WAG BHS on beam - hand placement

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CLgym

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Quick question, mostly out of curiosity. My DD is being coached to change her hand placement on her beam BHS-step out. She is a lefty in gymnastics (in all gymnastics skills she favors her left side -- tumbling, splits, leaps, etc. -- although she is a "righty" when it comes to everything else in life). All last season she performed her BHS leading with her left hand. She is now being directed to lead with her non-dominant gymnastics hand, so her right. Something about squaring her shoulders maybe? She is not entirely clear on the mechanics of it all, but is pretty upset because it means she is basically relearning her beam BHS. She says it's hard to change it now. Curious if there is a general "rule" or consensus about hand placement on the beam BHS... Thanks
 
Yup. Makes sense. And that's what they are telling my DD now too -- after more than a year of her leading with her "good" hand. Any idea why it matters?
 
Yup. Makes sense. And that's what they are telling my DD now too -- after more than a year of her leading with her "good" hand. Any idea why it matters?

I have no idea. I’m good friends with a level 8-10 beam coach so I just asked her and I will let you know!
 
Welcome. I did ask her if she would change it if the girl had been doing it “incorrectly” for a year and she said yes.
 
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Yup. Makes sense. And that's what they are telling my DD now too -- after more than a year of her leading with her "good" hand. Any idea why it matters?
For exactly why they said, to keep her square. Since she leads with her left leg, if she also leads with her left hand her body may twist to the left. As she works to connect skills, this will make it very difficult to stay on the beam.
 
Am I allowed to be a little annoyed that this slipped through the cracks? She is supposed to be training L8 -- and competed a BWO-BHS or HS-BHS all last season at L7 -- but now feels like she's taking a huge step backwards on an event that was never her best to begin with. Anyone with experience on making this kind of correction? Is it tough?
 
I think you allowed to be annoyed, yes. I have no words of encouragement because my kiddo is just learning hers for the first time (been working on it for almost a year ).
 
Am I allowed to be a little annoyed that this slipped through the cracks? She is supposed to be training L8 -- and competed a BWO-BHS or HS-BHS all last season at L7 -- but now feels like she's taking a huge step backwards on an event that was never her best to begin with. Anyone with experience on making this kind of correction? Is it tough?
I wouldn’t be annoyed, because I don’t think it slipped through the cracks..it is just that they want to change it. Many very good gymnasts do it the other way. We have seen this in action! :) Even girls in college do it who are very good beam workers.
 
^^ Great way to look at it, and also happy to hear it is a preference but not an absolute rule. One way or another it will sort itself out. Thanks!
 
It does help. I teach all my gymnasts to do the opposite hand to leg, like she is learning now. In the middle of the flic they are in a split handstand. Picture yourself in a split handstand, if you have the same hand forward as leg forward the hips will just naturally want to twist. Putting the other hand forward will help to square them.

It can be done the other way, plenty of people do it the other way. But, on beam, we wants to do everything we can to stay on that straight line.
 
This is a common technique but not one everyone uses. I wouldn't assume it slipped through the cracks but mostly likely her back handspring needs some improvement in order to connect it in harder series and so they're trying to make that change. I have seen gymnasts change it before and it's usually worth it if they're stepping out with their body opening toward the side and not super hard. If it is absolutely super hard for her I'm sure they'll adjust. I honestly wouldn't worry about it at all and there's going to be a lot of technique adjustments that are made as they advance in levels and have to learn harder skills. Sometimes you have to take one step back to move a few steps forward.
 
By the sounds of it your daughter having it perfect with the wrong hand placement on floor allowed her to gain the skill at the time which made the coaches happy however they didn’t look to the future and the future skills she would be performing. Habits are the hardest thing to change in gymnastics if a gymnast is taught or future skills not thought of during the lower levels then it makes it so much harder to change the way a gymnast completes skills at the later age. It sounds like the coaches look at each level as individual competitions instead of focusing on the skills for the higher levels. I.e child has BHS quicker with one hand in front then at that time was quicker for the coaches to teach. Instead of taking the time no matter how long from the start to teach it the way it will help her through higher levels and adding skills together.
 

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