clear hip (free hip) issue's!!

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gymfan4ever95

Coach
Gymnast
Hey.
i am getting really frusturated with my clear hips (some of you may call them free hips). I can do it, but in level 6 you have to shoot out to 3/4 of a handstand...and i can't even do it to horizontal!!
my coaches are getting frustrated with me to because they have given me corrections over and over and tried to help me...but i just can't seem to do it right.
does anyone have any advise for me on how to get my clear hip better??
 
A very quick reply because I need to go to bed (its 1.30 am here)

1. Make sure you keep a nice tight body
2. Pull down on the bar as you circle underneath - this will help with the wrist shift as the bar will do it for you!
3. Do hundreds of backward roll to handstands with straight arms
4. lots and lots of clear hips to handstand with support
5. Lots of clear hips on the metal bar
6. This Drill YouTube - Clear Hip Drill
7. This drill YouTube - gymnastics - FANTASTIC set-up for Bars

Good Luck!!
 
thankss :)

we do those drills at our gym, but the last one (we call it tower of terror), my coach only lets the optional level girls do it.
it isn't fairr...but oh well...
haha thankss again.
 
Last edited:
I find that for most kids the toughest part of a freehip to pick up (and often the most under-emphasized by coaches is the aggressive drop back with the chest at the beginning of the skill.

As you're comming down from your cast, don't just let gravity do the work; pull your chest back HARD just after you pass horizontal. This is what will give you the momentum to make it through the skill.
 
Well, 4 months later, it still hasn't gotten any better. But before, i couldn't even get to 3/4 of a HS with a spot! My coach was having to go to the ciropractor (sp?) twice a week because of use 4 level 6's! The other 3 are a lot younger and smaller than i am and with a spot they could always get to a handstand, so i know that it is me that is making my coaches back hurt! But just last week i think the "open" part finally clicked! I got to a handstand with a spot! and my coach said it is sooo much easier on her part now, but she is still doing more that she would have liked too. She said, just like GT mentioned, that i need to work on the "drop" part of the skill and i don't "open" my shoulders when i am not being spotted.
 
Timeline:

Cast
Height of cast, drop/pull shoulders w/ head in
Feel yourself moving under the bar
Try to move arms from sides to straight out, as if you are lifting something, the "push-away" action

Remember to shift your wrists :) Also you can think of it as like a back pike roll holding onto a bar (back extension for clear hip handstands).
 

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