An Interesting Article About Twisting!

[Matt Faherty]

http://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/1997/2/twist.pdf​

"Clearly the most effective twisting mechanism is to apply a large torque relative to the longitudinal axis during take off. The gymnast will then have considerable twisting angular momentum in the air and then if the arms have been held wide (large "inertia), angular velocity can be increased quite
significantly simply by pulling the arms in (small inertia)."
If I am understanding this correctly, this basically explains why in a double full the athlete should set wider than for a single. The article confirms what many of us already know as coaches. Though, it also does talk about some less familiar kinds of twisting as well.
Anyways I love being a "nerd" as much as I am a coach, and figured I would share this article with other coaches out there like myself!

 

[coachbd]

I'm not sure if it's just me... but when I click on that link it just takes me to Facebook??

 

[Matt Faherty]

haha yeah, thats wierd.

http://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/1997/2/twist.pdf

try it here

 

[Born2Tumble]

Very interesting! Makes sense to me

 

[Mamarazzi]

tumbleyoda is a nerd too, and might like this... But since he's Yoda, he might already know! Thanks, Matt!

 

[MissBee]

Is it sad that I have the original Technique magazine that this was published in?

 

[MissBee]

There was also a really interesting study done (published in Tech. in the early 90s) about the correlation between hand and leg flexibility. Basically if you pull your dumb down toward your inner forearm, the one (R or L) that you can pull down further-that's the leg that you'll have a better split on. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[tumbleyoda]

MissBee - I loved Technique Magazine. Learned so much good stuff from there. Mamarazzi - Yes I already had that one saved on a flash drive. Not one of the type papers the coaches I have taught wanted to know, but I loved knowing about.

 

[Corsicab]

There was also a really interesting study done (published in Tech. in the early 90s) about the correlation between hand and leg flexibility. Basically if you pull your dumb down toward your inner forearm, the one (R or L) that you can pull down further-that's the leg that you'll have a better split on. Pretty cool stuff.

That's interesting but for me the flexibility doesn't hold true. I can get much closer to the splits on my R side but my Left thumb can touch my forearm. My right thumb is about an inch away. Interesting... Makes me wonder if I actually tried to get my splits if the left side would come easier. I might have to do a little study on that. If I do, I'll let you know what I find.

 

[MissBee]

That's interesting but for me the flexibility doesn't hold true. I can get much closer to the splits on my R side but my Left thumb can touch my forearm. My right thumb is about an inch away. Interesting... Makes me wonder if I actually tried to get my splits if the left side would come easier. I might have to do a little study on that. If I do, I'll let you know what I find.

I read that about 20 years ago, so not sure if i"m remembering 100%....I believe the findings were that the hand that you were more flexible on was the side that you would have an easier time getting your full split on. My left is more flexible in both my hand and leg-but I was able to get my right to a full split. Obviously, getting full splits is easier the earlier/younger you start!

 

[Corsicab]

I read that about 20 years ago, so not sure if i"m remembering 100%....I believe the findings were that the hand that you were more flexible on was the side that you would have an easier time getting your full split on. My left is more flexible in both my hand and leg-but I was able to get my right to a full split. Obviously, getting full splits is easier the earlier/younger you start!

I don't think anyone can argue with that!