- Nov 10, 2015
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I've cringed a lot more these past couple of seasons watching these terrifying braced pyramid inversions, clumsy paper dolls, and deadly kick full downs than I ever have while watching teams doubling down ijs.
Anything not performed well can be cringe-worthy. What you're not taking into account is the actual level of risk involved.
Let's say we are doing a cringe-worthy braced inversion, the kind where the top is in a plank position, slightly inverted, with bases hands on her shoulders/hips (the modified collegiate hand-to-hand). Even if the team has no business doing the skill, before the bases are able to get air on this stunt, one of two things has to be true: the top has to be core-tight enough to maintain the body position, or small enough that they can throw her anyway. Then the momentum is traveling upward, where the bracer can help lift, and/or help lower if things aren't right. then she's bringing her feet down so that they're traveling towards the ground where they belong, she's typically not twisting (and if she is, it's not a rapid spin like a double down), and she should be traveling straight down in the middle of three people waiting to catch her.
Now, let's imagine we are doing a cringe-worthy double down. The person at risk is no longer the top person. It's the three people at the bottom. So the kid gets a full down, and even if she's learned it correctly (which is pretty rare these days), she now feels she has to pull twice as hard, she starts cranking on this thing and the harder she goes at it, the worse it gets. Her elbows are exposed (I actually worked at an all star gym where tops were taught to pull their hands to their inside shoulder with arms bent), her legs are flying apart, her hips are no longer in cylinder because she's doing everything she can to get around, including "the worm." At this point you have four people at risk: the top who has likely dove herself head first, the back who is exposed to the tops diving forehead, and both bases who are likely to catch elbows and knees.
Double downs are single-handedly responsible for keeping concussion and late-night dental clinics in business.