Beam Amazing straddle-press to handstands

[nettyinpa]

I was at my dd's Level 5 practice this morning. There were some Level 7/8 girls there practicing also. They were all supposed to do up to 10 straddle press handstands on the beam, or as many as they could do. I watched this girl, and this is no lie, do 31 of them in a row, with very little break in between. And, to top it off, her form was absolutely impeccable. I could not believe my eyes. They said the gym record was 25. She blew that one away. The funny this is she could've kept going but the coach told her to stop!!

[Rick McCharles]

I'd love to see that on video.

[gymgymgymnast08]

thats intense. omg.

[midwestgymmom]

WOW!!

[LemonLime]

There's a reason gymnasts generally don't train more than 10 repetitions in a row. Presses are very hard on the wrists and should not be trained more than 15 per repetition, usually two cycles per session (meaning, two sets of 10 plus training timers for those who cannot do them). This danger is even more prescient on the beam where the fingers do not absorb as much of the pressure as the floor.

At x gym, my daughter's friend was an 85+/90 Diamond athlete. The coaches thought it was cute that she could do 40ish presses in a row at age barely 8. She developed stress fractures in both her wrists from overuse.

[BlairBob]

20-40 sounds a bit excessive but I'm still of the point that WAG programs tend to be very poor at physical preparation and conditioning of the wrists. Most have a take it or leave it approach, not bothering to do anything but stretching them out until a wrist injury or condition comes about.

[lannamavity]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlairBob 20-40 sounds a bit excessive but I'm still of the point that WAG programs tend to be very poor at physical preparation and conditioning of the wrists. Most have a take it or leave it approach, not bothering to do anything but stretching them out until a wrist injury or condition comes about.

Men have the luxury of doing high numbers of presses on parallel bars, which requires wrist control without the stress.

High numbers of presses on the floor or a beam is not, IMHO the best choice for wrist conditioning, in fact, it's counterproductive, because most girls are flexible enough that they actually relax their wrists while they hold the handstand.

There are millions of wrist exercises.

[gymjourneymom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lannamavity Men have the luxury of doing high numbers of presses on parallel bars, which requires wrist control without the stress. High numbers of presses on the floor or a beam is not, IMHO the best choice for wrist conditioning, in fact, it's counterproductive, because most girls are flexible enough that they actually relax their wrists while they hold the handstand. There are millions of wrist exercises.

Can you post some wrist exercises that can be done at home?

[lannamavity]

Our kids do:

wrist pushups on the wall
wrist pushups on the floor (limited number and carefully)
wrist rolls (with a weight on a rope tied to a stick)
wrist flexes with palm flex and release (A Kris Merlo Robinson trick)


The numbers vary according to level and depend on how used to the exercises the athlete is.

The last exercise is both flexibility and strength and we incorporate it into the bar rotation.

The girls stand with their arms straight out in front of them and make a fist. They then continue to flex their wrist and slowly open their hands until their fingers are flexed back as far as possible and hold. If they do it right, you will see it on their faces.

Next they stand with their arms at their sides and make a fist with their thumbs turned out from their bodies. They flex their wrists the same way they did before and slowly open their hands and hold.

We repeat these two times each way in between timed long hangs. Most of our kids used to have weak and inflexible wrists, but they seem to be getting much better. Handstands seem to be much easier.

[ShootingStaRr]

That is quite impressive but it isn't the smartest thing for the wrists.

i could never do straddle levers and press to handstands and i now will suffer permanent wrist damage.