lot, especially in the morning and evening, it may be because he or she’s fatigued from being spread too thin. Other warning signs include irritability, sluggishness and frequent headaches. A more obvious symptom would be the child who constantly protests about going to all his or her extracurricular activities.
For parents: Are you exhausted and stressed out trying to manage all your kids’ commitments? Or are you frustrated that you don’t see your older kids enough because they are busy rushing from one thing to the next? Maybe you find yourself saying “We have to go” or “Hurry up” a lot to your kids. The best test, however, is how all of this makes you feel. If you’re overwhelmed and long for some quality family time, then your kids are probably overscheduled. The key is recognizing when it’s become too much, and for every child and family that will be different.
Reclaiming Time
Talk to your kids about how racing from one activity to another makes them feel. If it’s troubling to them, then talk about the choices that need to be made and how scaling back will probably make them feel less anxious and hurried. Also ask them what they would do with more free time if they had it. Encourage them to explore their interests, but emphasize that it doesn’t have to be an organized activity. If your child really loves art, for example, that doesn’t mean you have to sign her up for art classes. She can pursue this passion on her own, during her free time. The same thing goes for sports and music — kids don’t have to be on a basketball team to enjoy playing the game or join a band to appreciate music. Many children also find a lot of satisfaction from pursuing a hobby, like collecting baseball cards or learning magic.
When you’re scaling back, it’s also important to focus on the gains, not just the losses, that come from this decision. With fewer scheduled obligations you and your kids will likely have more time to do spontaneous things. Overall, you’ll probably see the quality of your family’s life improve— everyone will be less stressed out and there will be more time to spend together.
The experts aren’t suggesting you totally eliminate organized activities from your kids’ lives. Instead, strive for a balance so that your children and the whole family aren’t overwhelmed.
 A lot of giants are not made because a gymnasts casts are sloppy. Work tight casts trying to finish the cast hollow with extended shoulders. A handstand is not necessary (though desired) to make good giants, but if the gymnast leads with their chest after the cast the giant will be difficult and excecuted improperly.
* Work handstand hollow fall to a mat on a floor bar. Set up a floor bar over an 8" mat. Kick to handstand in an overgrip and fall to the mat. Body position should be hollow and extended. The gymnast should push be pushing away from the bar as much as possible, as this will enhance swing on the high bar.
* Back extension rolls while watching the toes. The gymnast should work back extension rolls keeping their head in and lead with their toes so they can see their toes throughout. This will help develop a feel for leading with toes to handstand.
* A very common error is to through the chest over the bar and arch. This is caused by a loose body and an early tap. The tap should occur after passing vertical and the toes should lead to the handstand. Work tap swings and focus on a late tap that goes towards the ceiling not forward.
* Lie on your back on a mat grasping a floor bar over your head. Have one or two coaches grab your legs and lift you to handstand on the rail. Be sure you keep tight and hollow, and lead with your toes.
* Be sure the gymnast leans well over the bar. Most gymnasts have a tendency to cast back and not up.
* Work a lot of casts. With spots, without spots. Work casts with good form. Be sure to also work cast handstand and lower back to the bar, because the negative motion will strengthen the cast.
* Swing handstand on P-bars with good technique will help improve cast handstands. (For both male and female gymnasts).
* Wrap a therapy band or surgical tubing around the base of very sturdy equipment, such as beam, vault, or bar base. Lie on back and grasp the band or surgical tubing. The feet should be closer to the base than the head. Bend knees. Holding the band very tight, while keeping the arms straight and close to body, pull band from the thighs toward the ceiling and then up toward the head. Return the band slowly using the same direction, toward the ceiling then down toward the base/thighs. This should simulate the uppoer body while performing a cast to hanstand.
 One of the most common pitfalls for gymnasts on bars is the free-hip (or clear-hip) circle. In the Level 6 and 7 routines, a minimum height must be achieved to receive full credit for the skill, and a large deduction is taken when it's not high enough. Ideally, for full credit and maybe even leaving a good impression on the judges, you would be best off trying to hit a free-hip to handstand.
