Category: spotting

Keeping Gymnasts SAFE

Chalk It Up Buttercup is the YouTube channel of 8-year-old Buttercup.

In this excellent video Buttercup and her coaches talk about keeping gymnasts safe, especially on appropriate and inappropriate touching.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This is the video I’ll be showing to kids. It’s relatable and balanced. #BurnItAllDown types seem to want to ban all spotting. That’s dangerous, of course.

(via Aimee B)

TeamGym landing mats for Vault?

How many Artistic gymnasts would prefer to land on this mat system?

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

 
Michelle in the comments notes that these are actually not the official teamgymnastics mats. In competition the mats are harder.

(via @GymPOWER)

BEFORE you teach flyaway

Visiting 40-50 gyms a year I see a common dynamic. Young girls doing tucked flyaway with spot off the low rail of Bars.

Fun. Easy. Seems, at the time, to work.

But that’s not the best way to teach flyaway. Instead use a wide range of drills that don’t require spotting. Here’s one set-up I like, appropriate for kids as young as age-5.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If you don’t have Rings, I’d highly recommend you buy a set. Fitness Rings are very inexpensive. Hang those on a rail at just the right height for your kids.