This low single rail drill helps gymnast beginning to learn a higgins to understand how to transfer their body weight over the post arm. Gymnasts must aim to keep a straight body line, and during the turn, maintain eye contact with the bar for catching the rail. Athletes with flexible shoulders can finish the skill with their eaglegrip closer to shoulder-width for better presentation and a more ample swing.
Low single rail full pirouette drills can be trained to a mixed-grip first, and then to a complete eagle grip. Some of the goals are to keep the body fully stretched during the turn without any arch or pike, and when coming down, to land straight on the soft mat instead of crooked to either the left or right side of a perfect perpendicular line in relation to the rail. The gymnasts can also learn how to keep visual contact with the rail to for catching it, and aim to grab the bar close to shoulder-width.
In this drill the gymnast begins with both hands in an eagle grip and jumps up to a handstand with eagle grip support afterwards to land flat down while maintaining a fully streched position and without loosing the grip on the bar. The drill can also be performed bouncing from a board, but either way, one of the goals is to show a vertically supported handstand without any pike before falling down. In these examples the male gymnast is moving over a little too quick before showing a fully extended vertical handstand. For eagle giants male gymnasts tend to keep the head neutral during the handstand support while many female gymnast approach the skill keeping a visual contact with the rail. Either way is valid as long as the body shows a great extended line during the eagle grip handstand support.
In this stalder drill the aim is to land in a pancake position with the arms straight and shoulders pushing and stretching away from the bar. Gymnast that have some personal difficulty with the pancake position need to develop better flexibilty to be able to perform great stalders. During the stalder drill the gymnast should not rush to straddle right on the handstand but planche down a little and then push away while moving into the pancake position. Keeping good form in any training drill helps to establish long lasting excellent presentation habits.
This is another example of the useful variety of bar skills that single rails help to introduce and develop. The goal is to jump back and get familiar with catching the bar and immediately push away to facilitate a good swing for any subsequent skill following the reverse hecht.
Horizontal bar reverse hechts require a quick opening of the shoulder angle before the body swings down beyond the horizontal line. Training low single rail back bails with the shoulders opening prior to landing down on the mat helps to develop an understanding of this technical action. The shoulder angle opening is combined with a tight arch that must not be loose on the back and knees.
Though male gymnasts tend to perform the higgins while already bailing down, this skill can be performed beginning in the handstand support as optimally seen on the uneven bars. Spotting the gymnasts on a low single rail allows them to experience the body weight transfer and technical motions required to move and turn from an overgrip on to an eagle-grip position.
Straps training is another great tool to introduce and refine many uneven and horizontal bar skills. Coaches must teach their gymnasts how to use the straps correctly and in a safe manner. These clips are examples of the proper straps and hands placement to train over grip skills. Notice how the hands after going through the strap loop grab the bar on the inside of the hanging straps. 2nd clip Look very caferul here at the right way to hang the straps over the bar before the hands go through. 3rd clip 4th clip Observe again the gymnast straps preparation and placement to train overgrip skills. It is extremely important that a gymnast never attempts to perform any skill with straps that are too loose and not holding his wrists firmly mainly because in such circumstances his hands can easily slip off the bar and out of the strap loops with potential for a serious rip off the bar accident. Until the gymnasts are very familiar with straps training and safety procedures coaches must carefully supervise the athletes making use of this excellent learning device.
The first dynamic step in straps training is learning how to progressively increase the basic swing amplitude. The hollow to tight arch motions to execute a tap while moving through the bottom are similar to the regular swings with straps but wearing the straps correctly the gymnasts can afford very big back and forth swings without any fear of ripping off the bar. One difference between regular swings and strap swings that the gymnast must be made aware of is that with the straps on there is no need to regrasp at the peak of each back swing because the straps prevent the hands from sliding out of a good grip while swinging back and forth. Once the gymnasts return to regular swings with straps they must regrip at the peak of each back swing or they can rip off the bar easily. Also during all strap training it is very important to keep the arms straight. since the gymnast can not jump off the bar to bail out of a problem keeping the arms straight and having a tight body makes the athlete swing in the opposite direction if a skill is not completed. if the arms bent close to a handstand or the body ges loose the gymnast may be unable to avoid collapsing down on the bar. 4th clip Take another look at the gymnasts hand at the peak of the back swing and notice how the athlete is not performing any kind of obvious regrasping to begin swinging down again. Training on the strapss allows the gymnasts to concentrate on good body positions technical motions and powerful taps without holding back on the swings amplitude.
Strap giants help gymnasts to understand the tap actions timing and improve their body positions during the skill. Before attempting strap back gaints the gymnasts need some experience with giants with spot and big swings with straps. Turning is not an option. Just swing down in the opposite direction. At the begining it is also wise for the coach to stand on a spotting surface with adequate height to assist the athlete in case they get loose and begin to collapse against the bar. Strap back gaints should start from building increasingly biger swings instead of from a cast. To finish a set the athletes must be instructed to stop tapping and keep the arms straight until the body does not make the giant over and swings back down with decreasing momentum.