Many gymnasts think a free-hip is like a back hip circle, except you just open up at the end; you just go around the bar and open your shoulders at the right time. Well, it's not quite that simple. If you've worked free-hips for long enough, you'll know that whipping your body around the bar isn't the only factor in achieving a good free-hip. If you think about it, will it be easy to open up to handstand by simply rotating around the bar in a perfect circle? It's all physics! If the center of gravity of your body is moving in a perfect circle, it will want to continue moving in that same circle.
 A strong and powerful tap swing is the fundamental basis of developing the power needed for a variety skills, such as long-hang pullovers, flyaways, and giants. Many gymnasts don't understand the mechanics of the tap swing, and as a result, don't understand why some of their skills are slow in getting around.
Put simply, tap swings are just swings back and forth on the bar. If you experiment for long enough, you could figure out the best timing of when to "pump" so that you get the most energy out of it. Ideally, your body should be extended and slightly arched just before you hit the bottom of the swing, and you should snap back into a hollow body position once you pass vertical.
One drill that can be done to become comfortable with this "hollow-arch-hollow" pattern is to drape a panel mat over the low bar and do tap swings on the high bar, kicking backwards enough to touch your feet on the draped mat.
Gymnasts learning taps tend to pull in at the top of their swings. In other words, rather than the shoulder angle being as open as possible, the gymnast pulls her chest slightly towards the bar. This begins to happen when they are told to swing higher and to point their toes at a higher target. Pulling in tends to slow down the swing earlier than an open shoulder angle.
If you find your tap swings are loose at the top, rather than hollow and tight, you may need to strengthen your abdominal muscles. Hollow Hold Rocks are an ideal exercise in developing the required muscles, and to get the feel of being hollow.
* The gymnast should be hollow in the rear phase of the swing. Head in, hollow chest and pushing away from the bar on the downward swing.
* As the gymnast passes between the uprights they should open to prepare for the tap. (Most gymnasts open the swing early causing the tap to go forward and not upward)
* As the gymnast begins the upwards phase of the forward swing they should tap aggressively towards the ceiling.
* As the upwards swing rises the gymnast should pull the bar back and push away to get their center of gravity as far away from the bar as possible for the downward swing.
By Alison Arnold, Ph.D., C.P.C.
Member of the USA Gymnastics Health Care and Sport Science Referral Network
How to get the best of fear when you feel like it's getting the best of you. It's happened to all of us at one time or another. There you are, standing on the beam, ready to throw a series, when it hits you; paralyzing fear. Your hands start sweating, your heart racing, and you think, "I JUST CAN'T GO!"
Gymnastics can be a scary sport. Learning to deal with fear and push yourself through it is a very important skill to learn if you are going to reach your goals.
Where does Fear come from?
That's a good question. Fear can come from many sources. Sometimes it comes from watching a fall and being afraid you're going to do the same thing. Some-times it comes from a fall you have taken or an injury that was scary and painful. Fear can also come from the wipe-outs we create in our minds! Fear can be very sneaky. It can rear its head when we are burned out, feel too much pressure, or want to try other sports besides gymnastics. No matter what the source of fear, what results are negative thoughts. Most often when you are afraid, you begin this tirade of negative thoughts. You may say to yourself things like, "I'm going to fall," "I can't do this," and "I'm going to peel off the bar and go flying into the wall!" Of course, when you say these things to yourself over and over, you feel very afraid. So afraid in fact, that you feel you can't push through it. These negative thoughts are like a run away train. They feel out of your control. But actually they aren't, because you control the thoughts in your head! When your thinking is negative and out of control, the result is fear, stress, balking, and tears.
Out of control thinking leads to out of control gymnastics. That is very important for you to know. Once you know this you'll discover the key to fighting fear and inconsistency. That key is getting your thinking disciplined and in control. One way to do this is Mental Choreography.
What is Mental Choreography?
It is just as important to choreograph thoughts as it is to choreograph a floor or beam routine. Do you go out on the floor without your floor routine being choreographed? No. Do you go out and compete beam without a beam routine? No. But most gymnasts have no idea what they should be thinking when they are working out or competing. That's why we do mental choreography. Mental Choreography is cue words you create and say in your mind during routines, skills, while waiting for your turn, and in competition. Mental choreography will keep your mind focused, so that no negative thoughts can enter. Remember, disciplined thoughts increase consistency, and concentration. Loose, out of control thinking leads to loose, fearful, out of control performance. Constructing positive, mental choreography is the first step in fighting negative thinking!
