Coaches What are some good upper body strength exercises to do at home?

[erindel]

my daughter needs help with her upper body strength. Her free hip could be better and she could work better on the uprise and giants if she did more exercises at home. What exercises would you as coaches recommend? She has always been weakest on bars. thanks..

 

[iwannacoach]

Please take this as information rather than a snub........

The skills you mentioned are swing skills that require very little strength when done in the correctly with respect to the proper positions "in time" with the skill. The ability to swing and time the body position changes will be terribly affected if strength is improperly applied to these motion equations. adding strength beyond the amount needed to "fill in the gap" between the bar and shoulders during a clear hip's elevation to handstand phase will mess up the swing.... well geez, if you do that you're gonna need more strength.

Pretty much, trying to "muscle" a swing skill will only create a need for more strength...... if enough can be found.

 

[erindel]

Thank you Iwannacoach i didnt think of it that way. I guess I always thought no strength meant not being able to lift the body in diff positions on the bar... i dont understand it like you coaches do... So maybe she was never taught correctly, or just never picked up the correct body positions in order to do these skills correctly and fluidly? Well thanks anyway for the comment.

 

[iwannacoach]

Those two skills are hard for kids to get, because they have a mental model that differs from the coach's.

 

[BlairBob]

Well, long story short, if she is weak and not strong she will probably be poor on bars; especially as she gets to higher levels.

Giants don't really take a lot of strength to do. Only the cast handstand straight or straddle to get high enough to bail and swing to giant. This can also be done with a free hip on high bar.

But most of her upper body strength work should be rope climbs and bar dips, either on a single rail or men's P-bars. If she can't do dips, she must learn to be able to do pushups with her elbows tucked into her sides first. I also like pseudo planche pushups where you lean forward planche-like and then do a pushup. I also like gymnasts to do some body rows instead of vertical pullup/rope work for horizontal pulling work.

Chin hold to candle is a common drill besides rope climbs for upper body/core strength. Pull up, rock back to cradle/candle and back to chin flex arm hang.

Iwannacoach is right in the sense that freehip and giants are very much "swing" skills.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

No offense, but we instruct our parents not to do anything at home with the kids. better for you, better for your kid.