Lack of squareness in split

[gymgymgymnast08]

Quote:
Originally Posted by kristilyn73 I have another good reason to keep splits square. When you put a split leap or Split jump up on the Balance Beam if you are not square you could either fall.. or not hit 180 in a jump....

and straddle it beam. thats always fun

[momof5]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Valentin In our gym/program we start all kids from day 1 in competitive to aim to get to as square hip splits as possible. Sadly there is a degree of acceptance. We demand and expect more from the more natural flexible kids, and make amends and adjustment with those that aren't (everyone however gets down). With our young ones we put them between boxes so that they can hold themselves up vertical a lot easier, and also as coaches we constantly correct all kids, explain to them, show them and everything else inbetween. So far i have never come across a kid who has not understood what is required of them, however willingness to achieve does greatly differ between kids. At 6 i think its important to start them aiming for squareness as this is a prime age to develop flexibility at, and it does make squareness a much easier task at that age. One thing that we have found is that practicing square splits tends to have a negative effect on leaps, because they try and hit same position in leaps, which becomes really hard.we accommodate this by working all dynamic work with a turned out back leg, which compensates for this. All and all i am in total favor (personally) to work on squareness from the start, but do have realistic expectations given the kids natural ability.

Valentin, this is where the problem started I think. Our gym does a poor job of stressing proper form in many of the skills to the rec kids that they frequently have to relearn as they advance to the team program. If you are selected early to an invite team then proper form is stressed from day 1. In my daughters case she was never in a special class and know that she is trying to advance to team her form needs a lot of work.

[Valentin]

momof5 i think i didnt explain clearly, out rec program is also very far from perfect, there is lots and lots of room for improvement (unfortunately i have no say in it, so can't do anything about it). We have the same problem with kids coming from rec to Competitive, in that we need to retrain then in whatever they have learned from their rec classes, because of the lack of form emphasis. I meant that with our competitive kids we go to work on the squareness from day 1, even if it means we have to pull them up a little higher.

[sereena shorty]

oohh, stop her when she does her split incorrectly. Believe me, the more she does that, the worse the habit will get. Make sure that she understands she should be facing forward and her knee should be facing up in her first split. Maybe you should take a picture how she's doing her split, and compare it to the correct. As a child, I did my splits incorrectly, and it's a lot hard to correct them. It'll be impossible to learn split leaps, and other flexiblity skills.

[itswalshiebaby]

you should tell her 2 lean on her back leg rather than the leg in front this helped me!!!