Please Don’t Do It — Flyaway drills I do and don’t like

Hi All,

Today I’m going to talk a little about flyaways. And I will tell you there is one specific drill I really dislike seeing as a flyaway drill. And that is having kids tap swing let go of the bar and land flat on their back. Now, let me explain this. There are variations of this drill that I really like. Ie. Spotted tap swing to candle stick, let go and the coach makes sure they land back on their back on the mat and not their neck. There is a reason I really dislike the first one, and that is, if they can do that first drill it basically means they have killed their flyaway already. If letting go doesn’t result in rotation it either means they killed their swing, or they let go too early. Either way you are going to end up with a flyaway that goes down instead of up. Because of how strongly I feel about this, I’m actually going to post three example videos today.

This first video is the version of the drill I’m talking about that I really like. See how when they let go their swing has actually initiated the rotation and they end up pretty much upside down without much effort? That’s what it should look like. Granted these are little ones and the technique isn’t perfect yet, but you get the idea.

This is what that drill results in when kids have a good swing and have done it time and time and time again. It’s all about creating lift in the flyaway.

And finally this video is from Justin Laury. This is one I’ve posted before but it’s worth watching again. Watch the flyaways in the first minute. If you create flyaways that actually have lift to them by using different drills you end up with kids who can double back (and more) well. If you don’t, when its time for kids to double you end up with all sorts of scary things. Please don’t do that.

Train hard!

Photo Credit: Team Photo

2 Comments

  1. cdfcoach says:

    I feel exactly the same way about straight jumps off a springboard (from a run)

  2. For beginner and intermediate gymnasts, I don’t allow the feet ever to come within 1 yard of the Bar.

    Landing should be somewhere close to in line with the floor plates of an FIG set.

    There’s no need to do a higher, closer flyaway unless you are prepping for Geinger.

    GREAT job on the blog, by the way. I never miss a post.

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