Parents Seeing is believing

[nyc gym mom]

Video is attached to make this long description bearable

My gymnast has been working on back walkovers on beam for well over a year plus probably longer. In the last few months more frequently as she just moved up to level 5 after completing early states. Other girls in the gym easily nailing them that were at lower levels and skills. My girl could nail a perfect fall every time! On the floor they were perfect. Every coach / gymnast in the gym had tried to help her.

Finally one of her coaches evaluated her pretty much from head to toe as she said there was nothing that she could see with form as to why she could not stick them. After her assessment she pointed out that one arm appeared longer than the other by about 3 inches when extended back over her head. I was getting ready to set up an appointment with a sports medicine doc.

I asked a mom that is an OT and now doing performance enhancement with athletes her thoughts. She said let me look at her when at practice. She watched her on balance beam, then evaluated her standing with arms extended in various positions. She then began doing a specific time of therapy / manipulation on her. In less than an hour she was doing them
Beautifully. It was her hips that were out of alignment / she was too tight on one side and thus physically her body made her go to the same side off the beam each time. I am still in disbelief. She wants to work with her one more time as when the therapist mom evaluated the video she saw she was not quite going back as straight as she could.

Go figure? I am now a believer in this treatment!

 

[lovemygymnast]

Wow! That's awesome! Some people really believe in chiropractors like that too. I know I use to ride horses competing eventing and something similar happened in that I just couldn't sit in the center of the saddle. It was a hip causing one leg not to stretch down in the heel. One visit and I was back to normal.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

My dd watched the video and said when she was missing, her hips weren't square. but when she did it she could see her overcompensating and making them straight. And she was tighter.

That's an 11 year old opinion. I say whatever works.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Well... I would like to point out that she was using back handspring hands(kind of) on all missed, and back walkover hands on ones made. Simple correction.

 

[gymdog]

Yeah, but when they have a tighter hip they often stagger their hands like that, so, not sure if it was a chicken or an egg thing. Just an observation. I always try to have them work on hip mobility (foam rolling, etc) and usually will see improvement fairly quickly with the hand placement although that is dramatic improvement. However the gymnast doesn't look that tight to me so it might have been more of a neuro/control thing than soft tissue restriction.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

She also has a weak handstand

 

[gymdog]

A good blog for issues like this is http://www.hybridperspective.com. You don't necessarily need any special kind of therapy, but soft tissue mobilization. Dave offers a lot of ideas on his blog about common restrictions and how to address them. If they have weak glutes (often a key element of a good handstand position or ability to rotate the pelvis correctly) usually goes with tight hips, they may have splits but they're stretching another part of the hip not the hip flexor.

 

[nyc gym mom]

My dd watched the video and said when she was missing, her hips weren't square. but when she did it she could see her overcompensating and making them straight. And she was tighter.

That's an 11 year old opinion. I say whatever works.

Hi Canadian gym mom
As a novice I appreciate how your 11 year can see the issue with the hips. I of course could not. She literally could not get them square enough before... now she is landing them which is a start

 

[nyc gym mom]

Well... I would like to point out that she was using back handspring hands(kind of) on all missed, and back walkover hands on ones made. Simple correction.

HI Gymdog.. I looked at the hands and learned something so thank you about how they go on the beam. However, it was not quite as simple a correction with the hands. Helping her be able to get her hips squared...allowed it to fall into place.

 

[nyc gym mom]

She also has a weak handstand

Coach P..after her first meet at level 5 beam- I will post so you can critique

 

[roll123]

Looks so beautiful when they stick it! Great job!