In bar stalder drills

Today I thought I would do a quick post on in bar stalder drills because if you’ve got flexible kids – this can be a really great skill for them but I feel like a lot of people don’t know where to start when it comes to them.

This first one is really simple and easy – you can use it for in bar stalders AND normal stalders. It gets gymnasts to get their feet through and understand that their shoulders have to drop backwards after.

A nice drill for teaching gymnasts to keep pressure on the bar is this one that Mary Lee Tracy posted. That’s going to be one of the most important parts of the in bar stalder is making sure that they are keeping pressure on the bar.

Once they can do that you can start adding a bar into the mix for the first half of the stalder. I would make sure that your gymnasts can do both of these sets of drills before letting them drop in on a floor bar just so you know their is less chance of them hitting their feet.

The next two videos are the same drill but at different angles. There are a couple reasons I really like this drill. a) it generates some speed before the gymnast has to go to handstand b) the gymnast has the confidence to go completely around the bar in a pike position without her feet on the bar c) you can tell if they are keeping pressure on the bar and shifting or not.

Finally when you do start full in bar stalders, having two spotters isn’t a bad idea. This is a nice way to get younger gymnasts comfortable with the skill without having to add the speed factor to it.