There are three types of thoughts that you want to use in mental choreography.
They are:
* Mechanical Statements: Statements reminding the gymnast of a physical or mechanical technique (i.e. "lift then twist," "higher arms," and "breathe").
* Energy Statements: Statements that evoke an emotional response (i.e. "GO," "Push here," and "Relax").
* Self-esteem Statements: Statements that encourage self-confidence (i.e. "I can do it," "I've done it before," and "Be the best I can be").
Use these statements to choreograph your routines and individual tricks as well. It is important to keep your thoughts focused all the time. Use mental choreography on dance, easy skills, as well as the skills that cause you fear. When your mind is focused, your body will do exactly what you have trained it to do.
How to create mental choreography.
Putting together your mental choreography is easy. First write out all of your routines. Then write the thoughts you will be thinking during each of your skills. The following is an example of beam mental choreography, beginning while the gymnast is waiting for the judge to raise his/her hand.
Example: Beam Choreography
Before Judge Raises Hand: While I'm waiting I will do some series timers and visualize my routine. I will think: "Shake it out," "I can do it," Deep breaths, "stay tight."
Before Mount: Breathe, "I can do it," "over the top," "square." Routine:
* Mount (think "square")
* Dance (think "breathe")
* Gym Acro (think "connect it")
* Flight Series (think "I can do it)
* Dance (think "relax")
* Straddle Down (think "tight toes")
* Leap Series (think "straight legs, don't rush")
* Back handspring (think "sharp arms")
* Dance (think "relax")
* Turn (think "smooth")
* Jumps (think "square hips")
* Dismount (think "go hard, arms up, stick")
Remember to do your mental choreography ALL THE TIME! Do it in your head as you visualize your routines before bed. This trains your body to do the skill perfectly every time you say your words. If you are having trouble with a skill, do some extra drills, or do beam skills on the floor with your mental choreography. This will help your body do the skill automatically whenever you say your words. Fear cannot get in your way if your thinking is strong and disciplined. Creating strong mental choreography will help you get the best of fear before fear gets the best of you!
Before beginning, you should be able to do casts with a certain amount of confidence. You don't need to be able to cast to handstand, but you should at least be at horizontal at the top of your cast. You're going to need to be able to get your feet on the bar, and the higher you get, the easier it is. A good drill to work on improving your casts is simply to do several of them in a row, progressively making each one higher. Some points to remember:
* Keep your arms straight.
* Lift with your entire body in a hollow position rather than "kicking" your feet up and arching your back
* You should notice that this drill is much easier if your shoulders are forward over the bars, as opposed to trying to push backwards away from the bar.
The next obstacle to get over is learning to get your feet in between your hands. Sounds simple, but sometimes it's difficult to judge exactly how much you need to tuck and exactly how high you need to bring your body in order to get your feet to go where you want them. You can do a simple drill on the floor. Bend forward so that your hands are on the floor about half your body length in front of your feet. Bend your knees a little and jump, lifting your hips, and bring your feet in between your hands. If you're strong enough, you might even be able to control how fast your feet come back down and place them precisely on the imaginary line between your right and left hand.
Do you feel how high your hips had to go? How much you had to lean forward? How much you had to tuck? These are the little things you should learn to feel each time you do this, and remember them for when you try the squat-on on the bars.
When you can comfortably get your feet between your hands, stand up straight and imagine seeing the high bar in front of you.
Next, you can go ahead to try putting the two pieces together on the bars. Remember everything you did in the drills. Try to keep your feet together and avoid getting into the bad habit of trying to get one foot on before the other. It's an incredibly difficult habit to get rid of. And when you can solidly get your feet on, you can try standing up on the low bar and reach for the high bar.
 The key to a strong mill circle is understanding extending away from the bar on the downward swing. This is a fundamental concept for all swinging skills.
* From the front support the gymnast should push upwards to move their center of gravity as far from the bar as possible. This extension continues through the entire downward phase of the swing.
