WAG Bent Legs and DD Can't Fix It??

[Quadqueen]

My DD is 9 and L6. She has slightly bent legs on several skills and doesn’t seem to “feelâ€￾ it. Specifically, back walkover on floor and beam, split leap on floor and beam (back leg bent slightly) and split jump on beam (back leg again). She has a full 180 degree split, but just that slightly bent back leg. It’s strange, because she has a beautiful switch leap with no bent legs, and she has no bent legs on her back handspring stepout. Maybe the speed of the skill helps her to stay tight?

Her coach is constantly telling her to straighten her legs. Other than telling her to tighten up, is there any other magic words of advice? She will do a back walkover thinking her legs are perfectly straight, but they aren't. Has anyone else seen this? Shehas muscular legs, and I feel like that calls attention to the bent legs.

 

[Amusibus]

Have you videotaped her bent legs and showed it to her?

 

[Quadqueen]

oh yes....!!!!

 

[Amusibus]

And how is her split right versus left? Is there one side where the hip flexors are tighter than the other? Could it be a stretching issue? A bent knee takes the strain off the hip flexor muscle, which could be her way of compensating if one side is slightly tighter.

 

[Quadqueen]

hmmm...well, her right split is full/all the way down (with a little over split), and her left is sometimes all the way down (sometimes it appears about an inch from the floor), but not quite as "comfortable" as her right. Her right leg is clearly her dominant leg.

 

[Amusibus]

So left split is tighter... That means left leg in front, right? So that would mean her right hip flexor muscles are a bit tighter. A straight split does not stretch them completely as the right knee would have to be able to bend up when she is in a full split to properly stretch it... But I assume the coaches know this and are working on it. A quick way to check the hip flexors: have her lie on her back on the couch, close to the edge. Take her leg furthest from the edge, and bend it up as far as it will go and hold it there (knee bent). Take the other leg closest to the couch edge, and let it fall down towards the floor as far as possible. If you can bring the down leg to horizontal, she is normal. If not, hip flexor is tight. Have to compare one side to the other to really tell what you are seeing.... And in a gymnast, it may be a bit beyond horizontal.

 

[gymgal]

dd has this problem. She really does not feel the difference when her leg is bent during a skill. It hurts her scores in meets. We have tried putting pre-wrap on her knee during practice to help her feel when the leg bends and this helped quite a bit but without the wrap, she went back to the slight bent leg. You may want to try the pre-wrap or an ace bandage to give her a little more to feel when she bends the leg.

 

[glad2bgymmom]

My daughter has also had this problem. Her coach told her to lock out her legs several times a day for 30 seconds at a time. Straight legs, toes pointed. This is supposed to help with muscle memory. It actually has worked. Seems funny that something as easy as this helped. Good luck to your daughter!

 

[ZZMom]

I'm interested in the answers to this. In some cases it may be flexibility. My older DD had a friend who's legs ALWAYS looked slightly bent even when they were locked out.

But, there must be something else also. My little daughter is extremely flexible to the point that she could be a rythmic gymnast and needs a lot of overstretching to even feel stretched at all. But, when she kicks her leg in front of her to a 90 degree angle it is ever so slightly bent. It doesn't matter which leg. Definitely not a flexibility issue. And, she gets upset if someone tells her it is bent. To her it feels straight.

Hmmmm... She's six so she isn't exactly analytical about it. But she is quite definite that it feels straight to her. I'm hoping that maturity will help with this.

Best wishes,

ZZMom

 

[sally]

I am not a dr or anything of the sort but was wondering if it could be because of maybe some tendons or ligaments around the knee is tight which is causing the bent knees. Don't know just an idea

 

[Flossyduck]

My daughter has bent knees in her walkovers, on both floor and beam.

She definitely doesn't have flexibility issues - she can oversplit on both sides with either front or rear leg raised on the track and bottom still on the floor and when she splits on the floor her heels are raised. Her coaches are always commenting on how tight she is in all her skills - lovely strong shapes on bars and in jumps and so on, but I can see her bent knees in those walkovers and I know trouble is brewing.

