Please don’t “throw it”

Hi All,

Today I’m going to talk a little about bails or overshoots. I admit I did a post the other day about my pet peeve of bent knees in layout step-outs. This either tops that or is a close second depending on if it’s scary or just ugly. Bails can be extremely dangerous. I’ve seen a fair share of kids flat out MISS the low bar. These aren’t a skill you just throw. This skills requires timing, precision, technique, form and a whole slew of other things. It isn’t something you teach in a day. Please, please, PLEASE don’t just have kids try them by themselves onto a resi mat and the next week stick them on the real bar.

This is an example of a nice overshoot drill that I like. It builds confidence, she’s going to handstand (I really don’t like teaching bails not to handstand) and you can tell that the shapes are there, they may not be perfect yet, but she has the body tension and the swing.

This second video was posted by Eddie Umphrey. I LOVE the way he teaches bails, and I love watching his kids DO bails. He uses great progressions, teaches the necessary shapes, and best of all his kids aren’t scary to watch. This is a video of one of his kids the first day she did over overshoot by herself. This is how it should be. They shouldn’t look like flying squirrels.

Train hard!