* In addition to pushing upwards the gymnast should lift their legs as much as possible to futher accentuate the swing.
* A common mistake on the upwards phase of this skill is to pull in to the bar and bend the front leg. This will kill the swing and interupt the skill. The push is similar to a kip (and will help with learning kips). The arms should be kept straight. Downward pressure should be applied to the bar. This skill is most easily excecuted with an undergrip.
Proper technique and execution of a leap is crucial for the gymnast both physically and aesthetically. Knowing the correct measures when springing off the ground is the first step to improving your height, body alignment, and consistency.
The first point in leaping is to think height and not distance. Height is achieved by a plie, or bend in the knees, which allows the gymnast to take a down action before the leap. In order for the gymnast’s legs to reach a full split in the air, the body must be traveling directly up, rather than out. When a gymnast travels forward in the air, momentum pushes against the legs, making it harder to obtain the split.
In the air, the toes must be pointed. Aesthetically, pointed toes continue the line from the gymnast’s hips. The toes should point immediately after the preparation. The foot brushes through a first position, leading with the heel. After this position is performed, the foot immediately points as the gymnast leaves the ground.
The location of a body’s center is about one inch above and one inch below the belly button. Engaging the muscles in the stomach helps the gymnast maintain control over the leap in the air. The shoulders stay in-line with the hips, allowing the body to move as one unit. The gymnast is able to hit the position in the air, having power over all body parts. A strong center is the foundation needed to perform the more advanced level leaps.
Strong arms, having energy extended past the shoulders, is an important component of body alignment. Arms are held from the back muscles called latissimus dorsi. A common error is thinking the shoulders hold the arms. This mistake causes the shoulders to lift and to tense, making the leap looked labored.
Landing a leap incorporates the bend of the legs/knees to compensate for its impact. A gymnast must also roll through their feet during the landing, starting with the toes, followed by the ball of the foot, and finally the heel. Both measures are taken to protect a gymnast’s knees and ankles against the force of their leap. Focusing on the knees and feet allows the body to automatically absorb the landing, preventing injury
Types of Leaps:
1. Grand Jete—Large throwing step. A jump from one foot to the other in which the working leg is brushed into the air and appears to be thrown. In a grand jete, the legs are thrown to 90 degrees with a corresponding high jump.
2. Side/Straddle Leap—Large leap with legs in second position. A jump from one foot to the other in which the working leg is developed (bringing leg through passé) into the air to a second/side position. The leg is thrown to a position of 90 degrees or higher and is immediately followed by the other leg, which is brushed to a second position, meeting the height of the first leg. Landing consists of the working leg landing on the ground first, and the second leg breaking through passé to land behind it.
3. Switch Leap—Large leap switching legs in the air. A jump where the gymnast brushes the first leg 45 degrees forward off the ground, then back, lifting into a grand jete or split leap.
Tips for Improving Leaps:
1. Flexibility is an important component in the execution leaps. The elasticity of a gymnast’s muscles allows the legs to extend fully, especially when a wide range of motion is available. Flexibility is maximized by maintaining a stretch position for at least 15 seconds, and ideally for 30 seconds or longer. Make sure to stretch thoroughly before any attempt at a leap.
2. Before leaping, gymnasts must use a plie, or bend in the legs, to propel their bodies into the air. A plie permits the energy to shoot straight up off the ground, making the gymnast air-born.
3. Always keep in mind that the energy comes from the leap itself rather than the preparation. In order to explode in the air, the preparation taken before the leap must be a conservation of energy. Imagine that your body is a metal spring. Before the spring can extend its coils and jump into the air, all the spirals must be compressed and contracted together. This same analogy applies to a leap where the gymnast must build up momentum, rather than using it, before leaping.
4. Give the illusion that you are higher by lifting your head/chin and arms during your leap. This is a simple tip, yet is often taken for granted. During your leap, the simple focus change from a level position to a raised position gives the audience the impression that you are higher in the air.
Some Drills
*Leap Hops and Leap Preps
*Hang on a bar. Lift legs to split quickly. Bring legs back down and together. Repeat for opposite split.
*Hang on a bar. Lift legs to split quickly. Switch legs to opposite split quickly. Remain square and repeat. Do one at a time.
