WAG Hip Exercises?

[my4buffaloes]

So dd is suddenly (within the last 6 months) hitting her feet on the mats on bars and I asked her about it and she said her hips were weak. I told her to ask her conditioning coach for tips on how to strengthen them, but she won't do it. Is it her hips that are weak? What can she do to help that? Thanks!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

what skill is she doing?

 

[my4buffaloes]

She does a kip, cast hand stand pirouette, kip clear hip (not to handstand) and I think another kip before jumping to high bar. It seems to my untrained eye that it is coming down from the pirouette that her feet hit. And of course I might have the skills wrong, she isn't here to ask and I don't know it all. Her feet have never whacked the floor before the past 6 months or so. She has grown a few inches though.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

when your little and the low bar is high, kip hand piro's to glide are relatively easy and no technique is needed (some coaches think).

she is not finishing her piro near handstand and then using the power down to keep the shoulders and elbows over the top of the bar to prepare for the glide.

and of course, growing means that the technique must be more precise. i would suggest NOT doing a straddle glide if that's what she is currently doing. she'll pull a groin or hip flexor.

 

[Short Balding Guy]

Hips are weak... if that is one of the reasons for the brush or hit on the mat then yes abs, glut work will assist the execution. Conditoning exercises abound for these muscle groups. I offer the caveat to check with her coach before working independently on strengthening. The load of in-gym and home could be excessive. We all have experienced the athlete who believes that if the assignment is 25 leg lifts, then 50 will make her better. This belief makes her next rotations and even the next day sub-par.

It may be even more simple to share your DD's statement about her concerns for hitting/brushing the mat with a coach may be a good approach. Being a concerned, curious parent is not discouraged at our gym.

Best, SBG -

 

[iwannacoach]

Check in with her to see if she's fallen victim to a typical gymnastics trap of listening and forgetting on her part, as well as the coach's. For instance, her coach may have gone ito great detail about the need for balance, rhythm, and position during both the piro and clear hip, and done so when she was either smaller or had just one of those two skills leading into the glide kip.

Being either smaller or having one less skill to do may have lulled her into believing she had it all figured out when she was really just enjoying less demanding circumstance. During times like that kids will turn down the volume on whatever the coach has to say about the correct way to move from the handstand into the glide because, well duh, she can do it just fine and the coach just hasn't come around and looked closely enough to notice it's all good.

Maybe she's hearing all the corrections she needs to make the connection work, but she heard those same corrections when the connection being done without hitting her feet during the glide. All through this the coach is repeating the same corrections, see's no change, and concludes that she either doesn't care, hasn't the strength, or just lacks the ability to make the connection work.

She should ask to go through the corrections with a brief verbal explanation of each one's benifit, and then she should make the changes instead of believing she's already made them and is just not that talented.

The reality is that gymnastics is much easier than some of us let it be.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I do wonder when she might find the time to do extra exercises, but thought I would ask anyway. Thanks for the tips, I will let her read the thread and hopefully she can figure out what will help her.

 

[BlairBob]

More L-hang and L-sit.