Gymnastic Classes

The hoop is rotated between the thumb and the forefinger, and should be worked initially with the arm outstretched in front of the body at shoulder height. The arm and wrist will move up and down very slightly to aid the rotation and an opening and closing of the fingers will give added control, as well as provide a more relaxed action. Try to avoid holding the hand in a rigid position with the thumb stuck up in the air. It should not take long to achieve this rotation on the hand, and fairly quick progress can be made towards some of the other skills listed below: 1. Whilst rotating the hoop on the outstretched hand in front, link with traveling steps - first walk forwards, then backwards. Next, run, skip, polka or pass forwards, then backwards. 2. Begin the rotation again with the hoop in front of the body, then make a quarter turn so that the hoop is rotating at the side of the body in the wheel plane. Now add some of the traveling movements described above or perform some dance st …

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 …