 One very common problem in beginning vaulters, and sometimes in more experienced ones, is leaning too far forward on the board on the punch. If you've had this problem, you'd notice that it is very scary and very difficult to vault correctly. It causes you to lose height and power on the pre-flight, and you are in danger of smashing your face into the vault.
There are a few drills you can do to fix this problem, all of which are based on the same technique. The goal is to punch on the board with your torso vertical (perpendicular to the ground) and with your feet in front of you. This will give you the height you need and the proper body angle for your pre-flight.
Begin on the floor, preferably in front of a line on the ground. Take a one step hurdle with an arm circle and do a punch jump as if you were jumping on a board. Punch a few inches in front of the line. Ideally, you should jump with your feet in front of you, your chest back, and with a tight body. If this is done correctly, you should bounce backwards a little and land behind the line.
When you get used to that drill, begin doing the same drill but onto a board. Take one or two running steps into the hurdle. Bounce with your feet in front of you and you should bounce straight up and land back down on the board. Take some time and get used to the feeling of controlling the punch so that you don't bounce wildly off the board, but instead land straight back down on the board.
The next step is to take a half or full run to the board and horse, with the board at or less than your usual setting. Do the arm circle and hurdle, and punch off the board so that you do a tuck jump onto the horse. When that becomes easier, get more power into the approach and try punching onto the horse with a straight body, as illustrated in the animation. (For the first time doing this drill, have a spotter at the horse until you become comfortable with it.)
Remember, this is how you want to have your body when you punch off the board when you do forward vaults, such as handsprings or half-ons. With enough practice, this position will become second nature and you will notice your vaults becoming easier and more powerful.
 Front Tucks (AKA punch fronts, front flips, front tucks, front saltos, or just plain fronts) are one of the basic skills in front tumbling. They are often used to set up more difficult tumbling passes, such as front step-out round-off back handspring back tucks or front handspring step-out front handspring front tucks. Punch fronts are usually learned early in the intermediate level, usually once the gymnast has mastered the front handspring.
There are several drills that should be mastered prior to learning a punch front, and can also be used as drills for reinforcement:
* Straight jump punches - From a few running steps, hurdle and punch with both feet into a straight jump. ("Russian fronts" -- which are done by swinging the arms to the back and up -- can be taught, but I will focus on the "arms over the head" punch.) However you swing your arms, they should end up over your head when you rebound. Remember that your feet should be in front of you in the hurdle and your body hollow and tight. This will give you the lift you need.
* Dive rolls - This may be a trick that's already been taught, but let's refine it a bit to suit the needs of a front tuck. Most gymnasts will have been doing this in a more or less piked position, but now we shall try straightening the body. When you punch, it should be just like the straight jump punches from above, but at the same time that you're going up, you should be driving your heels so that you rotate to an inverted position by the time you reach the ground. (More experienced gymnasts often "exagerate" this pre-flight position, flying high in the air and rolling out of it at the last minute -- a very dangerous technique, but very amazing when done right.) The area to focus on here is just after your feet leave the ground. Your feet were in front of you at the time of impact, so now you want to transfer that horizontal momentum and turn most of it into vertical power. As you get better, you will be able to drive your heels to get you the rotation while keeping your body hollow or extended.
Now, it can be taken to completion. Preferably, it should be attempted first off a springboard and onto an 8-inch crash mat with the help of a spotter. Remember the key points emphasized in the previous two drills: punch with your feet in front and punch up with a straight body. To ensure this position, try spotting an object on the wall or directly in front of you at eye level. Watch for a moment as you punch before rotating. The rotation motion should be primarily from lifting the hips. Then the chin should tuck into the chest as you bring your chest to your knees. To land, the tuck should open up, but keeping the legs bent and body tight in preparation for the impact.
If you feel like you're landing short and almost about to crash your face into your knees, you may want to straddle very slightly so you don't end up with missing teeth -- just until you learn to land on your feet, at least.
Common mistakes:
* Punching with the feet in back: First of all, you most likely won't get very much height since a lot of your momentum is continuing to go forward instead of up. Second, this significantly diminishes the ability to rotate. When you punch up correctly, it places the axis of rotation around the midsection of your body. But when you have your feet in back, it causes you to lean forward and the axis of rotation is somewhere around your head. And since your head is continuing to go forward, so does the axis of rotation and this makes it incredibly difficult to get around.
