Category: horizontal bar

individual Bars mats at GAGE

Al Fong’s club has expanded on how they train Bars safely on return from COVID-19.

Gymnasts have their own bath mat to hold everything they need for Bars:

  •  freezer bag for chalk
  • tape
  • water bottle
  • etc.

Do not share. Disinfect after the rotation.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Tom Meadows – H Bar Dismounts

Tom notes that some, including Orozco, use quite a minimal tap and still do world class dismounts.

In fact, most of the Chinese gymnasts are using less tap now.

MOST around the world are still using the Tong Fei (Chinese) tap.

This video starts at the beginning, includes dozens of tips.

I like Tom’s inclusions of common errors.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

liquid chalk for Gymnastics?

UPDATE

I got some feedback on this radical idea.  Male gymnasts tried it at one club but quickly abandoned the idea.  It didn’t work as well for H Bar.

Dr. Bill Sands sent a Safety Data Sheet on Isopropyl Alcohol (50-100%).

Risks include the fact that Isopropyl Alcohol is flammable. And some are allergic to topical alcohol. 

All in all, I don’t think I’d try liquid chalk. 

___ original post:

Steve Arkell linked to this video, a rock climber making her own liquid chalk.

Alcohol is a component, a disinfectant.

I checked with a rock climbing coach who agreed it couldn’t hurt to use chalk with alcohol on reopening after COVID-19.  On climbing walls. And in sports like Gymnastics.

He suggested we could use 100% alcohol in the formula.

When kids are in the Gym we should remind them not to touch their face, as well.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Sam Mikulak – Belle

Triple back with full twist.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

when MEN competed ‘Inbars’

IMHO – Inbars should be valued same as Stalder, Endo. 

It’s not a skill we should be encouraging. 

Growing up in western Canada we never called piked Endo or piked Stalder ‘Inbars‘.

Most often we called them stooped Stalder, stooped Endo.

Sometimes Stalder piked, Endo piked.

The WAG Code currently calls them Clear Pike Circles.  That’s better than Inbars, in my opinion.

These swings are a problem for WAG in 2020 for several reasons:

  • risk of lower back injury due to force of compression at the bottom
  • deduction for flexed feet getting into and out of the swing
  • deduction for lack of hip flexion
  • difficulty in getting back to handstand

They aren’t a problem for MAG and haven’t been since the men’s Code devalued to same as regular Stalder / Endo. We no longer see them in MAG competition.

But there was fugly era when MANY male gymnasts competed them for difficulty.  Very few men had the genetic limb length and physical ability to do them well.  It was painful to watch.

I coached only one who trained them, Davide Bardana. He’s also the best I can recall.

Kyle Shewfelt, years later at the same club, competed them as cleanly as any male gymnast of the day.

Click PLAY or watch Kyle on YouTube. Pirouette angle deductions weren’t as important in that Code as they are today.