Gymnastics Coaching.com

male gymnasts better than female at landing

November 21, 2014 3:04 am

Male gymnasts are, as a group, far more skilled at landing.

That’s partly strength. Partly technique.

Uchimura STICK

Compare Uchimura’s soft-as-a-cat landing to this surprisingly typical WAG landing.

Aliya landing

What Aliya did on that Beam dismount was to “punch’ on landing, instead of bringing impact forces to zero. She had no controlled landing. WAG judges are far too lenient on landing deductions (aside from the stupid ‘chest low’ rule). WAG gives very little reward to excellent landings.

Dr. George advises the gymnast see the landing as soon as possible. Reduce forces to zero by absorbing over time and distance.

Leg Impact and Landing

USA WAG has added a 0.1 “stick” bonus for 2014. Let’s see if that helps. Gummi points out that the stick bonus may also result in more injuries in competition, especially on twisting landings like Amanar.

related – Coaching Youth Gymnastics by USA Gymnastics: SAFE landings

(via wogymnastika)

___ Update:

Here is Aliya landing that dismount in the Olympics. Quite a bit better.