Glide Swings and Stomach Muscles.

[GymSurvivor]

Alright, a glide swing. One of the most simply bar skills yet. And yet I can't do one.

I'm 5'3" so not tooo tall for a 17 year old.
Although my legs I swear they make up half of my body.

I can do about 10 v-ups in a row, rest for a second and do 10 more. I can do all the other ab things, I mean I don't have the most abs everr. But I have another girl in my class who is taller then I am with longer legs and can't do one v-up yet she can do a glid swing.

I think I just don't know how to use my stomach muscles!
Have you ever seen/had a gymnast with this issue?

Also when I do some sorts of conditioning my back is the thing that hurts? Does this mean I'm really working my back muscles and not stomach, or maybe I don't have enough back muscles.

But this is really holding me back since you kind of NEED a glide swing for a kip.

 

[mustlovejumping]

Do you work on leg lifts on wall bars at all? Also, I really like the exercise where you do a pullover and then go into a forward roll staying in a chin up position and then bring your legs back over the bar to do another pullover.

And if your back hurts when you do ab stuff it might mean that you need to strengthen your back more, but I could be wrong?

 

[GymSurvivor]

Thats what I was thinking, that I need to strengthen my back more.
Now I just need to look up what back exercises to do.
I do, do leg lifts but can't do them all the way up. But above horizontal which is needed for a glide swing.

I'll have to try the pullover drill.

 

[stargazer]

The pull-over drill is really good for developing stomach muscles! For my conditioning we have to do 5 chin-up pull-overs in a row, and they are killer but work wonderfully. I used to have the same problem with my back hurting during ab exercises. My coaches explained to me by saying that because my stomach muscles weren't strong enough I was resorting to using my back muscles during the exercises. Make sure you maintain a perfectly hollow body when you do ab work, and DON'T ARCH. Also, stick to exercises that don't hurt your back until you get stronger, then you'll be able to do the harder ones properly.

As for the glide swing itself, I'm not sure what part of the glide swing you're having trouble with, but in my humble opinion here are a couple things I can think of:
When you jump, your feet should not be behind you, but I'm sure you know that. You should be in a hollow body position, then a bit piked as you swing forward to keep your toes off the ground.
Make sure you're not dropping your feet down to the ground as you extend your glide. Even in the extended position, you SHOULD NOT be arched, but your hips and shoulders should be open. I used to arch and it completely killed my swing and made my back hurt.
Although I'm sure this is a no brainer, remember to engage your stomach muscles as your extend and pull your feet up to the bar (if you're going into a kip). It's weird how easy it is to forget to use the muscles you need to

Good luck and happy conditioning!


if that's possible....

 

[gymgurl]

I have the same problem with my back hurting and it got so bad that we went to the physio. Turns out i don't actually use my tummy muscles for strength and my back muscles were way stronger than my stomach muscles so what i have to do is really focus on working my core so that my back doesn't get over used and hence tight and sore after. My suggestion is whenever you do core strength really focus on holding your tummy muscles tight.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

How long can you hold an L/Pike hang under the bar? I think of a glide as a moving L hang as far as strength goes. If you can't hold this shape it with be very hard to do it in motion. I have seen a drill where a gymnast holds this shape and the coach pushes them to get the glide movement without the front extension (like a pendulum).

 

[GymSurvivor]

Okay heres what i'm thinking.
I actually think I'm doing most of my stomach conditioning using mostly my back. Then when it comes to conditioning that physically MUST be done with your stomach and you can't use your back I can't do it. Which is why a glide swing is hard, because you cannot use just your back to do it.

So I'll be doing more stomach conditioning and really concentrate on using only my stomach muscles.