Skill Development
SAMPLE LESSON
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Going from Horizontal to Horizontal Travel
Do not be in a rush or impatiant to connect skills. When connecting horizontal tumbling the athlete must be able to perform each skill isolated. Begin connections slowly and if neccessary with a pause in between. As awareness grows confidence will increase and the speed will increase naturally.
The greatest error made when learning to connect is trying to increase the speed of the connection without the awareness and confidence of performing the skills independantly of one another.
This impatience to learn to connect leads the athlete to either rush or delay their timing. Such inconsistency leads to loading at the wrong time, traveling too much or too little, shifting early or late, and launching the wrong direction.
Have patience for connections, safety first, let time progress the athlete naturally based on their proficiency of each skill.
COM Horz. Travel
Max Acceleration
Flight Path
Fixed Axis Rotation
Sequence: Horizontal to Horizontal Travel
Horizontal to Horizontal connections are skills connecting horizontal travel such as round off connected to back handspring or front handspring connected to front handspring. The principals below apply to all skills connected to create horizontal travel.
LOAD
Athlete loads the surface on the Down or Fall
TRAVEL
The COM travels from the Down to Fall
SHIFT
Open into Horiz. Down
Athlete is shifting on top of their COM
LAUNCH
On the Fall
Athletes upper half moves out of the way so the lower half may rise without rasing the COM
What you most commonly will see...
Load on the RIse
Squat to Pivot
SLOW Rotation
What happens when a BHS Loads on the Rise?
What is the Problem?
Load on the Rise
Pivot is Rising
Pike to Arch direction is traveling up
What is the Solution?
Load on the Fall
Pivot Needs to Fall
Pike to Arch direction must travel down
The Dangers: Because the load is on the rise the center of mass needs more time to travel to get into the fall position. Depending on the surface will determine how much time is available, however there likely will not be enough time to pivot so the athlete will bend their knees and squat to shorten the body and pivot the body faster. The next issue this squat then creates is the need for the chest to move faster into position on the throw. However because there is less time to cover a greater distance the arms will need to bend and the body will arch more significantly in order to attempt to get into position.
The result of this chain reaction of adjustments is often a high floaty back handspring with a heavy fall. Falling out of the sky with slow rotation means the arms are likely to collapse and the body will fold or crumple onto itself increasing the risk of various injury.
Free Axis Rotation
Sequence: Horizontal Flight
How high and far should a skill travel during the flight phase? The two variables determining the arch of the flight path are acceleration and launch position. If the acceleration is greater the distance will be greater. The longer the launch position is on the fall the farther the athlete will travel.
A Back Handspring's COM in general should travel slightly below it's position when the athlete is standing. The distance of COM travel should be roughly 1 and a half body lengths. Variances are based upon the changes in the skill sequence.
Flight Path: Acceleration vs. Launch Angle
The flight path is dictated by the athletes ability to increase momentum by accelerating throughout the skill sequence.
TRAVEL TOO LOW
Rotation begins to decrease so the athlete shrinks their shape to conserve the rotation on the fall.
JUST RIGHT
The horizontal acceleration, launch angle, height, length, and timing is all proportional and in sync.
TRAVEL TOO HIGH
The rotation stalls on the rise causing the athlete to shrink their shape at the Apex in order to conserve rotation on the fall.
TRAVEL TOO HIGH
Alternate Ending: DANGER HIGH RISK
Going so high the body fails to rotate may lead to severe injury such as broken bones, head and neck trauma, and other various unfortunate outcomes.
Position: CLOSED to OPEN to CLOSED
CLOSED
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
CLOSED
How to Create "Fall"
it is common athletes who hesitate to connect BHS cannot see their feet upon loading the surface.
Build confidence by slowing the skills down so that the athlete can see their feet before initiating the shift to launch
Rotational Shift: Rise, Apex, Fall
SHIFT EARLY
Toe pull (closing / pike) early making it difficult to find straight at the Apex.
SHIFT EARLY
Toe pull (closing / pike) early making it difficult to find straight at the Apex.
JUST RIGHT
Shift timing is in sync with the Rise, Apex and Fall of Rotation.
SHIFT LATE
The athlete stays arched through the Apex and passes through Vertical Arched causing the need to pike down on the landing horizontal on the fall.
A
On the Fall
COM is leading
Athlete gets on top of COM
B
On the Rise
Athlete is on top of COM
C
After the Apex
Athlete is leading the COM
D
At the Apex
Athlete Shifts to on top of the COM
DANGER: Shifting the Wrong Direction
(1) It is quite common the athlete sits or falls into the load phase and is moving into a proper flight path.
(2) And then upon the launch phase the athlete stands up changing the flight path entirely and increase the risk of injury and failure.
(3) The shifting shapes are correct however the direction of the shift is wrong. In Fig. (A) the athlete is in a closed position falling off balance. As the athlete shifts from closed position to open position they travel forwards from off balance back into the direction of on balance seen in Fig. (B)
DANGER: Shifting the Wrong Time
When the athlete pulls their toes early in the flight phase the body will collapse on itself. Depending how early or late the shift happens will determine the severity of the collapse.
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