learning real giants

[lil'gymnast]

i am trying to learn giants on the real bars, but i'm too scared of hitting my feet on the bar. i bend my legs every time i go by the low bar. on the strap bar and single rail i have great giants. help

[JBS]

Have you tried doing them on a single rail with a piece of pre-wrap or a bungee stretched across like a low rail? This eliminates the fear...then you can do lots of them. Once you are confident, you should have a much easier time on the real bars.

[hammy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by |||JBS||| Have you tried doing them on a single rail with a piece of pre-wrap or a bungee stretched across like a low rail? This eliminates the fear...then you can do lots of them. Once you are confident, you should have a much easier time on the real bars.

I agree! Also, I suggest just swinging between the bars, working on your scoop shape as you're at the low bar so you don't learn piking past the low bar--that's a baaaaad habit to get into. Most of all you just have to trust yourself and look at the low bar--watch your feet go past it---if you smack them every once in awhile oh well--it happens..lol

[coachpamela]

One of our girls has to "straddle" her legs when she passes the low bar every time or she will hit her feet. Once we had to compete in a loft gym with a low ceiling (that's high school gymnastics for ya) and she actually hit her foot onthe ceiling beam. I guess I should ask the head coach if she is deducted for that assuming that the bars are set at the farthest setting....
If you're not going to hit but are still scared that idea of making a "bar" of prewrap is a great idea -when we teach straddle backs we remove the low bar and put a pit mat to catch the gymnast when they first get the feel for flying backward-maybe you could also remove the low bar and stretch some prewrap where it used to be. I know that several of our girls have hit their foot or feet once or twice and were fine. Hope that makes you feel better. YOU CAN DO IT!