WAG Double back tuck acquired at what age?

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mine is 11 and has been working them into the pit off the rod for a while. right now it's how she practices her yurchenko vault because of a hurt knee. i'm not particularly enthused about her doing them on floor. but her goals have/are changing and she isn't aiming high with gymnastics. right now it's more a stepping stone to keeping fit while she tries to figure out if she wants to continue doing it or do something else.
 
I'm curious to know by what age it is reasonable to expect a female gymnast to acquire this skill.

That's a tough one... it's all based on the individual. In the world of HOPES... a double at age 11 is pretty common. There are kids doing them much younger... but is there really a purpose? We currently have an 11 year old and a 10 year old working them... they were both working them one year ago as well.

We do tons of trampoline training though. If an athlete does not have a double on the trampoline... they are definitely not allowed to work them into the pit or anywhere else at our club. They may work take off and rotation drills up to a stack of mats... but no doubles until they can actually land them on the trampoline. Then they progress our surfaces in this order...
  1. trampoline
  2. tumble track to resi pit
  3. rod floor to resi pit
  4. spring floor to resi pit
  5. spring floor
We really don't do doubles into loose foam that much... that's just kind of a "fun" thing.

We don't use much loose foam for floor until they are doing twisting doubles.
 
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A double back tuck timer is a standard drill on multiple progressive surfaces which begins a long time before the gymnast competes it. I've generally-to-always seen it introduced first on a bouncy surface as a timer for the bar dismount with the later intention to move it to fx.

I've noticed the earlier the skill is introduced, the worse its fundamentals can be long term. I'm not a coach, but young children may not fully understand how to set or keep their head in? Plus, there is little benefit to adding such a skill early on hard surface which means the sociological situation at play (ambitious coach, child, or parent or all three) can inhibit the development of long-term basics.

One of my children face planted a bunch at the US Challenge - Hopes in hard surface warmup shortly before her 10th birthday. The following year her double flip was better because she switched to pike and the heel drive helped her stay off her face, even though her set was still very poor (and was always poor).
 
My dd is 10 L8 & she’s doing double backs on the floor. She started training them into the pit last summer. There is another girl who is 11 that has them as well but she’s had that skill a lot longer than my dd.
 
There isn't any a
I only meant to see if my daughter's progress is or is not typical. In asking I've gotten much more information than I originally intended.

My 2 cents: 11 years in this sport with a multi-year level 10 gymnast, nothing is gymnastics is "typical" or "average" and age is irrelevant.

If anything, a typical age in gymnastics can only be narrowed down in relationship to a goal - so the average age for acquisition of any skill is going to be VERY different between an exceptional 9 year old on an elite path, and your most typical gymnast. It really needs context. I've seen girls get double-backs anywhere from 9-15 years old and still end up as a multi year level 10 with college opportunities. I've never seen an elite gymnast acquiring a double back at 14 - they'd have them much earlier. I'd say your most "typical" progress would be that most girls never acquire that skill at all. I think it also depends a lot on how old a kid was when they started gymnastics!

For what it's worth, my dd has never been able to land a double back. She started learning it at 10. She could consistently compete a double pike at 11, the year she competed L9.
 
So much depends on the kid too. My DD competed it at age 13, L9 but this year as a 2nd year 9 she will not, she will do a 2.5 She prefers twisting and they are both D skills so many times kids just choose what they are better with or prefer. They start training them SO EARLY but that doesn't mean they "have" a skill at all. There is no typical - typical is when you gym chooses to start letting them do them, most kids want to do them into the pit and into the pit on resis so it is a reward!
 
It is really beneficial to train double backs fairly early on in the gymnasts career. Not nessesarily to have them down on floor, but to help gymnasts understand the true feeling of two rotations in the air. This is especially beneficial for Vault. Vaults like Yurchenkos and Tsukaharas are much easier to learn if the gymnast can at least do a double back somewhere, like trampoline/pit.
 
The ideal age to learn those skills is from 9 to 14 yrs and in this, trampoline is the best option for beginners to do practice. Make sure if your kids really get interested in gymnastics then start their classes from age 6, so that they can start developing the skills from level 1.
 

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