Tricks to keep legs straight on cartwheel??

[frostedpink]

Calling all gymnastics people!

My 6 year old is learning cartwheels, and the coach won't pass her up to the next level until she can learn to keep her legs straight. I don't know what else to do to get her to keep them straight!

Do you guys have any ideas?

And what makes it even harder is that the coach makes her do the cartwheel on a raised mat (the cartwheel-a-nator) where her hands go on the raised mat. I personally think this makes it even harder to do the skill but she refuses to budge on this.

 

[DeaverTex]

I'm really reaching here, but what about Ace wrapping both knees? They'll still bend, but not nearly as easily. Maybe all she needs is a little reminder and a little assistance, which this might supply.



First world problems!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Tell her to think of herself as an X. She must concentrate on keeping the X nice and straight or the X will collapse. Also, stand nice and tall before she starts. She has to continue to do that until it is second nature. It will come. Good luck!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Back in the day my coach whacked my legs when they were bent. Obviously that isn't a good option these days. Try practicing at home and stopping her mid cartwheel. Once she can get halfway through the cartwheel with straight legs, finishing the cartwheel with straight legs is pretty easy. And have her think about straightening her legs the minute each foot leaves the ground.

It is a body awareness thing, and once it clicks it becomes second nature. It just takes longer to click in some kids than others.

 

[bdcp]

I taught gymnastics when I was in HS. The best thing i can think of is to "spot" her and hold her legs straight each time she does a cartwheel. Just grab her ankles as her legs to up and pull a little to keep her legs straight. Then, you should be able to just to touch her legs as she does it to remind her. She will learn. Repetition is the key in gymnastics. Her not keeping her legs straight is a reflex that makes her feel safer.

 

[klmrph]

Search You Tube, I'm sure there are some videos out there.

 

[Smuggs]

have her try and concentrate on pointing her toes. It may help with the knees

 

[Jaime4004]

Practice, practice, practice..... And one day it clicks.
Have you tried showing her a video of herself? I did this with my son so he could see that his knees really were bent on some skills. He was able to fix things better after seeing it himself.

 

[U2_rocks!]

Certain muscles in the legs need to be used in order to lock the knee so that the leg looks straight - she may not know what it feels like to use those muscles to the extent that they need to be used.

There are some things you can do:

- have her sit on the floor with legs out front together, toes pointed as much as she can and knees locked tight; then you raise one of her legs at a time off the floor a bit (still seated) with her keeping the leg tightly straight; tell her to remember what that feels like. Get her to feel with her hand which muscles had to tighten up to make that happen.

- practice front kicks and back kicks, keeping the kicking and supporting leg both straight and toe pointed. This is very useful for all sorts of gymnastics skills.

- get her to stretch her hamstrings out often - tight hamstrings can make it harder to get the knee completely locked in a straight position.

Good luck! My DD, who recently quit her competitive gymnastics team, always had trouble with bent legs. She has amazing muscle form but tight hamstrings, and even when she thought she was pulling her legs tightly straight they just didn't look that way. She also hated to practice at home and didn't really try all that hard to fix her bent leg issue. It's going to be up to your DD whether she really wants to try to fix this or not.

 

[frostedpink]

Wow, great advice guys! Thank you!! I will try some of these techniques at home this week for sure.

 

[cjbcam]

My DD(10) made the competitive team this year. She was always going as fast as she could through the cartwheel. Her coach made her slow it down and concentrate on muscle movement. Making her point her toes really helps to straighten her legs because it gets her thinking about it.

 

[SydSim]

I used to do them up against a wall, that way I could go full out and not be scared that I would fall on my back.

 

[Hrhpd]

Calling all gymnastics people!

My 6 year old is learning cartwheels, and the coach won't pass her up to the next level until she can learn to keep her legs straight. I don't know what else to do to get her to keep them straight!

Do you guys have any ideas?

And what makes it even harder is that the coach makes her do the cartwheel on a raised mat (the cartwheel-a-nator) where her hands go on the raised mat. I personally think this makes it even harder to do the skill but she refuses to budge on this.

Lots of great suggestions, so I will just add, if you don't trust the coach to do the coaching, then it is time to find a different gym. Not being snarky about this, but if you are already asking about cartwheels and don't like how the coach is teaching them, you need to find a gym where you are more comfortable. No sense in paying a coach if it is not the approach you are comfortable with.

 

[gincz24]

When my daughter was learning her cartwheel the teacher would put stickers on her knees so it would remind her to keep them straight.

