Heel drive

[mommyof1]

What exactly is "heel drive"? And is it relevant to tumbling, or just vault?

 

[gymnastmom38]

DD's coach said this all of the time while coaching her level 4 vault. "Drive your heels!" I think it's to help push their feet up fast so that they're not piking? Hmmm...not sure? But that's my guess.

 

[pattymello]

driving the heels behind your body. can be thought of as a backward kick with both legs. it applies to many things within gymnastics. for instance: It is important for a good handspring vault. in tumbling a form of heel drive should be applied to all forward tumbling, i say a form because i think of the tuck heel drive differently to the strait body heel drive. on rings heel drive is used on the backswing to get lift. it is used likewise on parallel bars when swinging backwards. also you can apply it to pommel during the second half of a circle. kicking to handstand or cartwheels also involve heel drive.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

I have no idea but dd's coach was talking about this last night! They were vaulting, then doing a no handed vault on the tumble track onto a big block thingy onto their backs.

And said the tumble track exercise was for heel drive. I smiled and nodded.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

heel drive creates rotation and a straight body. lack of causes diminished rotation and a 'piked' body which is undesirable for movement in most things that require heel drive.

 

[mommyof1]

Thanks, Patty and Dunno! I was assuming "heel drive" described how you push off the floor or springboard with your feet, but I think I understand now that it carries through the whole skill. This helps explain why my daughter's cartwheel looks the way it does.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

heel drive creates rotation and a straight body. lack of causes diminished rotation and a 'piked' body which is undesirable for movement in most things that require heel drive.

*nodding and smiling*

You say these words and all I hear is "blah blah movement blah blah"

There ought to be a dictionary or manual or something.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

lol! okay...if they don't learn heel drive on certain skills and from the vault boards and the floor exercise apparatus the gymnasts end up looking like crap in the shapes that their supposed to be in. good? lol

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Well I got the gist of what you were saying, but it's like that with the coaches too. That's why I nod and smile and thank them for all their hard work with dd, lol.

Then in the car I ask dd, or I come on here and ask you guys. I do think I am getting better at knowing some of the moves. At least I know better than to call them "flippy things" and "twirly moves".

 

[Kiwi]

Think about it this way - heels can't move on their own, independently of the rest of the body. If you kick your heels back, what happens to the rest of your leg?

 

[iwannacoach]

One thing to remember about heel drive is that once you have snapped or pressed your legs in a rearward motion the muscles used to create the heel drive should try to contiue their effort until the skill reaches the point where heel drive is no longer wanted. You can't just initiate the heel drive and then relax. So a handspring vault starts with heel drive as the board is on it's way up and does not stop until the desired strength of rotation has been achieved.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Basically, it's another way of telling a kid to arch their body. It's used all over the place -- floor, vault, occasionally (though less frequently) bars. (Off the top of my head, I can't think of any beam skills other than a front layout dismount in which phrase it that way, but I have less experience coaching beam than I do the other events, so there may well be a few).

On the men's side, I can't think of any event I haven't heard the phrase used in. Floor, pommel horse (though it seems a bit odd to phrase it this way in this context, I've certainly heard it used), rings (EVERYTHING that swings backwards), vault (duh), p-bars (any release skill from the back swing), high bar (Jaeger tap, Gaylord tap).

Really, 99% of gymnastics consists of 3 body positions: arch, hollow, and straight. But depending on the context, sometimes it "clicks" with the gymnast to phrase it in different ways.

EDIT:

One thing to remember about heel drive is that once you have snapped or pressed your legs in a rearward motion the muscles used to create the heel drive should try to contiue their effort until the skill reaches the point where heel drive is no longer wanted. You can't just initiate the heel drive and then relax. So a handspring vault starts with heel drive as the board is on it's way up and does not stop until the desired strength of rotation has been achieved.

One thing to note: once the gymnast is airborne, there is absolutely nothing they can do which will generate more rotating power. They can only change how efficiently they use what power they already have, and this is determined solely by rotational radius. Pulling to an arch (ie driving the heels) slightly shortens the body from a straight position and depending on the skill there may be other reasons the gymnast should arch, but continuing to drive the heels throughout the skill will not cause the rotation to accelerate.

Just wanted to clarify that.

 

[niklum]

I explain a heel drive to the kids as kicking really hard with the upper back parts of their legs or "superman". They get that. I used to get so many confused looks about heel drive until I explained that. Like Geoffrey says, it's an arch. One of my favorite conditioning drills is to have the girls do superman rocks and explain that this is the heel drive that I keep asking for in front handspring vaults and front tumbling.

 

[pattymello]

It's common knowledge (i think) that an arch to dish or snap up is also called a dish. However cool bit of info: A dish to an arch (heel kick) is called a Hect. This means gymnastics has skill that are HECTIC!!!

You are welcome.

 

[iwannacoach]

Basically, it's another way of telling a kid to arch their body. It's used all over the place -- floor, vault, occasionally (though less frequently) bars. (Off the top of my head, I can't think of any beam skills other than a front layout dismount in which phrase it that way, but I have less experience coaching beam than I do the other events, so there may well be a few).

