Gymnastic Classes

The hoop also lends itself particularly well to swings in the table plane, initially using two hands, but then progressing to one handed swings. A strong grip is needed to hold the hoop in a horizontal position during the basic side to side swings, but once you begin to develop the swing and go into a turn or change of hands, either in front or behind, the hoop becomes easier to manage. For this type of swing where the hoop is horizontal, a very different throwing action is required, and by using both one or both hands and a slight tilt of the hoop on to a diagonal plane, the discus throw can be achieved. When you have tried this throw a few times, and are becoming quite accurate, perhaps you can begin to try some different ways of catching, for example: 1. Reach up with one hand and catch on the outer edge, then step immediately into a turn 2. Catch with both hands, bring the hoop down around the waist, and send it into a hula hoop rotation. 3. Reach forwards and catch with one or bo …

Some of the jumps and leaps which are commonly used and which form a fundamental part of the sequence are: 1. Tuck jump. Take off from one or two feet, bring both knees up high in front of the chest and land on two feet. 2. Komat jump. Similar to the tuck jump with knees up in front, but take off must be from one foot only, and the knees come up one after the other. Legs change in the air, so the landing is on the other foot. 3. Split leap. Leap forwards from one foot to the other, legs splitting wide, and reaching a horizontal position in the air, one forwards and one backwards. 4. Stag leap. Similar to split leap, but front leg is bent under, back leg remains straight. Take off and landing can be from one or two feet. 5. Side leap. The difficulty of getting both legs up to the horizontal position becomes very apparent in the side leap. From a forward take off, the body makes a sharp quarter turn and then the gymnast must consciously work to lift both legs at the same time, forcing t …