New Club Grades

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SXS524

Coach
Gymnast
Hi everyone, hope everyones preperation for the new regional club grades is going well. My gymnasts are preparing for the new club grade 6 with their comp coming up very soon, but there's a few things they're struggling with and I could do with some advice.
The girls are really struggling with the straddle lever to stand on the parallettes. I'm assuming the aim is for the girls to do the straddle lever and then lift their hips such that their feet join their together in a pike stand. My girls are struggling to join their feet together/get their hips high enough- think they simply don't have the strength and we're running out of time. So my question- assuming they don't get in in time, what can they do instead? Do I try and get them to end up in some sort of squat? Or just lower to straddle on the floor and perhaps roll to stand? I'm not sure how important the straddle to stand is- there doesn't seem to be any deductions in the rulebook but I assume there would be some sort of deduction for not joining thier feet ?!
Another thing my girls are struggling with is having control in the handstand to bridge- other than telling the girls to open their shoulders, keep tight and try to do it slowly I'm struggling to think of ways to help them? A few of the girls are basically falling into bridge.
As I've said before both myself and the club I coach at are new to artsitic competitions so lots to learn- we're not expecting to do amazingly but I'm hoping my gymnasts will enjoy competing at an artistic comp and, if we don't do so well, be motivated to work hard for their next comp!

Sorry for the long post!
 
I don't know what the deduction is but yes lifting up to stand from straddle hold is quite hard. They need to work lots of press handstands. Handstand bridge is hard too. No suggestions about that really. If they go too slow they don't go over at all!
 
From what I can tell (DD grade 5) the handstand into bridge is controlled better by the girls with strong core muscles and less controlled by the weaker ones. And yes the straddle stand is splitting our girls too, it was done on a bench last year which was definitely easier. Can they get their bums up enough to stand with legs apart then bring them together?
 
For handstand bridge: Tell them to glue their arms to their ears and make them do a big step going into the handstand. Are you lunging into the handstand? In my expirience that helps to dose the power into a handstand.
For open shoulders you can practice shoulder shrugs in standing position, pushing againgst a resi mat, with thera band, in handstand position with the belly facing the wall and finally with the back facing the wall and about one step distance, so the gymnasts can just practice the part where they kick into handstand, push through their shoulders and the first part of lowering into the bridge until their feet touch the wall. Tell them to push their chest in front of their hands and control it as long as possible. Once they control the movement from a one step distance, you can slowly increase the distance (not to far, or they will slip) and/or make them do the bridge onto an elevated surface and lower it until you eventually end up on the floor. ;)
 

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