* Not tucking enough: According to the laws of physics, an object with a smaller radius can rotate faster than an object with a longer radius. Therefore, when you roll your body into a tighter tuck, you will rotate faster and it will make it easier to get around.
When you first try the punch front, you may find it difficult to figure out when to open up to land. Since fronts are a skill with a blind landing, it will require you to practice and practice some more until your body learns to "feel" its way around and anticipate the ground at the right time.
It's perfectly natural to be nervous at meets; almost all gymnasts have feelings of nervousness and anticipation while preparing for competition. Even some of the best gymnasts in the world feel pressure to do well from their coaches, their friends and family, and, most often, from themselves. Anticipation is a natural response to pressure. And most of the time, it's a sign that you're ready.
The only instances in which nerves are bad are when you let them hinder your ability to perform to your potential. For example, many gymnasts are so nervous on the balance beam that they can barely stay standing, let alone do the skills required in their routines. Other situations in which pressure can get the better of you: freezing in the middle of tricks or routines, forgetting parts of your routine, or even when nerves get in the way of enjoying yourself.
Remember, meets are supposed to be fun. If you have a problem getting yourself to relax at a meet, you need to get a handle on your nerves before they get a handle on you. Try some of the following tips:
* Work out hard at practice. The better you know the skills you need to do, the less you need to worry about doing them at the meet.
* Get a good night's sleep the night before an event. Your body should be fully rested in order to be at peak performance.
* Before falling asleep, close your eyes, clear your mind of everything, and mentally picture yourself doing several of each routine, perfectly and without any flaws.
* In the morning, picture yourself doing a few more routines.
* When you arrive at the gym, take a good look around and familiarize yourself with the surroundings. Know where essential places, such as the bathroom, are. This way, you don't have to run around frantically looking for them later.
* Warm up your body thoroughly. Relax your muscles, and stretch them well. The last thing you need is an injury.
* Be aware of everything you do. Your mind is the control center of your body. You should know what it feels like to do a skill correctly so when it's time to do it in competition, your body obeys your mind without any doubt.
* Before it is your turn to perform, sit down, clear your mind, and picture another perfect routine.
* If you make a mistake, don't dwell on it. What's done is done, and it won't do any good to think "what might have been." Move on, and concentrate on upcoming skills.
* Take deep breaths.
* Don't hold back. Confidence = success!
* Smile! It's hard to feel nervous when you're happy.
If you still have excessive nervousness, you might want to take aside some time to try some relaxation techniques.
*Do Straight arm backwards pike rolls down an incline mat. The gymnast should start the roll with their toes. It helps to have the gymnast hook their fingers together with their palms facing the ceiling. The gymnast should come to a stand by pushing their shoulders back when their hands touch the ground.
 * Do straight arm back extension rolls down an incline mat. The gymnast should watch their toes the entire time to help keep their head in and body hollow.
* Do tons of back extension rolls to headstands. A back extension roll should be performed with the head in, looking at the toes. It should stop in a headstand and roll forward, to a squat, then repeat.
* The beginning of this skill is the most important. Most gymnasts tend to lean forward or reach for the ground as they go into the roll. The hands should be kept up and the upper body should be straight up. The gymnast should sit back bending their knees slightly, and quickly before their bottom contacts the ground and aggressively push backwards for momentum. From here the legs should be kept straight and pushed towards the ceiling.
One unique feature to the front hip circle is that it is not highly dependent on strength. While it certainly makes it easier if you're buff and strong, not understanding the correct timing will undermine your efforts.
Nonetheless, good strength is always helpful. The most important group is the stomach muscles, which you will need to "snap" your body around the bar and to maintain the piked position of the skill. Refer to the abdominal conditioning page for pike-ups. Arm muscle conditioning would also be good for developing the muscles to support your body going in and coming out of the front hip.
