MAG Mushroom circles, yay!

[sbonham]

I've been hopeful for a long time that women's artistic gymnastics would do away with asymmetric bars in favor of a single bar - or a horizontal bar. After all, during my involvement I've seen three variations;
1. slightly modified men's P-bars (one higher - one lower, the higher with a simple diagonal brace (correct - no cables)) to
2. cabled uneven parallel bars where bars were set at hip-beat distance (hips to hands spacing - a la Ludmilla, Olga & Nadia period) to
3. today's settings (almost feet to hands spacing - allowing for giants, and many of the men's releases (Geinger's, Delchevs, Tchachev's, etc. - and MANY cool ones (Pak saltos, Shapasnikovas, etc) the men's don't do too).

Maybe it will happen one day - women ARE pole vaulting in T & F now!

In any case it's all swing... and beautiful to watch when it's done well.

 

[samsmama]

Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but I was just about to post on my mushroom frustrations when I searched and saw this. It makes me feel hopeful that DS will get it eventually, so thanks to all who shared their experience. DS has nearly every bonus on every other event but can't do a circle to save his life.

I bought him one for his birthday and he does work on it, but it seems like he just does the same big jump around every time with no progress. I guess I have to trust that it will come someday!

 

[Popcorn]

It will come! One day, it just clicked for each boy in my ds' group. Does he do the drill where he hangs in a bucket from the rings and practices hand placement?

 

[samsmama]

No, they don't have a bucket set up, but the coach and I were talking about it on the way back from the meet and he's going to look into it. The gym is pretty new and the boys team didn't exist when they designed it. Now that we have an awesome boys coach and the team is doing so well, maybe we can get some changes made.

Could I set up a bucket at home?

 

[Popcorn]

It hangs from the rings at our gym, and the boys legs swing in circles in the bucket. You could do a home set-up if you had the right equipment and a solid anchor in the ceiling....but the gym would be much safer!

How old is your ds? I think 7 was the earliest I've seen consecutive circles in our gym and 9 is the average....

 

[gracyomalley]

an old mushroom at home did help my boys a bit - but only a little - time and repetition were key. Pommel is still hard for everyone - at their first meet the L6 pommel scores were horrible for the whole meet - DS was 2nd with a 7.6! Something happens as they get away from that mushroom, though - my older kiddo made his whole L7 routine - which is a small miracle - and it actually looked "right"....hang in there!

 

[profmom]

It's the one millionth circle that is the key, give or take 100,000. Eventually you will get to watch these guys who can do infinite circles on the mushroom falling off the pommel-less horse after half of a loop, but by then you will be able to laugh about it. Congrats to your L7 son, Gracy!! That is great! My guy is currently trying to figure out how to make the future stars routine look decent -- it is definitely a process.

 

[samsmama]

How old is your ds? I think 7 was the earliest I've seen consecutive circles in our gym and 9 is the average....

Mine just turned 8. He is plugging away on our home mushroom, bless him. He has named it and put paper eyes and a mouth on it.

Did any of your sons move up to Level 5 without the 1.5 circles? Our coach is debating what to do with our Level 4s, who have nearly every other bonus, but no circles. (As I may have mentioned before, we are a new program, so there aren't any "rules" yet on this kind of thing!)

 

[gracyomalley]

My oldest moved to l5 without circles. He was almost 11 when he started gym and needed to get out of (old) level 4. He did have to do 3 years of Level 5 (probably the last was coaching disaster related) but then skipped L6 completely and will be a L8 next year. It really depends upon the kid and the coaching philosophy. In our region pommel skills frequently lag behind most others across most teams, and L4 is very basic so if a kid is doing well on other events and ready to train harder stuff, I think it often makes sense to just "suck up" a low pommel score...IMHO

 

[gymboymom]

Mine moved to L5 with only 1 (bad) circle. But he competed L4 twice already. It finally clicked that summer and he could quickly do 10. Pommel was still hit or miss as a L5 though. Now in 6 it's come together to finally do a nice base routine.

 

[Deleted member 10727]

My little L4 *just* got his circle to flank. It's ugly, but he got it. It took a lot of practice, and I swear I thought he'd never get it. It looked like the same thing over and over and over. One day he just got it, and he was able to compete it at his first competition. Again, ugly and awkward, but it's there. Hang in there. It will happen.

 

[profmom]

Congratulations to him!! Yay!

 

[samsmama]

That's great GymBoyzMom! Mine got 1.5 circles at the gym last week but still haven't seen it at home. Coach said it should click and happen regularly any day now, I'm just hoping he's got it solid for our next meet in three weeks.

 

[Shooosh]

I don't think my son is EVER going to get them. He is pre team and will be a level 4 next year. He isn't even CLOSE. He just doesn't seem to get it and they don't work them very often at practice. They have used the bucket one time since Sept.

 

[gymmomx2]

I don't think my son is EVER going to get them. He is pre team and will be a level 4 next year. He isn't even CLOSE. He just doesn't seem to get it and they don't work them very often at practice. They have used the bucket one time since Sept.

He WILL get it but it takes a lot of practice. Mine took 2.5 years but it eventually happened and he rocks pommel now

 

[Deleted member 10727]

Preteamers usually don't have circles, as they don't really work them like team kids do. I saw so many L4s at the meet who had 3/4 of a circle and that's it. L4 is such a fun learning level though, that it is no big deal.

 

[samsmama]

Our preteam kids are not close at all, either. None of our level 4s officially have circles yet and DS is the only one close. I would say only about a quarter of the level 4 boys we've seen at meets have legit 1.5 circles. Like GymBoyzMom said, most are 3/4 or one circle. The boys doing more have usually been second year L4s.

Still, I feel your pain! It's so frustrating to watch them trying and trying with what seems like no progress!

 

[Popcorn]

On a positive note, the amount of time it takes to get those circles does not correlate to how good they are at pommel horse in the future. As per gymmomX2 and the boys at ds' gym, once they get them, they really make up for lost time

And, since circles are so hard on the wrists, I wouldn't worry about the preteamers not practicing them often. It's a good long-term strategy by the coach.

 

[samsmama]

Update! DS got his first "legit" circle in his in-house meet last night! The form is not perfect by any means, but it was so nice to see that pommel score shoot up a point!

He had sort of gotten one at practice last Thursday, but it was very hit or miss, and he wasn't getting them on our home mushroom at all. Fast-forward to last night, less than a week later, and he is now hitting a respectable 1.5 circles about 75% of the time on the home mushroom. You were all right, it really does just click, doesn't it? I really did not believe it was going to happen this season.

We have a few weeks until our next Invitational, and I am really excited for him to be able to compete it for real now.

 

[Shooosh]

I cannot wait to see a circle. Heck, I'd be happy to see half a circle with the right form!! Congrats to your son!! How old is he? I need some hope here.