Scaps & Posture

I've just been watching some footage from the 2012 Olympics (men's parallel bars) and one thing i noticed is that at rest a lot of the gymnasts seem to spend their time stood in scapular protraction with the shoulders rounded. Now i understand that gymnasts do a lot of work with their scaps protracted but do they  do any corrective work on scap retraction, which as far as I'm aware is the correct position for the shoulder blades?

 

Now if I'm completely off the mark here then please say. It was merely just an observation i had.

 

I look forward to discussing with you all.

Yes, they do develop the strength for scapular retraction, elevation, and depression not just protraction.

Probably just too much tweeting like the rest of us. 

They are not actually standing in scapular protraction, but in hollow body position.  It only "looks" like scapular protraction.

Frankly hard to tell how they're standing with those backs and shoulders

Whatever is going on anatomically, I've also definitely noted that the majority of gymnasts I've seen on television look to have rounded backs and shoulders at rest, which is not the position that most people think of when describing good posture. Regardless of whether there is scapular protraction or not, I think the point of the OPs question was whether the posture he's seeing is a result of the gymnasts' training, and if so, if there's any work that they do to try and correct it. 

 

I have noticed that Coach's athletes don't seem to exhibit similarly rounded backs and shoulders at rest. Coach does seem to put a particular emphasis on avoiding muscular imbalances and impaired mobility, so maybe that's why. The other thought I had was that this may only be an issue for certain olympic-level apparatus specialists who develop imbalances due to their heightened focus on specific elements (rings and pommel horse come to mind). 

 

This is mere speculation on my part. I'd love to hear from someone who knows more about this than I do. 

Coach answered a similar question here; he also muses how in retrospect he might have addressed this.

 

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/14921-double-leg-circle-technique-and-extension/?p=145669

Thanks for the Link Jon; exactly the kind of info I was looking for. 

Even more excited about M1 now...

It has struck me that many of the more profound 'fixes' and methods we have revolve around, surprise, spending that regular block of 10-15 mins at a time (or more, but that number comes up quite often) on one's hands.

Ag walks, rev ag walks, wall runs, climbing str...

I am really looking forward to learning more about this sort of thing myself.

-MR said:

 

I have noticed that Coach's athletes don't seem to exhibit similarly rounded backs and shoulders at rest. Coach does seem to put a particular emphasis on avoiding muscular imbalances and impaired mobility, so maybe that's why.

 

This is mere speculation on my part. I'd love to hear from someone who knows more about this than I do

You are correct. I spent a week in Arizona with my son (who is a gymnast) and one of the things that stod out to me was that his atheletes had a more nuteral posture (in rest position). Almost all of my sons team mates and other gymnasts I've seen has the "hollow" posture.

I also mentioned how well balanced his atheletes looked and Coach said that it was all the rope climbing they do . I swear, during the week I was there they did at least 5 rope climbs every day int their warmup.

Their warmup was like our gymnasts strenght training

Rope climbs, or vertical ag walks as I like to call them...

Thanks MR, i think you've definately explained better what i was trying to say haha.

The link that John posted definately helps make sense of things too and it's good to see that Coach really tries to address it but sometimes it might not always be possible depending on the gymnasts' speciality.