Need Help! Very Flexible But All Jumps Are Still Bad :(

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She has been working on all of these and her jumps have improved alot. Unfortunately she has injured her knee and her Dr. said no tumble or jumps last week, today she said no jumps until she goes back to the Dr. Sept 13th. :( Sort of afraid it may be a set back for her but more important that she is completely better before starting back so she doesnt have a long term injury. Maybe it wont set her back too bad if she continues the exercises during her time off. The repetitive landing on the knee from the jump she cant do, but she can do leg lift type things, anything that doesnt hurt the knee or put pressure on it basically.
 
sorry in advanced if this was already said/posted.

alright just so you know where I am coming from, I have personally won 4 national championships for jump only, 3 american cheer power nationals and 1 COA nationals.. granted i'm from ohio so not huge amounts of kids compete in the category and i'm not by any means calling me some expertise proffesional jumper but here is my advice..

I am 4'10 and a chubby cheerleader, I am not very flexible. have right leg split, almost left and ehh soso on middle. Toetouches are all in the hips and power.
... you have to rotate your hips back like pushing your but almost like you're trying to get it in front of you and work to point your knees all the way behind you like (to the back wall) and when you jump make sure you are pushing off the floor. (if that makes sense) when her jumps do get big she will drop her chest a smige to compensate so she doesnt end up jumping and landing on her back..

my 3 best jumps are 1. pike. 2 around the world. 3 toe touch.

now, i'm more flexible in my right leg split but i jump better with left hurdlers/herkies and my toetouch is always uneven because my left leg is hire..i believe .

it's a lot of practicing, stretching and working your hip rotations. I WOULD NOT reccomend jumping with weights they are awful on your legs and ankles. some people say you should..i'm telling you not too. I know you keep getting told to practice and that's what you have to do, but make sure you are practicing correct technique or it's not going to benefit you at all to practice wrong. I would also practice hip rotations .. Ex: get a mat and sit on the end or of stairs and circle your hips/legs up out and around and dont let them touch the ground in sets up 5 or 10 ..

with hurdlers it may be the way she's thinking about the jump i always tell girls when i give jump privates to try and kick yourself by your ear and kick your back leg to your back... i make the younger ones pull their scorpions and tell them that's where i want their back leg so they under stand the "split" concept of their legs. sometimes it's just that younger ones dont understand they have to split their knees when they do the jumps.

with pike jumps, just make sure she thinks up not down and forward when she jumps so that her whole body comes up and folds not down and reaching for her feet !

hope this helps !
 
My daughter is 8 and had the identical problem her only good jump was her pike. She has always had all 3 splits to the floor and amazing flexibility all around and horrible jumps. This has been a problem since she started cheer at 6yo. She would practice and practice the jumps with no improvement. Finally this year they started doing a jump class at our gym and we signed her up and I see huge improvements already. Her problem the coaches say is hip rotation. The exercise I found to help the most is to sit on the floor with legs open in the toe touch position. Keep her chest up and put her hands flat on the floor in front of her knees. Have her work on lifting her legs up and down and make sure she is controlling them. Make sure though that she is putting her weight on her hands though because that is what makes a difference. My daughter could do these all day before and had no improvement in her jumps it wasn't until someone pointed out that she wasn't putting her weight on her hands that we saw her jumps improve.
 
i agree with those suggesting ankle weights! even 5 pounds, jumping with those and then taking them off and jumping will seem like a breeze, definitely helps a lot...good luck! :)
 
I've been doing candle stick jumps with leg weights and try to take them to practice with me. You totally feel the difference when you take them off! :)
 
Cp is still on restriction bc of her knee but has been allowed to do some things and her jumps have suddenly become amazing :) thanks for all of your advice. It has really helped
 
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