Technique Discussion: Teaching Twisting Direction

[JBS]

It is agreed by most that the optimal twist direction is opposite of the roundoff.

1. Right Twisters
- all skills twist to the right
- round-off twist to the left (right hand first)

2. Left Twisters
- all skills twist to the left
- round-off twist to the right (left hand first)

Do you believe in training this at a young age to ensure they twist this way?

Here are some articles to review:

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/public.../twistdir.html

http://www.i-needtoknow.com/gymnasti...confusion.html

http://gymnasticscoaching.com/?p=736

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I think it really depends on the kid. I usually don't encourage my kids to twist in a specific direction, I just let them figure it out on their own.

My own tumbling goes against the roundoff rule; I tumble left-footed but twist to the left. I've never had any trouble figuring out which way to turn on a skill.

There are even specific skills for people who do this; one that comes to mind is a kazamatsu on vault; it twists one way onto the table (ie the roundoff) and the other way comming off (ie twisting salto).

[JBS]

Your tumbling goes with the rule...not against it.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Wait... I guess I was misreading the rule.

But now the rule seems to make even less sense. I mean, it applies to me, but that doesn't mean it actually takes sense.

Most coaches I've seen who teach a particular twisting direction have told me the opposite: that you should twist saltos the same direction as you twist your roundoff.

Either way, I still think it doesn't matter as long as the kid can figure it out, and as long as they twist the same way forwards and backwards.

EDIT: AHA! I found a crucial phrase in the article that we haven't brought up yet:

Quote:
As Head Coach “decider”, when I can detect no strong preference for a child, I choose based on round-off.

In this case, I fully agree with the article; if the kid has trouble figuring it out, do it based on their roundoff, but if they have a particular preference already, leave it alone. That's how I would do it, anyway.

In truth, I haven't really run into this issue with very many kids; I can only think of one who may have had issues with twisting direction, and he quit before it became anything major.

[JBS]

What I talk and what I teach are very different. I don't pick my twisting directions for my kids, I let them use the one they are better at. This is the first time in my life that I have ever really gone through these articles and I truly don't understand the physics behind them.

If I did have a child that was good at both, then I would help them pick...I have never had this situation. I'm sure this subject will keep coming up. I'd love to cover it again in a few months when we have even more coaches to talk with.

[davjam]

Does it matter? maybe for super high skills and the gymnast and coach are completely agreed upon reference sides. My personal belief is the kid will feel the correct side,just help them along. I think coaches spend too much of their time discussing these types of things with no biomechanical proof.

[ACoach78]

As for the RO Twist direction thing, I think that somebody had a lot of time on their hands in all honesty. Yes, the body is actually twisting to the right in a left round-off and vice versa. However, my argument is that the left shoulder is probably leading the 1/4 turn as opposed to the right shoulder and that's why you tend to see more left RO prefer left twisting and right RO that prefer right twisting.

If you want anecdotal proof of this, consider how many kids turn early in their RO. They are usually leading with that outside arm in my opinion. If they were initiating the turn with their opposite arm, they'd probably be less likely to turn early.

When I'm teaching twisting, I have kids do things like jump 1/1 turns and littler exercises like that to see which direction appears more natural. But, if I see inconsistency, I'll actually have them try twisting in both directions until we figure out which works more naturally.

Over the years, I've found that most kids who put down their left hand first twist lift and most who put down their right hand twist right. But, there are always exceptions to the rule.

The only rule that I hold fast to is that I make sure that the kids twist the same way both forwards and backwards regardless of which direction is chosen.

Lastly, for blind changes, I typically have them twist the same direction as they would for floor. So, if they twist left, then the left hand stays on the bar. If they twist right, then the right hand stays on the bar.

However, for the regular pirouette, I would teach it such that they are picking up the same hand as they would for a blind change. So, if they blind left, have them go to the right in a regular pirouette. And, this is so that the blind full is easier to learn. When a gymnast does a blind full to the left, they'll pick up their right hand and to finish the pirouette, they only have to do a regular pirouette on the right arm. Hopefully, that makes sense. It's a little confusing to undstand and it still confuses me sometimes without having a gymnast to explain it with.