Layouts!

[hawaii_gymnast]

Okay so I have noticed that in the USA that when people do back layouts pretty much everyone pulls their arms down by their sides during the rotation. At my club everyone does them with their arms up by their ears in a slight "y" formation. My coach says that it makes it easier to learn to twist with arms up then with them down by your side.
My question is:
are they easier like this?
And is their any sort of deduction for where your arms are in the layout?

It just seems awkward for me to pull my arms down.

 

[Brandon]

Well, dropping you're arms down towards your hips mid-layout can increase your rotation. But once they're down there, you can't really twist, and twisting then bringing your arms down takes a long time to learn. So yeas, it makes layouts slightly easier, and yes, it is easier to learn/do twisting with the arms up. And no, there is no deduction for either way, unless you bend your arms really bad or something like that.

Also, if people are doing it in a Y shape, tell them to keep their arms tighter and do it right!

 

[BetterGymnastThanU]

as long as there both good form do what feels comfortable

 

[CoachTodd]

Okay so I have noticed that in the USA that when people do back layouts pretty much everyone pulls their arms down by their sides during the rotation. At my club everyone does them with their arms up by their ears in a slight "y" formation. My coach says that it makes it easier to learn to twist with arms up then with them down by your side.
My question is:
are they easier like this?
And is their any sort of deduction for where your arms are in the layout?

It just seems awkward for me to pull my arms down.

It sounds like your coach knows what they are doing. I have a very powerful tumbler that has issues with twisting. Each time we get her arms to stay up before she twists, the results are amazing. She's done a few triple fulls into the pit just because "I had time for another one so I kept twisting".

 

[BlairBob]

Yes, it's a common technique to set like a Y and then pull in for a greater twist.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

We all where I am pull our arms down to rotate - it helps me to think of lifting my hips up to my arms to the hip pull. It seems to me an up-arm layout would be pretty hard to rotate around, but I've never tried...as for twisting, there is a girl at my gym who pulls her arms down and to the side in order to twist - she's a level 7 working fulls onto a squishy mat so I guess it works for her. I've never tried back twisting on the actual floor and I just know I'm going to break a foot when I try! I'm an ice skater so I know I'll cross my arms and legs and land on one foot. "Look, Mommy, I did an axel with a flip in the middle!"

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

Thanks i think it just seems so natural for me because that is the only way i have ever done it. As for twisting, I am working fulls on floor and am taught to bring my arms to a "Y" then elbow them in the face (drop arm to side, with elbow out) then punch them (bring other arm in and touch my other hand)

 

[kflipz]

Your coach has good reasoning to this, as he does not want you to twist off the floor, causing you not to get much height, allowing less time to twist. When you bring your arms up your allowing a good high set, and them arms down to twist and rotate fast.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Thanks i think it just seems so natural for me because that is the only way i have ever done it. As for twisting, I am working fulls on floor and am taught to bring my arms to a "Y" then elbow them in the face (drop arm to side, with elbow out) then punch them (bring other arm in and touch my other hand)

sounds like joe rapp is your coach!