I'm sure she thinks that her legs are straight too!

Her next competition is in February and they are starting to put routines together now. Coach doesn't seem to have been too worried up to now but I fully expect her to start getting a lot of grief any time soon...

 

[MaryA]

One of my DD's best gym buddies physically cannot straighten her legs all the way. To her straight is ever so slightly bent. I don't really see it, but apparently judges do. This would never have mattered if she wasn't a gymnast (unless she was a dancer or ice skater, I suppose) but at the compulsory levels, it hurt her scores a great deal. The hope is that, now that she's a level 7, routines carefully choreographed with as few straight-leg moves as possible will lessen the impact of her legs on her scores. There is also the hope that, after she hits puberty and her hips widen a bit, that may help to fix the problem.

 

[Quadqueen]

Thanks all for the replies! It does drive me crazy to realize her scores could be higher. MaryA, maybe L7 will be a better year for her!

 

[iwannacoach]

It wasn't until I got to college that I learned how to straighten my legs. I'd told my coach that they didn't feel bent, and his comment......Do they feel straight? I spent five minutes alternating between my right and left legs, holding them up level to the floor with completely locked out knees to figure out what straight legs feel like.

I don't think I ever bent them again, sometimes it's just a matter of deciding you want all the rewards you've worked for, and sometimes it's flexibility or lacking the awareness. One thing I'm pretty sure of, it gets better quickly when the gymnast gives straight legs have a higher priority than skill success.

 

[Quadqueen]

Thank you all. She CAN physically straighten them when her knee is pushed, etc., so it’s not a problem of not being able to do it. She even bends her left leg (the one she’s standing on) before she even goes for her back walkover on beam!! I’ve tried suggesting that she “make a muscleâ€￾ in her thigh before she goes for those skills, and it improves temporarily, but then she goes right back to thinking it’s straight.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

Is she tight in her shoulders? If there isnt enought shoulder flrxibilty you will often see that leg bend in an effort to do the backwalkover, if the legs are straight on a backhandspring then this could play into it. For the back leg in split jumps it is quite common, try and have her do them in front of a mirror so she can see as it happens. I also agree with locking her legs, we do it 30 seconds, then relax and tighten 30 times then hold for another 30 while sitting in a pike, when its easy add small ankle weights by drapping them over her feet. Do her heels come off the floor when she sits up straight with legs in a pike and squeezes her quads?

 

[Quadqueen]

she is actually extremely flexible in the shoulders. not sure on whether her heels come up...she has large quad muscles so I'm guessing the answer is yes..

 

[iwannacoach]

I’ve tried suggesting that she “make a muscle” in her thigh before she goes for those skills, and it improves temporarily, but then she goes right back to thinking it’s straight.

That little bit of information helps. Maybe she's motivating her leg movements with the "wrong" thoughts. When she lifts her leg up in front, she could focus on the front of her ankle leading the movement. That would take the lift endergy away from her toes and knees. Going in the opposite direction, she can concentrate on leading with the back of her knee. I know it's not much, but sometimes it takes almost nothing but making a change in how your mind processes thoughts of movement.

 

[Quadqueen]

That little bit of information helps. Maybe she's motivating her leg movements with the "wrong" thoughts. When she lifts her leg up in front, she could focus on the front of her ankle leading the movement. That would take the lift endergy away from her toes and knees. Going in the opposite direction, she can concentrate on leading with the back of her knee. I know it's not much, but sometimes it takes almost nothing but making a change in how your mind processes thoughts of movement.

how do I explain how she should focuse on the front of her ankle leading the movement?

 

[Kiwi]

I guess he means at the top of the foot where it joins the leg at the ankle. I suppose you could stick something there as a focus, like a bright red piece of tape or something.

My DD sounds similar. She thinks her leg is straight but it is slightly bent. She can straighten them completely but it seems to take a lot of effort for her to get them totally straight.