All-Star Twisting The Wrong Way In My Full?

[omgitssydthekid]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I really need some help and advice. I've had my full since May and it's been really solid, but lately I've been pulling the opposite way. I usually pull left (always have) but about two weeks ago I randomly pulled right and landed a half. This happened for the rest of the practice. The next practice, my fulls were fine until I went to throw my last one and pulled right again and made it half way around. I figured it was just a fluke and didn't worry about it but Saturday at our competition I kept pulling to the right in the practice room and almost severely injured my knee because I made it almost all the way around but I landed on it funny so my coaches told me to just throw layouts instead of fulls at the competition. But NCA is in three weeks and I need help. What should I do? What could possibly be causing this? I am so frustrated and confused.

 

[StingraysExtremeWoC]

Are you right handed/right side dominant? If so, maybe you learned to go to the left, but naturally want to go to the right or something.

 

[tumbleyoda]

Are you a dominant righty? Writing, throwing, hitting, kicking a soccer ball, etc? Which way do you tumble? Do you Roundoff left or right? Are you or were you a flyer? Did you learn with a coach that only was confident in spotting fulls to the left so that is the way they made everyone twist? Honestly it could be lots of potential reasons. Feel free to pm me a video of your regular full and what you are doing now.

 

[Diamond]

Get on a mat and do a backhandspring, but twist & land on your back. Which ever way you naturally decide to twist to land on your back, is prob the way you should twist in your full.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

StingraysExtremeWoC I do everything with my right hand except fulling but I'm a flyer so twisting right just feels natural

tumbleyoda I write with my right hand, I arabian right, and I round off right. I am a flyer though so turning left feels natural. When I started getting spots on fulls I turned left but my coach could spot them on both sides. I'll post a video of my old full when I get home and I'll try to get one of my "new" one Wednesday but it comes and goes. Like last Wednesday I was fulling the right but I made some the whole way around but Sunday I was fulling the left and made those too. I remember switching sides on tumble track when I first started throwing fulls but that was three years ago and I haven't done it since.

Diamond I'll try that at the gym tomorrow and let you know how it goes!

 

[tumbleyoda]

Please understand that I am not your coach and this is only based on what you have said: I have had several athletes in your predicament. They had fulls, started working arabians by themselves and ending up messing up their full. It also sounds like you are just a good twister and one of those athletes that could full either way. Too bad they don't give extra points for that. Here was what I did with them:

1.) Stopped the arabian. Based on what you said you are twisting one way for the arabian and the other way for your normal, natural full. This is probably what is throwing your muscle memory off.
2.) Make a determination based on the time of year, age of athlete, if they are a flyer or not, current skill level, and future probability of new skills which is the best option - to keep the natural full even though it is opposite, or reteach the full to the right. Usually the older the athlete the less inclined I am to re-teach the full. It just means that if they arabian it will always have to be out of a BHS and not a roundoff. Which is fine and many cheerleading coaches prefer it that way, but as a gymnast I learned it out of a roundoff so that is the primary way I teach it.
3.) Once this is decided and we get the full back to normal and landing solid every time, we then add the arabian at a later date.

BTW the way the drill Diamond gives is the way I start to teach fulls. Anything I can do to get the athletes to drill the skill before they get in the air trying it increases their muscle memory and reduces both fear and risk of injury.

I will tell you more when I see the video. Wish you all the best.

 

[DJ]

I'm not sure there is a "wrong" way to twist - for most athletes that are typically have a side that they spin better / more completely towards.

 

[tumbleyoda]

I'm not sure there is a "wrong" way to twist - for most athletes that are typically have a side that they spin better / more completely towards.

You are right in that there is no wrong way to twist. There are pluses and minuses for each one. For example a flyer who has been flying and doing full twisting baskets before they ever learn to do a running full will probably twist to the left, even though they may be a righty tumbler. A person who tumbles right but spins left will have technical difficulty doing ROFull, RO Arabian or RO 1/1/2 cleanly because they are twisting against themselves coming out of the roundoff. Is it possible, yes, but the increased risk in injury and form breaks are not worth it. That athlete should just always twist out of a BHS.

Gymnastics is taught totally different on that point. You twist the way you tumble and if you are at a gym that gets spots on fulls, they can spot both sides of the full. They can also usually safely spot the twist coming into them and away from them.There was also a thread way back that went through different drills on finding out which way an athlete should twist.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

I'm not sure there is a "wrong" way to twist - for most athletes that are typically have a side that they spin better / more completely towards.

I meant that I had been twisting the opposite way that I normally had been twisting. I know there isn't a "wrong" direction but it was not what I had been doing the past two years while working on fulls.

 

[stcchamp]

when teaching fulls, i always have my kids go on the trampoline and do as many twists as they can each way. whichever way they spin the most, thats the way we start them twisting!!!

 

[sydnicole]

when i started working on my full i always spun left and every time i tried it by myself i would always get lost and only make a half so my coach made me do the backhandspring drill where you do a backhandspring and twist when you see the mat. i kept doing it and i asked my coach to watch me a few times and he was like well its good but you are spinning right.... so he told me to do a full into the pit but spin right that time and i got all the way around. now i full right after working on my full for 5 years and not getting anywhere...

 

[stuntjumptumble]

I don't have a full but our coach always tells the kids when they're first learning to twist to the side you roundoff on

 

[cydcydchick]

when i started working on my full i always spun left and every time i tried it by myself i would always get lost and only make a half so my coach made me do the backhandspring drill where you do a backhandspring and twist when you see the mat. i kept doing it and i asked my coach to watch me a few times and he was like well its good but you are spinning right.... so he told me to do a full into the pit but spin right that time and i got all the way around. now i full right after working on my full for 5 years and not getting anywhere...

maybe i should try this i have the same problem i started working fulls in 4th grade(10th grade now) and i always make it around to the left with my coach but when i do them by myself i can only make it half way around

 

[sydnicole]

maybe i should try this i have the same problem i started working fulls in 4th grade(10th grade now) and i always make it around to the left with my coach but when i do them by myself i can only make it half way around

yeah its definitely worth a try. but i would definitely recommend trying it into a pit or mat or with a spot first to see how it goes.

 

[AndyT_T]

I legit couldnt imagine trying to twist right... I dont even know how I would go about doing it XD
Sorry Syd