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

[NCMom]

My daughter, 12, is getting very frustrated. She just started cheer in March and her tumbling is coming along well. She can do front and back walkovers all day long, beautifully, and has a very light spot on her back handspring (just as a reference to where she stands). She is very flexible, her splits are to the floor, side and middle, she can kick up her heel stretch and a bow ( it is not as pretty as the coaches want it mind you so they are still working on that) but the problem is that her jumps are still the worst on the squad. There are girls not nearly as flexible but have way better jumps and she is losing faith because she cant figure out what she is doing wrong. Its not any particular jump, but all of them. Her best jump is her pike, which is odd to me. It is the toe touch and hurdlers and herkies that she really strugles with. Her legs just dont want to leave the ground and come apart. We are lost as to what to do. She does have a problem of dropping her chest and her coaches have tried to get her stop that but really havent had any other suggestions other than to keep practicing her jumps. When they warm up before hurdlers they kick their leg up in front of them to show where it should be in the jump and she can get it completely up and straight and when she does the jump the front leg doesnt even come out parrallel with the floor much less up in front of her face. She is getting very frustrated and getting to the point of giving up. Does anyone have any ideas about what she may be doing wrong or what the problem is. Is it her stomach muscles? Leg muscles?

 

[CoachC2]

A lot of girls have this issue when starting out. Mainly she does need to work on her stomach muscles because that will help pull those legs up there but she also has to know the feeling to separate her legs in her jumps. Most girls keep their thighs together until they learn this. What I do is when I have someone new that isn't opening up fully is I spot them by the waist and have them jump but really kick their legs open and hold it while I hold them in the air for a little bit. Or I send them to the trampoline and have them do it on there. Some girls just don't think that they get enough height to be able to snap together and land properly but if you open your legs fully and really spring off your feet then hit and snap together nice and sharp you'll be fine.

Pike jumps are the easiest for most people because you don't have to open your legs. pretty much she just needs to start practicing opening her legs and not tensing up. She obviously has the hip flexibility to get her jumps up there.

If you want to help her at home she can do the jumps on a trampoline or just grab her by the waist and when she goes to jump just give her a boost so she can get higher in the air and then gently guide her back down to the floor. This is from my own experience so other people might have other ideas but this has worked for me in the past. Hope it helps

 

[NCMom]

Thank you so much. I will definately try this with her. I remember her coach picking her up once like that and making her snap her legs up for a toe touch and they were so high and I thought whoa she could do an awesome toe touch....if... I am going to try some of this with her, I dont want her to get any more frustrated about it. She really loves cheer and wants to do better.

 

[CoachC2]

Your welcomes the best way is just help her like that and even if you don't say anything but "wow those look great" "Try to make it more fierce because its already beautiful" It will give her the confidence to try it by herself correctly. If you do it enough times shell get used to "how" its suppose to feel and she will try to make it like that every time.

 

[NCMom]

That is great advice. Gonna work on that today for sure.

 

[omgitsalexlc7777]

Have her do this exercise where you sit on the floor in a straddle with your arms between your legs then lift one leg up and rotate it backwards while remaining in the starting position. Do this with the other leg, and then do it with both legs up at once. This really helps train people to rotate their hips, and it really improves jump height. Also, if she's dropping her chest have her focus on a spot on the wall while she's jumping to keep her head and chest up. For the hurdler have her pretend there's a ball between her arms and she has to kick it.

 

[Aussiekat]

Have her do box jumps, stand on the box, jump down and jump straight up (it should be jumping down and up onto the box, not up and down) so she really works her fast twitch muscles and explosiveness. Or just jump. Everywhere anywhere. I do straight jumps, lots of rabbit jumps (just what I call them, fast bounces bringing your knees up to your hands which are about hip level so you bring your thighs up parallel to the ground). I also practice multiple toe touches on the tumble track so I can focus on technique and arm placement which often goes out the window on the floor. But the main thing is to get her jumping. Google plyometrics if you need some ideas. Good luck!

 

[NCMom]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Just having some new things to try help her feel better about it. I will let you know in a few weeks how it's looking

 

[MissBee]

Flexibility and strength go hand in hand. One without the other results in lower performance level and worse-injury. Since she has great flexibility, it's time to work on the strength side of things. Keep in mind that as she builds muscle, her flexibility will decrease a bit-so she does need to keep up her daily stretching!

 

[Jillian]

Get ankle weights and have her do 10 of each jumps everyday. Then take them off, and do 10 of each without them! Also, lots of abs!

 

[The_cheer_obsessed]

Ankle weights work wonders! Also tie rubber bands around her ankles and have her jump, take those off, and her jumps will get higher. Also a lot of core/ ab workouts will help....also make sure she rolls her hips in.

 

[NCMom]

Thanks everyone. They are getting better. The hip rolling is something she is working on. She doesnt get the concept yet haha. I think once that clicks they will be alot better. So far they are looking better for sure and hoping for more improvment. All great ideas and we are trying them all out. You guys are the best.

 

[xxDefyingGravity1]

My daughter, 12, is getting very frustrated. She just started cheer in March and her tumbling is coming along well. She can do front and back walkovers all day long, beautifully, and has a very light spot on her back handspring (just as a reference to where she stands). She is very flexible, her splits are to the floor, side and middle, she can kick up her heel stretch and a bow ( it is not as pretty as the coaches want it mind you so they are still working on that) but the problem is that her jumps are still the worst on the squad. There are girls not nearly as flexible but have way better jumps and she is losing faith because she cant figure out what she is doing wrong. Its not any particular jump, but all of them. Her best jump is her pike, which is odd to me. It is the toe touch and hurdlers and herkies that she really strugles with. Her legs just dont want to leave the ground and come apart. We are lost as to what to do. She does have a problem of dropping her chest and her coaches have tried to get her stop that but really havent had any other suggestions other than to keep practicing her jumps. When they warm up before hurdlers they kick their leg up in front of them to show where it should be in the jump and she can get it completely up and straight and when she does the jump the front leg doesnt even come out parrallel with the floor much less up in front of her face. She is getting very frustrated and getting to the point of giving up. Does anyone have any ideas about what she may be doing wrong or what the problem is. Is it her stomach muscles? Leg muscles?

its called a jump for a reason you have to jump. be aggresive. she needs to use her legs to push off the floor, and pull her legs up as far as possible. but the most improtant thing is that she is using her legs to jump as hard as possible off the ground.

 

[Tori Vandepas]

pulling up through her shoulders and keeping her chest up will really help and like many others have said working on her abdominal muscles and leg muscles just to get a little stronger its not something that always comes naturally you have to push and work also for her toe touch i've been told that when you go up in the air try to act like your sitting in a chair so sink your but a little it may feel like you're going to fall to the ground and you may even fall to the ground but it helps me.

 

[monicanicole]

Something that could be contributing to this is hip flexor strength. A lot of athletes are extremely flexible, but their hip flexors aren't strong enough to snap those legs up and down. Leg lifts are great for this. I saw someone mentioned something earlier about core strength...this could be an issue too. A lot of times the abdominals aren't strong enough to pull the legs up. A good way to fix this is to hold onto a pull-up bar or something similar and do pike-ups. These engage the abs and also strengthen the hip flexors...you're killing two birds with one stone!

Hope this helps!