 

[puffkin]

Not the same thing, but in swimming my DS8 has a very pretty butterfly stroke, except when he breathes. He lifts his head up too high. We, his coaches, everyone, have told him over and over and over to keep his chin down on breath strokes. He insists he is, but every time he breaks his stroke rhythm to breathe which ultimately costs him time.

So, I videotaped him at practice on the ipad and then we sat and watched it. It finally sunk in to him that he wasn't keeping his chin down and it is starting to improve tremendously. But with his age group we have noticed over and over that the kids do something great for awhile and then slip back into bad habits. So we continually break out the ipad to tape them and then they can review it. It really does help them see what they are doing wrong.

 

[frostedpink]

Lots of great suggestions, so I will just add, if you don't trust the coach to do the coaching, then it is time to find a different gym. Not being snarky about this, but if you are already asking about cartwheels and don't like how the coach is teaching them, you need to find a gym where you are more comfortable. No sense in paying a coach if it is not the approach you are comfortable with.

I appreciate your feedback, and no snarkiness taken. I guess what is frustrating is this gym has several different coaches, therefore she ends up with a different coach for each 8 week session. This particular coach we have currently is the only one that has absolutely insisted on using the raised mat. The other ones would let the girls do them on the floor if they felt more comfortable.

She is super-super close to having a great cartwheel on the floor. But now having to go backwards to doing them on the raised mat...well, she'll never pass to the next level now! DH even stopped the coach after class last night and (nicely) asked if DD could do them on the floor instead and the coach said no. So yes, we do need to respect her as the coach, but it's frustrating as a parent when I know she can do the skill better and here we are paying for her to be at the same level for almost a year now. She's more than ready to move up on all the other skills.

I would like to see more consistency among the coaches then on how they teach and evaluate the skills. And I wish they could spend more time actually spotting and coaching each girl on the skill. They have 8 kids in each class. Each girl probably spends 2 minutes each class doing the cartwheels (before they rotate to the next station). During that 2 minutes, the coach may or may not happen to walk by the cartwheel area and spot or coach. How is she ever supposed to improve the skill without any direct coaching or spotting?!

But, I will take these ideas home and work on them each night with her and see if we can make some progress on that darn raised mat. It's a great gym, I have no doubts. But after reading what I've written I clearly have some frustrations too lol! I guess I'm the arm chair quarterback.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

It sounds like you need to talk to the gym director if there is that much inconsistency between coaches at the same level.
However, I would bet this coach is preparing them for ariels, where they will need the same strength that they use to get over the mat to do the cartwheels with no hands.

 

[Hrhpd]

I appreciate your feedback, and no snarkiness taken. I guess what is frustrating is this gym has several different coaches, therefore she ends up with a different coach for each 8 week session. This particular coach we have currently is the only one that has absolutely insisted on using the raised mat. The other ones would let the girls do them on the floor if they felt more comfortable.

She is super-super close to having a great cartwheel on the floor. But now having to go backwards to doing them on the raised mat...well, she'll never pass to the next level now! DH even stopped the coach after class last night and (nicely) asked if DD could do them on the floor instead and the coach said no. So yes, we do need to respect her as the coach, but it's frustrating as a parent when I know she can do the skill better and here we are paying for her to be at the same level for almost a year now. She's more than ready to move up on all the other skills.

I would like to see more consistency among the coaches then on how they teach and evaluate the skills. And I wish they could spend more time actually spotting and coaching each girl on the skill. They have 8 kids in each class. Each girl probably spends 2 minutes each class doing the cartwheels (before they rotate to the next station). During that 2 minutes, the coach may or may not happen to walk by the cartwheel area and spot or coach. How is she ever supposed to improve the skill without any direct coaching or spotting?!

But, I will take these ideas home and work on them each night with her and see if we can make some progress on that darn raised mat. It's a great gym, I have no doubts. But after reading what I've written I clearly have some frustrations too lol! I guess I'm the arm chair quarterback.

Does the gym offer private lessons?

I find with my daughter, one 30 minute private lesson with our favorite coach, can bring more progress than than entire 8 week class.

 

[frostedpink]

Does the gym offer private lessons?

I find with my daughter, one 30 minute private lesson with our favorite coach, can bring more progress than than entire 8 week class.

Good point. They offer private lessons in the summer and over Christmas break (which I didn't know about...and I read all the communications they send home). So I missed that opportunity. Argh.