Coach Keith's Corner — gymnastics basics

There have been many times when I went to teach one of my upper level athletes a new skill and realized it is harder to teach than I thought because of bad habits, bad technique or just something I overlooked. An example - I had a very talented kid.  I wanted him to learn a specific vault (a kasamatsu).  Super talented so should not be a problem - only there was a REALLY big problem - he twisted the wrong direction to learn a kasamatsu.  When he was little he just picked his direction to twist and I thought nothing...

One of the hardest things to do is to teach a gymnasts an  inlocate that rises on rings. And you need this before you can get an uprise handstand or yamawaki. Here are a couple drills Coach Sean has his boys do to figure out the inlocate. This one is pretty simple but its important.  It teaches the boy the arch shape and how to create turnover by driving the heels.   Now its time to do lots of basic swings.  Every time your athlete goes to rings they should work on these. Notice the heel drive in the back?  Also...