Rick McCharles
Every gym has athletes confused about which direction they twist.
Some twist a different direction on forward somersaults than backward somersaults.
This can be dangerous.
Why do some kids end up with this problem? And how do coaches prevent it?
Check my article (on-line and .PDF versions) called: preventing barani confusion.
Confusion about the actual direction of twist on a Barani (forward somersault with half twist) is a real and common problem. Many gymnasts twist in the wrong direction when learning Barani; that is, a gymnast attempting to twist to the left actually twists to the right! … read more
Feel free to post this article in the gym, reprint or distribute the article in any way you wish. But be sure to give credit to the author and link back to the source.
photo – Anna Dogonadze (GER) – from a terrific gallery by Martin Mooij
5 comments ↓
hi i`m a portuguese trampoline coach,and your article is very good.
about progressions i use the following:
-back drop, half twist to feet
-3/4 front all positions
-and then front somersalt with a very very late twist.
about determination of twist direction,one of the top russian trampoline coaches says that left-handeds should twist to the right,and right-handeds should twist to the left.the reason was that in multiple somersalts with multiple twists, it could apear confusion..
[...] If not, check my post on “preventing barani confusion“. [...]
Hello I am a French coach (so sorry for my bad English !), coaching artistic gymnasts and some tumblers (some compeeting at international meetings). I don’t think there can be any confusion betwin twist and barani :
1 – The barani we can see in tumbling is there to replace a round off, and the gymnasts always do it as they do a round off.
Even if techniquely you teach it more as a half twist, in fact it is totaly different, so there can’t be any confusion.
And anyway there we will never have any evolution on that element, so I think it would be just nonsense to try to change the side of that element.
2 – The straight barani as you teach it in trampoline it totaly different, as it is really a prep to the full twist (or more). Here of course you really have to find which way is the “natural” one.
According to my experience, most of the gymnasts twist the same way they do a jump full turn in the air (I would say roughly about 90%).
So that jump full turn is my main test, usualy I don’t need to do more than this. If the result is not obvious, I sometimes use other ones, or we just try some twists on both sides to see where the gymnast feels more comfortable.
I don’t care about what foot or hand they use in the round off, as I never heard about any serious scientific study which has ever prooved that there is any correlation.
And anyway, I know a lot of gymnasts twisting left and cartwheeling with right foot, or the opposite. So if ever there is any correlation betwin those 2 elements, it is probably not important enough to trust it.
Event if it is 80%, as I read on this website, that means that there can be 20% mistakes if you just watch the round off to say that a gymnast is twisting right or left.
Actually nobody can knows why a gymnast uses his right or left leg to do a cartwheel or a roundoff. Is it coming from different brain physiologies ? Is it because one leg is stronger ? Does it have something to do with the fact of being wright or left handed ? Or maybe right or left eye ???
Some coaches also say that they force their gymnasts to twist depending on their round off because of the Tsukahara twist vault.
Can you seriously make a gymnast always twist his bad side, just because maybe one day he might have to do tsuk twist on the vault ??? I don’t think so…
My 1st preps for the twist are always based on forward 3/4 of straight front somersaults, so it is usualy easy to see which way they twist the better.
If you mind they initiate the twist late and only using the aerial technique (cinétic moment transfert), there can’t be any confusion with a barani.
For the very few gymnasts struggling to find their good side, it’s a bit longer but they always can find it after a few trainings.
3 – The tuck or pike barani as we see in artistic or trampoline can be used to end a difficult skill, a front in barani out for example. So because of that, it’s better to do it the same way the gymnast does his straight front twist (cf. my prep above).
So according to me it is judicious to start with the straight twist before they learn the tuck and pike barani. Then your gymnasts can’t be confused, as they are already well used with their twist.
[...] About half of those problems stem from “barani confusion“. The other half are kids that twist “too early“. [...]
[...] This way they get a foundation of “late twisting”. And it helps avoid the dread Barani Confusion. [...]
Leave a Comment