Clear hip drills new and old

Hi All,

It’s been a busy summer – sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Because I haven’t I thought I would do a LONG post with lots of videos today for teaching clear hips. There are lots of ways of teaching this skill and finding out what works best for you and your kids may take some time. So the more tools you have in your belt the better.

Training the drop into clear hips

If your little ones can shift this is an introductory clear hip drill that I really like. I would probably spot a few knee circles (from knees – go around the bar and open to horizontal) just to make sure that they can shift with straight arms and a tight body and then let them play around with these.

This is a nice little clear hip circuit. I’ve been REALLY into focused circuits lately. Ie. shaping circuit, press circuit, and the littles are going to start a giant circuit. But I think it helps keep their brains a little more focused.

This is the same drill as at the end of the last video, just done a little better. I REALLY like having something between them and the bar – specifically because it prevents them from putting their hips back on the bar. I normally tie a piece of foam to it – but this shirt ball seems to work really well.

This is the clear hip portion of the Tom Stevens lecture I posted a while ago. he talks a lot about teaching kids to open in one shape – and not using their shape to compensate for other things. It’s a good watch and/or refresher for anyone.

If you’ve got little ones who can stay tight this is a GREAT drill (and fun for them too).

I really like this drill for making sure that athletes are pushing on the bar and are CONFIDENT pushing on the bar when they aren’t in a cast position. We teach them to push down a lot when they cast or in tap swings but sometimes we miss other directions.

This is a much more advanced version of the previous drill but if you’re athletes can do it you know that they have the body tension and at least the mechanics for the beginning of the clear hip.

Train hard!

Video Credits:

Video 1: Beechurst

Videos 2 and 3: Gymnastics tutorials 

Video 4: Emily Bundy – Team Central 

Video 5: Lorenzo Fortune

Video 6: Congress – Videod by Chelsea Graff 

Video 7: Daniel McCarty

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