 Now, the crucial part: timing. To correctly do a front hip circle, you need to keep your body extended as you lean forward until you are about to reach horizontal. Now is the time to put your stomach muscles in action. As quickly as you can, snap your body from the extended position to a pike. (Many beginning gymnasts exaggerate this exteded-to-pike snap -- and this is okay -- but as you become more comfortable with the skill, you can start from a hollow body position and go to the pike.)
Be sure that you think about bringing your chest to your legs, rather than letting your legs drop as you bend your body. Making this mistake will result in a decrease in how much power you get going around the bar.
Very often, gymnasts learning the front hip don't "finish" the trick. They snap their bodies around the bar, but that's all they do -- and hope that they'll make it all the way around. But to securely make it around, especially if you're going to do another trick immediately out of it (like a cast or squat-on), you need to flip your wrists so that your hands are on top of the bar. Doing this also forces your shoulders over the bar so that you don't end up falling backwards from the way you came.
Begin the skill from a high support. The bar should be resting on the upper theigh.
:: The gymnast should fall forward with a tight body leaning well forward to initiate momentum.
:: As the gymnast moves to excecute the skill they should lean forward agressively and reach around the bar to get their hands on top of the bar.
A good round off back handspring should be developed before working this skill. It is not recommend working round-off back, as it can lead to bad habits for a round off back handspring.
:: Round off back handspring punch to back on stacked mats. (The most difficult thing about this to young gymnasts is spacing their round off backhandspring. Repetition, patience, and marking is the key.)
:: The gymnast should learn to spot their set. This can be practiced on the drill above. Have the gymnasts look at their team/class mates as they punch to their back.
:: The most common problem on this skill is throwing the head back and doing a whipped over back inches from the ground. The above drills will help releave that problem.
Begin as if you are sitting in a chair. As you sit back, you will feel you are about to fall on your behind; *this* is the time to jump, and jump hard, pulling the legs over the head. Push hard off of the hands, and keep the arms straight and strong. Try to think of it as jumping backward into a handstand. Here are some drills:
*Jump backwards to an incline mat or cheese. Try to travel backwards as far as possible. There should be no leaning forward in the upper torso. You should finish in a slight arch with legs together and straight and arms up and by their ears.
* Sit back to a wall. The gymnast should stand about 3/4 the length of their femur and sit back with a vertical torso until they reach a wall sit position. This will develop a feel for the proper sit position.
* Back limbers over a rounded block.
* Handstand snap downs. The gymnast should try to finish with their feet in front of them with their arms traveling upwards.
 *The timing of the kip is everything and most gymnasts tend to kip early.
* Work glides on a low bar, being sure to keep straight legs, head in, shoulders open.
* If you have a good glide then work glide and lift your toes to the bar. Make sure that you do not lift your toes too early.
* Once you can glide and lift your toes then work kips with a spot to develop a feel for the motion.
* Hanging leg lifts will greatly improve kips as it strengthens both the abs and the critical muscle groups in closing the shoulders.
* Stem rises: On a bar mounted near a wall, or a set of (distance apart will depend on size and strength of gymnast) hang on the higher bar with feet on the low bar (or wall) push off the bar/wall with the feet and pull the bar to the waiste with straight arms. Widen the bars to increase difficulty.
* On a low bar, stretch body over a barrel. Shoulders should be extended and body straight. (glide swing extension). Pull toes to bar and kip.
* One of most important skills for floor. Frequently when a gymnast is unable to do a double back, full-in, or other high level back tumbling skill, the round off is where the problems begin.
* The gymnasts head needs to be kept in throughout the skill. Leaving the head out causes the round off to go around the side rather than over the top.
* First, you need a fast run. This is where most of your power comes from.
* The hurdle should be low and long. You want to keep the momentum going forward, and not up and down.
* A deep lunge and long reach are important to generate the proper momentum.
* It is important that the gymnast not leap into the round off. The second foot should not leave the floor before the first hand contacts the floor.
* As you start your roundoff, place your hands away from your feet. This keeps the momentum along the ground. Your hands should be placed along the same imaginary line, as you would a cartwheel, rather than trying to twist a 3/4 turn into the roundoff. Your second hand is what gives you the push to continue the roundoff.
