Yep. Coach was ready. You never know.
Tap swings (and backward uprise) are surprisingly dangerous, especially for kids who are really trying to get as high as they can.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Category: Gymnastics
Kazuki Minami – AMAZING landings
Check out some of Kazuki Minami’s landings in training and competition at the 2025 Cottbus World Cup.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Feeding the Young Athlete
improving your Handstand
introducing backward hip circle
Training back hip circles with an emphasis on getting into the tap swing in the level 5 routine.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
In addition to the cast to ‘hollow’ position, I like to have beginners do some from cast to ‘archy’ position. (The timing of the late drop is easier.)
Simultaneous with these drills, it would be ideal that the gymnast is learning backward uprise to backward hip circle on straps bar.
If you’re not confident to spot the ‘airplane propeller’, the alternative is to do backward hip circle series without spot until the gymnast can do 2 or 3 in series with speed and tight body. That will take longer, however.
correct position for L-sit
Bruce Craven is an owner of Craven Sports Services.
Currently Bruce assisted male gymnasts at Taiso Gymnastics Saskatoon. As always he’s focused on training the correct muscles for each element. And contracting those muscles in the best sequence.
Click PLAY or watch L-sit training on YouTube. (Flexibility and specific strength.)
Handspring ➙ Salto vaults with “Flyspring Technique”
This is one of the best Handspring forward salto half vaults I’ve ever seen
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
Not the most common technique, Haleigh uses what my mentor Boris called “Flyspring” technique. First contact on the table with hips piked. She OPENS her hips while in contact to increase reaction force.
This technique works best for very fast, very powerful gymnasts. They tend to take off closer to the back of the Board and contact the front of the Table. GOAL = get the hands on the table as quickly as possible.
Forward Walkover progressions
A long and comprehensive video. Of course many are appropriate, as well, for Backward Walkover and combining the two.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
making a Floor Bar
Changing Gymnastics Culture – a review
Dave Tilley’s excellent book, more than 450 pages.
Something for every coach: sports medicine, injury prevention, conditioning, ethics, …
Dave was partly inspired to put his ideas together by the Nassar crimes. He sensed “outdated training methods and a toxic culture can foster abusive practices” in Gym … making it possible for a pedophile to go undetected for decades.
Coaches spent inordinate amounts of time with young children and parents place complete trust in them. Young athletes are taught that their dreams may depend on the approval of a famous trainer or coach. They are also programmed to believe that obeying orders given, without question, is the only path to achieve their dreams.
Together, these truths about certain areas of our sport, while not necessarily inherently malicious in nature, certainly open to the door to abuse and mistreatment of young athletes. …
I certainly recommend you download and check it out for yourself.
Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.
The book is 3 PDFs.
In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.