On the men's side, I can't think of any event I haven't heard the phrase used in. Floor, pommel horse (though it seems a bit odd to phrase it this way in this context, I've certainly heard it used), rings (EVERYTHING that swings backwards), vault (duh), p-bars (any release skill from the back swing), high bar (Jaeger tap, Gaylord tap).

Really, 99% of gymnastics consists of 3 body positions: arch, hollow, and straight. But depending on the context, sometimes it "clicks" with the gymnast to phrase it in different ways.

EDIT:



One thing to note: once the gymnast is airborne, there is absolutely nothing they can do which will generate more rotating power. They can only change how efficiently they use what power they already have, and this is determined solely by rotational radius. Pulling to an arch (ie driving the heels) slightly shortens the body from a straight position and depending on the skill there may be other reasons the gymnast should arch, but continuing to drive the heels throughout the skill will not cause the rotation to accelerate.

Just wanted to clarify that.

Have you ever initiated rotation, maintained the body shape, but applied no muscular effort beyond holding that shape? Maybe you are one of the lucky few who instinctively worked for rotation with every muscle fiber in your body. There are more than just the few occasional gymnasts that need to be told to "work" the rotation. An example ...two gymnasts perform double back off unevens....both have the same swing, same tap and timing for the tap, same shin lift prior to release and the same release point. Up to this point both gymnasts have performed identically to everyone's perception. After leaving the bar both enter into the somersaults and "hit" their tuck positions that have identical circumference. So you're expecting the same result but don't get it as one finishes with 1/8 to 1/4 less rotation than her counter part.
Both did have the same rotational energy at initiation and the same radius for the saltos, and there is no question that once initated the rotation energy will not be altered by the muscles, but those muscles will either impercetible shorten the radius or allow the body to rotate as a solid unit instead of a collection of segments each of which is directing it's energy in no particular direction. If a segment is not contributing it's mass' energy to the circular motion it will only be a drag on the rotation as the energy it received at initiation will go in a random direction. So drive the heels and follow thru with muscular tension in the direction of the rotation, block at contact with the vault table and tension (hollow) the opposite side of the body (counter heel drive) to convert forward momentum and rotation into height and distance for a handsping vault. Did you enjoy the expanded version?


Always happy to clarify....

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i enjoyed your expanded version. as long as it all makes sense to you.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Have you ever initiated rotation, maintained the body shape, but applied no muscular effort beyond holding that shape? Maybe you are one of the lucky few who instinctively worked for rotation with every muscle fiber in your body. There are more than just the few occasional gymnasts that need to be told to "work" the rotation. An example ...two gymnasts perform double back off unevens....both have the same swing, same tap and timing for the tap, same shin lift prior to release and the same release point. Up to this point both gymnasts have performed identically to everyone's perception. After leaving the bar both enter into the somersaults and "hit" their tuck positions that have identical circumference. So you're expecting the same result but don't get it as one finishes with 1/8 to 1/4 less rotation than her counter part.
Both did have the same rotational energy at initiation and the same radius for the saltos, and there is no question that once initated the rotation energy will not be altered by the muscles, but those muscles will either impercetible shorten the radius or allow the body to rotate as a solid unit instead of a collection of segments each of which is directing it's energy in no particular direction. If a segment is not contributing it's mass' energy to the circular motion it will only be a drag on the rotation as the energy it received at initiation will go in a random direction. So drive the heels and follow thru with muscular tension in the direction of the rotation, block at contact with the vault table and tension (hollow) the opposite side of the body (counter heel drive) to convert forward momentum and rotation into height and distance for a handsping vault. Did you enjoy the expanded version?


Always happy to clarify....

Oh, I agree completely, and I didn't mean to imply that you didn't understand this -- I just wanted to clarify for any parents who may not already be familiar with the mechanics of it.

There are plenty of instances where what we tell a gymnast may not TECHNICALLY be biomechanically correct, but it still works. The most classic example is a back tuck. What do we always tell gymnasts? go up first, and don't try to flip until you get to the top. From a biomechanical perspective, that's pure BS, BUT it works to tell a gymnast that because it gets them to focus on the upward set rather than throwing the head back on takeoff.

Another example is a double layout on floor. I've heard many coaches tell gymnasts to try to pull the hips up or pull the chest back again as they finish the first flip to get that extra rotation. Again, from a purely biomechanical perspective, it's BS, BUT since gymnasts often relax their arch as they finish the first salto, thinking of it in these terms frequently helps them.

 

[mommyof1]

So how do you explain all of the physics to a 5-year-old whose feet go more around than over in a cartwheel? Just "kick hard"?

And yes, I know I should not be coaching my daughter. But the coach did tell me to encourage her to work on cartwheels and handstands at home, and that she needed more heel drive.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

tell your 5 year old that if she gets her feet 'up' in the air she will feel God tickling her feet... watch what happens then.

 

[mommyof1]

tell your 5 year old that if she gets her feet 'up' in the air she will feel God tickling her feet... watch what happens then.

I don't know how well that would work with this one. She is so ticklish that just saying the word "tickle" will start her giggling.