WAG The perfect hurdle

[gymgurl]

What is the ideal hurdle? I was watching Viktoria Komova and noticed that her hurdle is different and she has straight legs. The other style with bent front leg (don't know how to describe it better) is how I was taught and I want to know which is the better/preferred hurdle and what advantage both of them have

 

[iwannacoach]

Describing the best hurdle depends on the skill that's to follow....... Keep in mind I'm just a single coach, and others will have an opinion that varies a bit from the two models I work with, while some will shrug their shoulders and say "What?"

I'll break it down like this.........

Skills like punch front, dive roll, and vaulting in general require an upward and forward motion to be successful. Being like any good coach, I look for the simplest way to get the job done. It seems pretty simple that if these skills are to go up as a result of the hurdle and punch, the best hurdle would be as low as possible to minimize the amount of downward energy that needs to be reversed into an upward motion. The idea is to eliminate the downward motion into the punch by eliminating any tendency for the hurdle to drop into the punch. I don't worry about what positions the kids' legs move through while in the air for that brief instant, as long as they are in position in time to punch into the skill.

The other model is for skills that need to continue in a forward and down direction following the hurdle for skills like round-offs and front handsprings. I'm a bit of a "gravity freak" because gravity is a great source of energy when it's used correctly, so I like the kids to have just a bit of elevation in their hurdle prior to those two skills. The extra drop downward of just those few inches adds energy, and since these skills tend to drop into the floor, the downward energy helps get them from their feet to their hands that much quicker.

As far as straight legs v bent is concerned, the straight, well nearly straight, leg creates a quicker conversion in the circular motion of these skills. A good example would be a bicycle wheel who's spokes keep the wheel's circumference perfectly round as opposed to one with 1/4 of it's spokes, all in succession, that are 3/4ths the length of the rest. One wheel easily rolls forward, while the other one requires more work because it's wasting a lot of energy by going up and down.

That's the way I see it, but that's just my opinion.

 

[stargazer]

To be honest I do both depending on the skill and don't see a particular advantage or disadvantage to either. I seem to naturally do a bent leg hurdle for front handspring front tucks, and a straight leg hurdle for pretty much everything else.

However, my coach did not allow one of my teammates to do a bent leg hurdle because she was bringing her knee up way too high (like the start of a cat leap), and losing all her forward momentum.

I'm curious to see everyone else's answers on this, it's something I've been wondering too!