Coaches Had a "eureka" moment on clearhips, wanted to share and get feedback

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Geoffrey Taucer

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I've been testing out a new free hip drill this week and I've had absolutely phenomenal results with it. So I wanted to share to see if you all get similarly great results, and to see if anybody else has ideas for any further improvements on the drill:

The setup: A bar is set low (say, around three feet off the floor) with a mini tramp or aeroboard under it.

The gymnast stands on the tramp, back hollow, hips flat, hand son the bar. Then I tell the gymnast to, without changing the position of anything but the shoulders, try to bend the bar up and back (ie towards themselves). Once they do this a couple of times, they find that the when the bar snaps back into place, it gives them enough momentum to bounce up to clear support. So the idea is to get a decent bounce going using only the shoulders pulling on the bar, trying to bend the bar, and trying to maintain the same body position and distance to the bar throughout.

Every girl I had try this made enormous improvements on the drop for the free hip, and one of my level 3s who had never even tried a free hip before learned a semi-decent one in about ten minutes.

I've attached a picture of the setup below, and I'll try to get a video of the drill later tonight.

EDIT:
 

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I'm not quit sure what u are saying , so video for sure! :)
 
Got a video, will try to get it uploaded to youtube and post it here later tonight.
 
Go for it. The more coaches are playing with it, the more likely somebody is to find ways to improve it.
 
We'll be starting serious clear hip training after States on Sunday so I'll definitely try it too. It does make a lot of sense. Would love the broken down video if you can get it. Had to watch the other one about 5 times!
 
Haven't gotten a chance to break it down in video any more yet, but here's my best attempt at how I've been using it. I don't think the trampoline is necessary; a wedge would probably work just as well.

So to start off, the gymnast just stands in a hollow position, holding the bar. I then tell her to, without moving anything except their shoulders, try to bend the bar back (ie towards her). The result is that she is dropping the chest backwards keeping pressure on the bar and keeping a tight body.

The gymnast should try to maintain a rigid hollow shape through the chest and hips. If she gets the rythm right and pushes back aggressively enough, the bar will cause her to be pulled forward when it snaps back into place. If she stays tight, this will translate into a "bounce;" the shoulders pitch forward, and the gymnast has to maintain pressure on the bar while keeping a tight body (just like a cast). I think a wedge would work just as well as a mini tramp, but I haven't tried it.

By doing this repeatedly, she can hit a rhythm that allows her to easily crank out sets of 15 or 20.
 
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And then how does it translate into the clear hips? Should I be asking the girls to use that same motion as they fall or just try them and hope their bodies know what to do. We are just starting to learn this skill and are just doing drills for now.
 
Yeah, like a two "bounces" and clear hip, land and do another 2 bounces and clear hip again. It kinda follows something I saw (tony retrosi?) done with a ramp set up behind the gymnast so they can stand in a forward incline and clear hip to another inclined position..... that hopefully get higher as they work.
 
Once they get on the real bar, I tell them to try to hollow and bend the bar back as they drop, just like they were doing on the drill. So they get that same aggressive drop back with the chest.

I wouldn't have them bounce into an actual free hip, because they don't have enough room -- the bar is too low for it.
 
@Geoffrey Taucer

I had no idea what you were talking about at first without the video...now I get it...very cool! I am going to try this tomorrow on a few kids that we have learning clear hips.
 
Yes, this is just the entry -- it doesn't really do much for the push out at the end. That has to be addressed separately (though it's generally been my experience that once they get the drop down, the push out seems to fall into place relatively easily)
 
.....That (the push out) has to be addressed separately (though it's generally been my experience that once they get the drop down, the push out seems to fall into place relatively easily)

It's so nice to hear that. I can't stand to see coaches nagging about mistakes made during the upswing. This skill is all about the drop and what you do just before hitting the bottom, and at the bottom.

Nope, not saying mistakes don't need to be corrected, but every improvement on the drop makes the skill change enough that the mistakes disappear or get traded for new ones.

Why coach an illusion when there's genuine progress to be made on the early half of the skill.
 

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