WAG What makes a skill "hard"?

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In my experience, many skills that have been described as "hard" came very easily to my daughter. She got her FHC and cartwheel on beam the first time she ever tried them. It took her forever to get her front mill circle. She got her RO-BHS and kip early compared to others, but it took a ton of hard work (including numerous repetitions during open gym). Her turn on beam is always wobbly while others on her team make it look effortless. So what makes something "hard? Is it the average time it takes to get it across the broad spectrum of gymnasts? Is it the motion itself? Is it the fact that many "hard" moves require the body to move in counterintuitive ways?

People always talk about "gateway skills" for the next level. I've found that term to be a bit misleading in some cases and spot on in others. Help a fella clarify his understanding. ;)
 
I think what defines a skill as hard is the number of gymnasts that typically have difficulty with it. Having said that, some gymnasts are unique and find other skills difficult while the typically difficult skills easy e.g. I find back extension roll harder than a round off flic sault or layout just because of my strengths in gymnastics.

To me a gateway skill is something that is a key element in gymnastics or one that is necessary to progress e.g. RO-BHS, good luck getting to a high level in gymnastics without it
 
I love that! It's a gateway skill because it's a building block, not because it's the next hard skill. I never thought of it that way.
 
I agree with gymgurl, a hard skill isn't necessary one who needs a lot of strength. For me a difficult skill might be one for which the timing is precise or the technique has to be perfect. The kip is a good example, the timing has to be precise.

And it also depends of the gymnast. For example, it took me something like 2 months to get my roundoff on the high beam, without any padding. But it took me 3 years to complete a single back handspring (and I wasn't having any fear!) So for me the back handspring was a hard skill, even if the roundoff and the back handpsring have the same value.
 
Some skills are just objectively harder than others, at least for most people - the kip, often new bars skills, the first flipping vault, etc. Also you can bet the more twists/flips it has, the harder it is. Although some people feel a lot more comfortable doing twists in whole number or halves. Like some people might find a double full easier than a 1.5 if they don't like landing that particular way.
 
To me a gateway skill is one that is required to move to the next level, like the BHS for Level 4, the Kip for Level 5, and giants for Level 7. These will come easier to some but will keep some gymnasts from progressing to the next level.
 
ALL gymnastics is hard. if your daughter hasn't been challenged yet, stick around and she will. it's just a matter of time.:)
 
My first inclination was to type, "dunno, she has been challenged. It's just that some of the skills..." Then I was like- :)
 
In my experience, many skills that have been described as "hard" came very easily to my daughter. She got her FHC and cartwheel on beam the first time she ever tried them. It took her forever to get her front mill circle. She got her RO-BHS and kip early compared to others, but it took a ton of hard work (including numerous repetitions during open gym). Her turn on beam is always wobbly while others on her team make it look effortless. So what makes something "hard? Is it the average time it takes to get it across the broad spectrum of gymnasts? Is it the motion itself? Is it the fact that many "hard" moves require the body to move in counterintuitive ways?

People always talk about "gateway skills" for the next level. I've found that term to be a bit misleading in some cases and spot on in others. Help a fella clarify his understanding. ;)

I'd say difficulty is a function of a number of factors. Off the top of my head, here are the main ones:

-Complexity of movements
-Strength requirements
-Flexibility requirements
-Precision of positions/timing required
-"Counterintuitiveness" (that is, to what extent is the gymnast required to go against her natural instincts in order to correctly execute the skill)
 
Yeah, the observation about gatekeeper skills is pretty spot on. These skills are not necessarily harder than the other skills (although sometimes they certainly are), it is just that they are skills that you need to get past in order to progress. Like you're not really going to get any farther on floor without a RHBH, bars without a kip and later on, giants, beam without a BHS. Some of these skills also happen to be "scary" skills -- giants, backwards acro (and backwards acro on the beam!) -- that lead to mental blocks. Backwards acro is arguably mechanically easier than forwards acro, for instance, (which involves landing blind after all) but lots of kids struggle with the mental aspect of going backwards. But when people talk about gatekeeper skills, they're not really referring to the difficulty of the skill, but to how necessary that skill is for further progress.
 
I agree that a hard skill is a skill that takes a lot of gymnasts significant time to "get" once they start training it. Yes, not all gymnasts will struggle on every one of them (like a BHS on beam may come quickly to gymnast A, but take gymnast B a long time, but a kip may come quickly to gymnast B and take gymnast A a long time).

When a hard skill is a gatekeeper skill that everyone *has* to do to progress (kip, bhs, flyway, giant) they become even more well known for their hardness, but there are other skills that are just as hard, but you don't hear about them as much as they aren't holding girls back. Like I think a front handspring on beam would be a very hard skill, but no one is going to spend a lot of time working on it (unless you have a natural propensity to be good at something like that) - if it were a required to advance, we'd probably hear about it a lot though.
 
Sometimes, I wonder if it's largely perception. We have kids that can do high level skills and balk at ones you would think were so much easier. For example, we have a little girls who kicks booty in every event. She is not landing BHS on beam. She nails BWO, BWO. Coach say's the BHS is sometimes easier because with BWO the girls have too much time to think and mess it up. My dd can do amazing tumbling passes. The kid just launches high in the air but, put her on a beam and she isn't so sure... What she does on floor is difficult.. so, why the hesitation on lesser beam skills. KWIM?
 
I like the term gateway skills, they would be so true for advancing in gymnastics. As for a hard skill, it's sort of YMWV, it's different for each person. For my dd, twisting is hard. She does it, but not nearly as good as her teammates and it's her struggle and I am so proud of what she is capable of doing (twisting-wise). Gymnastics is a very individualized sport and you can't really sit there and compare your dd's skills to everyone else. If I were you I'd bite my tongue with comments of how easy things are coming to her, enjoy the moment, because you will struggle very hard when she hits that wall. When something hangs her up and you physically can't do anything to fix it, it's completely on her. There is always something that will get them through this journey, but when they overcome the struggle(s), it is very rewarding.
 

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