WAG Left legged or right legged or a mixture of the two!?

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Ponyshine

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I was reading another post on a similar topic which made me decide to post.

Generally I think it's best for a gymnast to do everything left or everything right e.g. cartwheel left, round-off left, backward walkover lifting the left leg first etc. Some gymnasts prefer to mix between the two. Some skills they perform as if they're a lefty, while with other skills they prefer their right leg.

I myself do things on different legs (not because I wanted to - that's just what seemed natural). For example, I cartwheel & round off right, but I spin left. I spin left, but I twist right in a somersault. I do split leaps with my right leg, but I do slit change leaps with my left leg performing the final split in the split change! I spin left, but when doing a split change with a 1/2 turn I turn right!!

Do you think that it's ok to change your preferred leg depending on the skill, or does it just get too complicated, especially when it comes to twisting & linking skills? If you are a coach, do you allow your gymnasts to choose how they do each skill? If you're a gymnast, do you do everything consistently or not?
 
Interesting. As a gymnast, I did cartwheels and round-offs left, twisted to the left, but did righty handstands and split and turns. It really didn't affect anything for me. The place where it makes the most difference is in compulsory routines where you have to do everything to the text. In optionals, it didn't seem to matter at all. Granted, I didn't get to an extremely high level. I pretty much topped out at 7/8. Once you get to triple twists or Amanars, maybe it makes more of a difference. Not sure.

As for my gymnasts, I try to get them to do everything on the same side when they are in pre-team, just to make compulsories easier. But then I have also heard that it is best to work skills on both sides so that one side does not get stronger than the other. So basically it's a toss up!
 
My daughter is prominent lefty but has some skills she does righty. Her gym warns her and is now having her do all skills lefty (her preferred leg) because as she gets higher in the levels 8/9 ish when she has to start connecting harder skills she will have issues if she switches sides.
 
My DD is on pre-team and has been told she has to do everything with the same leg. She used to cartwheel/ro with left and walkover with right but coach made her relearn bwo with left.
 
My dd is strongly is lefty in everything except turns. She prefers to turn on her right foot. She is a 6 yo level 2 and I don't know if they're working on any turns at gym, but I've noticed at home that she always turns on her right foot. I suspect when it comes time, she's going to be told to turn on her left foot.
 
I think of it in terms of linking skills and what leg is your "power leg" and "leading leg." What I mean by that is, whatever leg you can drive up behind you more forcefully and accurately is your "power leg" and should always be the back leg in tumbling skills, such as cartwheels, round-offs, and handstands, and I refer to the front leg as the "leading leg." Then, to consider twisting direction, I always go off of what their "power leg" and "leading leg" is, and base it off of that. For example, if the athlete leads round-offs with the left foot and uses their right leg as their power leg, then their twisting direction should go to the left. I also make sure that twisting direction is uniform between backward and forward salto skills, as well as turns and pirouetting-type skills on bars, beam and floor. I don't like referring to left turning versus right turning round-offs because it leads to confusion. This is because in reality, a round-off that leads with the left foot actually turns right. You can see this by thinking of the longitudinal axis that runs longways through the body; as the athlete reaches to the floor, the right shoulder and hip is pulled back, meaning the round-off turns right.
 
My coaches have always told us to do everything a single direction so that linking twisting skills to round-offs is possible. They say the same thing for leaping and turns. I'm a strong righty; the only thing I do left is my blind change on bars, and I learned a half pirouette left so I could do that. However, my bars coach has told some girls to shoot-over or blind the opposite way that they naturally wanted to to try and correct weird habits.
I know a couple girls that have had to do turns on their "bad" side because of too many broken toes on their "good" foot haha!
 
My coaches have always told us to do everything a single direction so that linking twisting skills to round-offs is possible.

I know a couple girls that have had to do turns on their "bad" side because of too many broken toes on their "good" foot haha!

The first sentence is what dds coaches said about why they switched her legs when she started at that gym.

When dd was recovering from her ankle fracture 2 years ago she temporarily had to change her split jumps legs.
 
I do righty cartwheel, round offs, back walkovers, but I twist left. Split leaps I do a left split even though my "good split" is righty. I pirouette right, twist left, do turns right, and on all my jumps on beam, right leg is right except for split, then it's left. All my twisting jumps I go left, but cat leap 1/1 I go right so I can't connect it to another twisting jump because it would look weird.
It can create problems, but it's also important the gymnast does what feels natural.
 
I am a righty when it comes to writing and eating, but in gymnastics everything I do is with my left leg. My right leg used to make everything super awkward but it's getting better. But I haven't done anything yet that I do with my right leg
 
I seem to have the child that twists left, RO left, but BWO right.
I believe we are hitting the time that it might be an issue... Fixable, but still an issue.
 
Imagine doing a cartwheel into a twisting dismount off beam a lefty will finish with the left leg behind. Therefore twisting to the right would be mega hard as the legs are crossed. Therefore it's pretty important early on to work out which way a gymnast will favour when twisting so that you can ensure she is competent and roundoffs and cartwheels in the correct way.

However, I was taught this sequence.

Split leap left
Forward walkover right
Cartwheel right
Backward walkover left
Twist right

Or vice versa!

Using that sequence above you will have a gymnast who will be able (in theory) to link front aerial, side aerial into layout step out into a twisting dismount. If everything started on the same leg, it would be difficult.

Oh and eta: it's very important to work most things on both sides anyway!
 
I seem to have the child that twists left, RO left, but BWO right.
I believe we are hitting the time that it might be an issue... Fixable, but still an issue.

I just realized that my phrase "twists" makes it wound like "in the air" - she's not quite there, I'm actually talking spinning on one foot, whether it be on the beam or in floor.
Hmm, I wonder which way she will twist when that time comes! LOL!
 
My dd coaches try and make them learn cartwheels left and right as well as roundoffs and twisting we are in the uk and I don't think it makes and difference on competitions(I may be wrong) I haven't been told that they have to do everything left or right they are very encouraged to learn both is this a bad thing?
 
My dd coaches try and make them learn cartwheels left and right as well as roundoffs and twisting we are in the uk and I don't think it makes and difference on competitions(I may be wrong) I haven't been told that they have to do everything left or right they are very encouraged to learn both is this a bad thing?


We also learn cartwheels both ways, but even then we are meant to have a leg that we 'prefer'. Even if you are just as good at doing things on both sides (and it's fine to be able to cartwheel well on both sides in my opinion), I think you still need to decide on one side that you will choose to 'prefer' so that you do things consistently e.g. for competitions and when a coach needs to support you doing a skill. It also makes things less complicated when linking skills together.

This is my opinion - but then I do things a bit differently myself - but I wouldn't coach it the way I do it :)
 
DD is a dominant leftie for most skills when it comes to gym even though she's right handed. But she has been known to swap legs halfway through a set for not apparent reason. Her coach just asks DD to warn her if she's going to switch while being spotted!
 
My daughter does most leading with her right but for whatever reason prefers leading with her left on her back walkover. Coach is trying to get her to learn how to do that with her other leg now and it has been tricky!
 
I'm kind of strange haha. I do most things left but I hurdle for vault righty and for punch fronts, I front twist to the right and I do twisting jumps to the right. Also when I first learned how to backward twist I would twist right but my head would go left (needless to say it took me forever to get a full lol).

I think for compulsories it is important to do everything one way!
 
I do everything left. But I bring my right foot down first on my press handstand - quarter pirrouette - front walkover exit mount on beam ( just because it's more comfortable. I also spin right so that I can do front scale spins.
 

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