Parents Splits

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NEgymmum

Proud Parent
My dd is 5 and in a development squad, she's been advised to practice her splits at home. She loves gym and is happy to practice at home but we don't know exactly how to help her get her splits.
She doesn't seem naturally flexible to me and is probably a couple of inches away from her splits, middle splits is her best and she's close with those.
Does anyone have any specific stretches she could be doing please? And any idea how long until she should see some improvement?!
Thanks
 
I'm sorry no help but just from a parent perspective, she is 5. She needs time the best thing you can do to help her is give her time.
 
I have honestly never heard of practicing splits at home, because of the quickness of getting bad habits, but if the coaches want her to, ask them what they would like to be done....surely they will have something if this is their idea!
 
I have honestly never heard of practicing splits at home, because of the quickness of getting bad habits, but if the coaches want her to, ask them what they would like to be done....surely they will have something if this is their idea!

Honestly, it is the thing I've heard most often encouraged by coaches to practice at home. But the kids have done it a lot at gym and know how to stretch on their own.
 
Honestly, it is the thing I've heard most often encouraged by coaches to practice at home. But the kids have done it a lot at gym and know how to stretch on their own.
That is interesting....but maybe as you said it is for kids who have done them a lot...when my child was 5, she was never told them to practice them at home...but she does them a ton more now so I guess I could see it now. Thanks for sharing.:)
 
Honestly, it is the thing I've heard most often encouraged by coaches to practice at home. But the kids have done it a lot at gym and know how to stretch on their own.

Agree. Whenever there is more than a couple days off the coaches tell the girls to keep up on slits and stretching, and girls with flexibility issues are told more often, even. Neither of my girls were involved with gym at a young age, though, so I don't know at what age/level it typically starts.
 
I coach 5yr olds and they don't understand what they are aiming for feels like, which is why bent/rotated legs and hips happen as all they know they should have their bottoms to the ground. I don't use any special stretches, just a standard warm up and then focus of form.

For left/right leg splits I tell them to imagine there are 2 lights on either side of your hips. They must always point forward. If they are pointing to the side, lift up off the ground until they are pointing forward (and it's OK to be a long way off the ground). This just focuses correct hip position, so no twisting or rotating, which in turn forces correct leg position too.

For middle splits, I just get them to put their legs out as far as they can go, then lean forward to become a pancake. Each time we do it, they need to try and get their legs a little bit further out or their tummy a little big flatter to the ground.

Have been using these methods either them for the past 2/3 months and I'm already seeing massive improvements from them. Hope that helps :)
 
Thanks for the ideas and help everyone.
Good points about correct form - I never did gymnastics so I don't know about these things!
There's no pressure for her to do this at home, but she wants to do it so I'm just trying to help her in a safe way.
xrachx your ideas are great, thanks. The middle splits one sounds similar to something she showed me that she does in gym, so I think I'll encourage her to stick with that for now and maybe ask the coaches for any other suggestions
:)
 
I have honestly never heard of practicing splits at home, because of the quickness of getting bad habits, but if the coaches want her to, ask them what they would like to be done....surely they will have something if this is their idea!

DD's coach requests that she work on flexibility at home and part of that is sitting in splits.
 
I coach our developmental team (full of 5-7yos!) and I tell them to practice their splits at home all the time. Like XrachX I use the headlight analogy. We also constantly correct them in practice and have several specific stretches to ensure the hips are squared. If it's a kid that really needs the extra stretching, I also make sure I speak to the parents so that they know what to look for when the stretching is done at home. :)
 

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