Making things less scary on bars

Hi All,

I’ve talked about this before, but I find that a lot of technical failings of gymnasts sometimes don’t come from lack of say technical preparation, they come from fear. I want to make gymnasts feel as confident as possible (ie. eliminate all of the fear factors I can) in the beginning of learning new skills, so that they can focus on the new skill and not whatever fear they have built up in their heads.

This first video is a nice little stalder drill. It’s one that I use after the quick tip I did a little while ago. It’s often a very weird feeling getting gymnasts to go from clearhip-ing or sole circle-ing to a full on stalder so I really like this as an intermediate step. Most kids aren’t afraid of it, they get comfortable and confident, and it’s a great side station.

This second one is a nice way of getting gymnasts over the fear of going over the bar. One of the big problems we see as coaches with gymnasts shoving their shoulders the wrong way (ie. not over the bar) comes from fear. Mostly, fear of falling over the bar. This is a nice way of getting rid of that early.