* Snapping down should be fast, but many gymnasts try to speed it up by piking down. Piking makes your body loose, and the power goes straight into the ground, and none into the flip-flop. The snapdown should be done in a hollow body position. Snapping down should also be driven so that your feet end up in front of your body, keeping your body hollow. (A good drill for this is doing roundoffs on a crash mat and pulling your feet so hard in front of you that you almost miss your feet and roll to your back.)
* An aggressive blocking off of the hands and snapping of the feet are necessary to turn the round off over sufficiently for a stretched back handspring.
* As for back handsprings, handstand snap downs will help to improve this skill.
* The round off should finish in such a way that the gymnast should half to run backwards to avoid falling. The feet should finish in front of the rest of the body with the arms up and a hollow tight body.
*Start with one foot forward, arms to the side and take one small step with the other foot to start the motion.
*On the forward step, the arms reach upward to pull the body tight and straight.
*Focus on a point on the floor. Choose an imaginary point and don't take your eyes off of it. This point should be about 2-1/2 of your own feet in front of you.
*As you step forward onto your foot, bend your leg and drive your chest downward into a lunge (the closer your chest is to your leg, the better). Straighten your leg and ankle while driving your other leg over the top.
*The aerial takes place without traveling forward very much. Try to rotate quickly and land with your first foot close to the takeoff position.
*It is important to keep your body square when you land, so avoid letting your hips turn out sideways. To prevent this, try to push your left shoulder across your body to counter the tendency to open the hips.
*You should finish in a square lunge position.
Rips (ripped blisters) are the pet peeves for many gymnasts, both guys and girls alike. The funny thing is, some people rip more than others. Some gymnasts can do routines over and over without grips and rarely rip, while others try everything from taping to pumice squares and still end up with lots of rips.
So, what causes a rip? Essentially, it is when a blister pops up under your skin from friction, and repeated use on this weak part of your skin eventually causes a tear of the blister, exposing the inner layers of your skin. Most of the time, you don't know a blister is forming until after you've ripped. Callouses (thick layers of skin) are common to gymnasts and sometimes make ripping more frequent because of the extra friction.
Once you've gotten a rip, what do you do? You'll get as many answers to that question as there are possiblities, and while some of them are helpful, some are not recommended and actually may slow the healing process. The biggest danger to consider when treating rips is infection -- any time you expose raw skin to the open, it's an invitation for bacteria to invade. When you first get a rip, wash it off with plenty of soap and water as soon as possible.
(Warning: If the wound is several layers deep, especially if it is bleeding, washing will sting!)
But you must wash the area around it to remove the germs hanging around the area. Just grin and bear it. Use paper towels to pat dry.
If you have to continue your workout, place a clean bandage over it, and use some sports tape to secure it.
(Tip: To keep the tape from rolling and bunching together, wrap the tape around your hand in a vertical fashion.)
In other words, go from your wrist to the base of a finger to cover the rip, wrap around the back of the finger, and back down to the wrist, again covering the rip. Continue once or twice around the wrist to secure the tape.
When you get home, and your coaches haven't given first aid for it at the gym, there is a large number of things you can do to treat the rip. Many of them are listed in USA Gymnastics Technique article about how to treat rips. If you don't want to get fancy, you can just keep the wound covered with a bandage until it has healed (anywhere from 3 to 7 days). It is recommended to use a antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin under the bandage to avoid infection. Some people use lotion or other products specially made for treating rips. Unless you need your rip healed very quickly, I don't think they're necessary, but they are ultimately the gymnast's decision. Whatever you choose, keep an eye on the wound every day. Look out for signs of infection: redness, increased swelling, and pus. If you see one or more of these symptoms, see a doctor immediately.
Gymnasts sometimes also go to great lengths to prevent rips. Contrary to what many people believe, hand grips do not prevent rips. On the average, a gymnast with grips will rip just a frequently as one who does not use grips. There is still friction on the hands when grips are used -- only instead of the friction being between the hands and the bars, it's between the hands and grips.
Some gymnasts use pumice squares to "rub down" callouses to reduce the amount of friction on the hands. Others try to achieve the same result by using a shaving razor to scrape the excess skin off. There's not really much else you can do about rips. They are a part of gymnastics, just like drills and conditioning. Learn to love them!
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