E
Ex member
How do you define strength and flexibility in young gymnasts - aged 5-7 roughly? I am interested to know what they mean by good or natural strength and flexibility at that age range.
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It seems like, except for a few exceptions, kids either excel at one OR the other.
Generally I/we have had requirements per level.
This is for competitive track kids.
4yo-
rope climb 1/2 way up with feet. Roughly 6 feet.
Test splits, ideally 120-150 degrees. Elevated bridge with straight arms, hands behind shoulders.
HS on wall to stomach for 30s.
20m sprint of 5s or under. It's necessarily easy getting those kids from 4-6yo to fully sprint because of their age and motivating to run as fast as possible.
Possibly standing broad jump instead of standing vertical jump test.
Hollow hold- I'd be happy if they can hold it with straight legs, hands on thighs for 20s.
Can do a pullover from standing.
5 Hanging leg lifts to L. More concern is about developing L-sit and V-ups. 5 V-ups? Momentary L-sit.
Not really concerned about pushup ability. Moreso, PB support of 15s.
5yo-
rope climb all the way up with feet and down. hopefully will go all the way up
Splits 150 degrees. Slightly elevated bridge with shoulders over hands.
HS on wall to stomach for 45s
20m sprint of 4.5 or under. Not exactly easy for tiny legs.
Broad jump, not really all that concerned about this at this point.
Hollow hold 30-45s
Pullover with bar higher than head.
15 V-ups, 5 Hanging Leg lifts to 45 degrees above horizontal. 5-10s L-sit/hang.
PB support of 30-45s. Able to do elevated pushups on mat or low beam.
6yo-
2 rope climbs in the row with feet without rest. Working on being able to pull themself off floor while starting in a straddle. 3-5 pullups, any grip.
2 skin the cats on rings
HS on wall to stomach for 60s. Free HS for 2s some of the time. Press HS on elevated mats.
20m sprint of 4.3 or under. Not too concerned with broad jump, but ideally beyond their height in inches.
Hollow hold 60s
Near long hang pullover with arms bent on mat under bar.
25 V-ups, HLL 2-3 reps toes touch bar, slight knee bend. 15s L-sit/hang
PB support of 60s. 5 strict pushups on floor, chest to floor or low beam
Splits 165 degrees ( that'd be great, anything is better than 135/150 ).
Bridge on floor, hands behind shoulder with knees bent.
7yo-
4 rope climbs with feet wo rest. 1/2 rope climb in straddle would be great. Heck, if it's even a light spot.
4 skin the cats on rings
HS on wall to stomach for 90s. Free HS consistently 1-2s, max of 5-10s. Straddle press HS working on straddle-L press HS with spot.
Hollow hold 90s
Sprint of 4.15s
Long Hang pullover
35 V-ups, HLL 10x toes touching bars. 30s L-sit/hang. Possibly 1 L hang to V on bar.
3-5 dips on PB. 10-15 strict pushups.
Splits near 180
Bridge on floor with shoulders over or beyond hands with straight legs.
These would be 10/10 scores for competitive track kids/pre team or on L2-4.
What are we looking for?
5-6 year olds from rec, wanting to make it to the preteam:
- HANDSTAND line! We try to look for kids who have naturally straight handstand line when doing it with stomach to wall
- Pull over by themselves or with a little bit of help
- One chin up would be great
- Bridge with straight hands and straight shoulder angle
- Maybe one split near the ground
- Rope climb with feet
- Agility and explosive takeoffs. This can easily be evaluated when you put a kid go round a obstacle course with boxes, rails, spring boards etc
- Straight lines overall, able to point toes and knees and able to do a graceful salute
- One or more leg lifts all the way up on stall bars would be good
7-8 year olds from rec:
All the above but also
- Several chin ups
- Several leg lifts
- Hanging pull over
- Able to climb rope without feet 5-20 steps
- Good bridge and kick over
- Splits down
Kinda sounds like maybe strength is more important than flexibility?
I was a very "bendy" kid. My older siblings used to love torturing me. At 3, my 6 yr old brother would sit on my back, facing my feet, grab them, and lay down (arching his back over my head)-pulling my legs with him. From there, my 8 yr old sister would take my feet and let my brother work his way off of me so they could put my feet on the ground by my ears. [They were EVIL] Then, they would let go of 1 leg and see how close they could get it to back down where it belonged. They also stretched my legs with me on my back as far as they would go. I can STILL do my left leg splits (which I demonstrate to the team girls a couple times a year to show them it IS possible, even if you are bigger). So, I don't know if my flexibility is NATURAL... or if it was TRAINED into me. I do know that my strength was natural though. At 3, I could pick my sister up and walk around with her. Now neither of my gymmies are very flexible, but they are strong. YG was 5 (and 40 lbs) and could pick up every single girl on the team, including HS girls that weighed over 110 lbs. At 2, she had climbed to the top of the rope. She "sat" up there, swinging around, for 5 minutes until HC came over and told her that, if she didn't come down, she would never be allowed to climb the rope again. Her teacher had never had anyone in her class (supposed to be 3 & 4 year olds) climb that high before - she usually had to encourage them to go more than 3 feet off the ground.
So in answer to the O/P- I wouldn't be looking for kids that could do stuff straight away, I'd be looking for the ones who made the biggest improvements over several months. I think kids need to be taught how to use their strength in particular before you can tell whether they're "natural"