Today’s topics: I wanted to share a few videos of drills for round off dismounts on beam. I’ve talked a little bit about this before, but I feel really strongly that when gymnasts start back-tucking out of their cartwheel/back walkover/back handspring it should be on a low or medium beam. I want them to learn that the dismount HAS TO go up. If you let them learn to flip off of a high beam most likely the dismounts won’t have a whole lot of UP, and when you want to turn it into a layout/add twists you’re going to have issues.

This first video is a great drill for a couple reasons. 1) Soft beam – the hardness of the beam can make gymnasts less aggressive on dismounts especially at first. Making the beam more forgiving allows them to learn to be aggressive. 2) It’s are going up. She isn’t just landing on a surface level with the beam – she’s actually having to go up. That’s exactly the muscle memory we want to be drilling.

This second video is Tammy Biggs talking a little bit about round off dismounts. It’s really, really important to emphasize that mountain climb especially when making the transition from cartwheel to round off dismounts. Again, I like that they’re doing dismounts on medium beam, but I also like the set-up with the resi-mat + cheese on the high beam. If you are going to make a high beam set-up I would start with that.

In a nutshell:

1. Make sure they can do it on the floor. No beam – flat surface.

2. When you put it on the beam start going to a flat surface, that ensures that they aren’t changing what they did on the floor.

3. Then start going from the beam – UP to something. This ensures that there will be hip rise and that amplitude deductions will be minimal.

4. Have fun with them – let kids play around. Pull out the beam extenders or put some panel mats around the low beam and let your 4s and 5s start working dismounts. It will go a long ways to building their confidence.

5. If you still want more help with dismounts – think about bringing a Swing Big! clinic to your gym. We can work on all of the topics you feel your gymnasts would get the most out of.

Train hard!