Parallel Bars Swings in Support

Hi everyone,

Looking for some constructive feedback on my parallel bar swings. As background I am a 37 year old with a couple of years of very basic gymnastics coaching. My shoulder flexibility is not terrible but not fantastic either.

These are my thoughts for what they're worth:

1) I know I am arching too much in backswing and prob piking too much in forward swing too but I'm not exactly sure what should be squeezing to stop it!

2) Unsure about head position during swings.

3) When I am swinging I am pretty sure I am using heel/leg drive too much and not enough shoulders which might be causing the arching and piking. Does this basic swing still require a decent amount of shoulder strength?

4) If I want to go higher should my shoulders move back and forward more to compensate or is that technique incorrect (I feel as if they already move quite a lot just getting past horizontal!)

5) I've heard that you should shrug shoulders as you pass through middle of swing would this make much difference to quality of my swing?

The main reason I videoed was to see how high I could get on the dismount but thought might as well take advantage of all the clever people on here.

Many thanks for anyone who can give me some solutions it is greatly appreciated!

Cheers Ian

Squeeze ass, point toes.

You pike your hips too soon in the "tap" phase of the support swing. Notice your body is starting to pike before your body is vertical in support.

Don't worry about the shoulder shrug. It will happen naturally. Don't worry about your head position either. It should be in alignment of the spine. Relax the shoulders.

You need to swing from the chest/shoulders/diaphraghm not just the hips/lumbar. There can be a slight hollowing of the body in the front.

Hollow at the peak of the swing in the backswing.

The best way to get rid of that arch in your backswing is simply protracting your scapula and tighten your whole body.

go hold a hollow body on floor.  Those are the muscles you need to contract.  Swinging should occur from the shoulders rather than hips.  you should shrug shoulders through the bottom and allow them to swing freely.  lead with hips more in front swing don't raise toes and pike.

Thanks a lot guys, will try and put that good advice into effect.

What about head position in back swing should it be neutral not stuck out like I seem to have it?

Should shoulders move back and forward more as you swing higher or should you be controlling the movement through shoulders and they move less but push/pull more?

If shoulders protract on backswing what should they do on forward swing?

Many thanks!

IBGC said:

Thanks a lot guys, will try and put that good advice into effect.

What about head position in back swing should it be neutral not stuck out like I seem to have it?

Should shoulders move back and forward more as you swing higher or should you be controlling the movement through shoulders and they move less but push/pull more?

If shoulders protract on backswing what should they do on forward swing?

Many thanks!

They should retract at forward swing

Thanks Yaad suspected that, I just wanted to double check before started in case I ended up practicing something weird

Thanks for all the replies everyone it really helps!

I'm actually spending tons and tons of repetitions in order to achieve a solid swing to handstand. making an average of success i can do 5 correct attempts on 10. so probably i need more 4-5000 correct repetitions to achieve the 10/10.

Sometime you are doing the error of move the shoulders backward when your legs lift up in the front, this is not good. when you are moving the body upward in the front be sure to push the hips forward using your upper back and maintaining the shoulders over the hands.

you need to understand if the problem is flexibility matter due to lack of extension or simply a technical thing. in that way when you come down you do not need to compensate the modification of the cog (by moving the shoulders backward) and the passage from front to back will be more "gentle".

That's great Alex thank you I'm sure you're right, it certainly doesn't feel very gentle at the moment

Been trying since earlier answers to get hips more up at front but think have been letting shoulders/body go back, got advice from coach the other day to feel as if was pushing the bars away on forward swing. Working on shoulder flexibility as well which will hopefully help. Will give it a few weeks and then post another video and see if I've managed to make any improvements. Thanks again!