Hi All,

I’m going to talk just a little bit today about giants. Now we’ve all seen our fair share of ugly giants, bent arms, bent knees, arched back, head out, you get my drift. My point is, they shouldn’t be like this. If giants are taught with care and precision the proportion of giants that are done – arched, bent armed, head out etc will drop dramatically. I’m not one to say things need to be beautiful from the start, I get it, it’s a learning process. But some of the things we see called “giants” shouldn’t ever be allowed to happen.

JAO videos (Jason Mortimer) made a great compilation of giant drills. That being said there is one in particular I would like to point out. Watch the drill at 1:13. It’s perfect. Well maybe not perfect. But pretty darn close to it. It gets kids on the high bar, their toes are going over first, there are tons of mats and not a lot of spotting. If you are looking for a good intermediate step with giants, THIS IS IT.

This second video is one of Eddie Umphrey’s gymnasts doing giants. This is what I want to see in the beginning a hollow 3/4 giant and then extending the body to handstand. I want to see the toes coming over first as opposed to the belly button.

I also very much like this handstand shaping drill to emphasize the core strength needed to pull the toes up after the tap. It’s a pretty easy progression that your lower levels can do that will have a big effect on their giants.

Train hard!

Videos:

1. GymTactics

2. Eddie Umphrey