#gymnasitcs

Simona Castro (Chile)

Gymnastics

Technique

Kipping – James had us lie on our backs and do a hollow rock. Tensing pretty much everything to try keep the middle part of your back touching the ground. This is supposedly the position for the backward swing part of the kip. He then had us roll over and do the same in reverse. And this would be the forward swing. Then practicing on the bar, he made us stop mid kip to point out if we were swing like a pendulum or kipping properly. If you are kipping properly, you’re basically hinging from the shoulders and hands, and should be able to stop instantly. If you are just swinging, then it will be a lot harder to stop straight away due to the lack of control when swinging. He also pointed out that there is a dead spot on the back swing which should the time to bring your knees up and then use the momentum of kicking out to get your body up to the bar. Ultimately you should be using as little of your arms as possible and all the momentum should be generated from your kip. My kips could always use improvement!

Bar/Ring Dips – James pointed out that a lot of people don’t dip properly because they shrug straight down into their shoulders and try dip out from there. The correct technique is to keep your shoulders and chest up and lean forward and dip down from there. This way you’re using the actual required muscles for the dip. Ring dips are similar but there’s obviously a lot more muscle work involved because you’re trying to keep the rings as close to your body as possible. Once the rings start to spread out you’ve got no hope of getting the dip, plus risk doing damage. You basically just lean forward and dip until your shoulders touch the top of the rings. Christian also pointed out to turn your shoulders out so your palms are open facing forward at the top of the dip.

Muscle Ups – With the rings at waist height, you stand with your hands in the ring and then drop back into a dip position with the rings on your shoulders. Keeping your feet planted in the same position. Then bringing your hands together in the middle of your chest, drop back into a straight arm position, keeping your body straight also, so you’re just hanging from the rings. Then use a hip movement to get yourself back into the dip position, letting yourself drop into it as opposed to trying to pull yourself into the position. Then press out from there without moving your legs the whole time. Tough work, but supposedly supposed to help when trying an actual ring muscle up.

METCON

TABATA

Muscle Ups

Squats

Wasn’t as much of a TABATA, because we counted our total reps for the whole thing.

I've been taking pictures of Men's Gymnastics for 3, count it 1, 2, 3 seasons and my friend is complaining about how close the pictures are. 

1. I have a 200 mm fixed lens and a 50mm fixed lens. Not that many options.

2. I usually charge $25 per picture and I should charge for gas. Instead you get to tag them for FREE. That is two hours of my life plus the one that it took to download 351 pictures, of which 251 made it before the flash crash that I cannot get back. Oh and lets not forget how much I whittled it down from 1,444 pictures before I actually downloaded. 

3. NONE of these dudes actually talk to me and say THANK YOU and I actually rushed to get there! This is seriously a thankless "hobby" and I am a PROFESSIONAL. I have been published!

I like the experience but don't give me a hard time about the pictures being "close". I don't have to do this, this is a free service, FREE. I could've stayed home and read my comm class reading. 

Last night my friend/aerial teacher and I were talking about the idea of there being a "right" way to do things in aerial. Of course we both think it's important to be safe, and so there are "wrong" ways to do things, because they are unnecessarily dangerous.

But the idea of there being a "right" way, or even a limited number of right ways to do a move seems...restrictive.

This is where we start to see the meeting of the worlds of athletics and of creative arts. In gymnastics (athletics) there is a strict codification and precise execution of each motion. Yes, it's beautiful, but the idea is that it's beautiful because it is done correctly.

Then we have ballet, which is absolutely a creative art, yet it too, has a very strict vocabulary and a LOT of "wrong" ways to do things. Ballet is also at its most beautiful when it is done "right".

Aerial though, is less strictly codified (another post some time on aaaaalll the different names for things), and once you have ensured safety, you have much, much more freedom within each movement to explore and express.