WAG Kinesthetic / Body Awareness

[gymmomx2]

For the coaches out there (and parents too) - from your experience, around what age does the average kid develop the kinesthetic awareness necessary to have nice form and to apply corrections?

Does gender matter? Is this mostly genetic or can it be sped up by early training?

Do the kids who develop this later eventually catch up to those phenoms that have great form at an early age?

 

[momof5]

My 12 year old still struggles with this. Poor air awareness too. It has gotten better through experience though.

 

[profmom]

As the tumbling's gotten harder, my daughter's gotten better. I think she just does not have the power to be able to do layouts and twists without doing the entries with better, tighter form. She's been working on some front twisting on tramp and tumbl trak, and her front 1/2 is straighter and higher than her simple front layout, which looks better than her FHS-FT did last year, which in turn is better than a simple FT for her. Weird but true.

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

I never had great form but I was able to get from terrible form to okay form by about age 14.

I never seemed to develop good aerial awareness though.

 

[Haismom]

I love this group I learn new things everytime I log in... My dd never struggled with this, from the first cartwheel she has that competition form... Now she struggles with blind landings, and hates back tumbling, loves forward tumbling... But always is conscious of her lines, or better is unconscious of her lines they just happen...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

For the coaches out there (and parents too) - from your experience, around what age does the average kid develop the kinesthetic awareness necessary to have nice form and to apply corrections? there is no determinant age. it is an ongoing process. it is all tied to the vestibular system.

Does gender matter? Is this mostly genetic or can it be sped up by early training? gender is not a consideration. it is all genetic (biology). theoretically it can be sped up by early training. but doing so against the fundamental stage development of the human body can cause problems and could stress the vestibular system when that system at certain stages are not mature or developed enough to handle some of the skills introduced.

Do the kids who develop this later eventually catch up to those phenoms that have great form at an early age?

form, yes. it is always a work in progress. but the gymnastics difficulty, no. when you consider the vestibular system, muscle twitch, flexibility, aptitude, the 3 body types endomorph/mesomorph/ectomorph and the ability to generate power and speed there are just some bodies that are born to do sports/gymnastics and others will never be able to catch up to them.

 

[gymmomx2]

Dunno, glad to see your reply, I was hoping you would chime in!

Is the vestibular system tied only to awareness of body position in the air? If a child is not aware that she has bent legs in a cartwheel, is that also related to the vestibular system or some other kind of body awareness?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yes, peripherally. the muscle/tendon/ligament/bone musculature are connected to the nervous system. and the nervous system is connected to everything above the neck...brain/eyes/hearing/vestibular system.

proprioception (the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium) is proximal to the vestibular system and they work in concert.

it's all connected!

 

[Faith]

My dd struggled with form on extension moves- took her a lot of time to learn straight legs/pointed toes on stuff like bwo, split leaps, and press handstand.

She seems to have natural form on dynamic moves though- bars were easy, her straight back somi is lovely, and her shapes through twisting and double somis are great- pikes have lovely straight legs and toes.

As for catching up to the phenoms- ime it's difficult, purely because phenoms tend to be taken out of the pack and coached differently (toward elite) from a young age. Different hours, different coaching = get so far ahead by an early age.

 

[LJL07]

I'm glad you asked this. I thought the body awareness thing was age-related too, but I'm not so sure now. My littlest dd is young but is aware of her form and it's naturally pretty. Then my older daughter has great speed and power, picks up the skills quickly, etc. but the body awareness keeps her from being super spectacular. Not sure what can help with this. Holding out hope it will get better with age, but maybe not...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

everything gets better with age. if only you could see my good looks!

 

[LJL07]

yes, peripherally. the muscle/tendon/ligament/bone musculature are connected to the nervous system. and the nervous system is connected to everything above the neck...brain/eyes/hearing/vestibular system.

proprioception (the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium) is proximal to the vestibular system and they work in concert.

it's all connected!

So would struggling more with turns on the beam/pirouettes and even on floor be more proprioception than vestibular ? You would think that the form wouldn't be great on cartwheels/walk overs etc, but those are very pretty. Have you seen kids who pick up tumbling and bar stuff quickly struggle with turns (more controlled movement I guess)? And then see it get better?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

So would struggling more with turns on the beam/pirouettes and even on floor be more proprioception than vestibular ? yes You would think that the form wouldn't be great on cartwheels/walk overs etc, but those are very pretty. Have you seen kids who pick up tumbling and bar stuff quickly struggle with turns (more controlled movement I guess)? yes And then see it get better? yes

 

[flips123]

I tend to struggle a lot with body awareness. I have very good form but I never know where I am in the air. I wonder if this is because I started gymnastics later, after my awareness was mostly developed not in the gymnastics sense? Anyone?

 

[2gymnastand1soccerplayer]

It took my oldest dd until she was 13 to figure out body awareness, I honestly thought she would never get it, where as my youngest dd who is 7 is struggling with this, she has days where she has okay form but even more days where she has no idea where her body is

 

[iwannacoach]

everything gets better with age. if only you could see my good looks!

YIKES!!!

 

[LucyTRA]

It's so variable - I've seen five and six year olds with great awareness who make corrections instantly and perfectly, and I've seen 16 and 17 year olds who were so uncoordinated I quizzed them about whether they had been drinking (I'm serious, I coach at a 'youth event' once a month where they encourage feral teenagers to come to the sports centre instead of going out drinking, only they often opt to do both...) but found (beyond reasonable doubt anyway!) that they weren't drunk, they just had zero body awareness.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Becauseisaid]

Feral teenagers??! Bwahahaaa!!!

I actually put my DD in gymnastics when she was 3 for the express purpose of it helping her with body awareness. I know how hard it can be to control your body when it's growing so fast. If only I had known....

We watched one meet this past year where 70% of the girls stumbled going up the podium steps to get awards. The ongoing joke when one of the girls trips over something is "Yup...must be a gymnast.". LOL!

 

[profmom]

The worst injury on the entire boys' team this whole year was a nasty broken ankle that put the kid out for the whole meet season. He broke it walking home from the bus stop.