Quick Tip: Beginning Stalders

Hi All,

Today I wanted to share a quick beginning stalder drill that I really like. I adopted this after seeing Nick Blanton use it, and have seen a few other people do variations of it since. Namely small swings under the bar doing the same pike-straddle-pike movement.

There are a few things I really like about this drill. The biggest one is that it gets gymnasts comfortable taking their feet off of the bar. My view is that fear often breeds bad technique. So I like to get kids comfortable with the idea of taking their feet off the bar, and circling without feet before ever attempting anything like a stalder. This is also a great place to drill having the gymnast pull on the bar, head position and all of the other things we have to worry about in a stalder.