My first ring swings - critiques needed.

Hello all. Last Friday at the gym I was able to actually start ring swings for the first time thanks to some guidance from the sticky in the skill development board on the subject. I forgot to write down the essay like I said I would but regardless I was able to do a little bit thanks to remembering some of the advice the coach gave. The results are in this video, and I know the technique is suboptimal - mainly in the backswing. I'll also say I was sore for the entire weekend into Monday thanks to these, so I know I did something right. Any tips beyond the guidelines Coach gave would be appreciated. Thanks as always!

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Somebody seems to have taught you the ring turnout in the front and back. That person should be sacked.

Do not work on their turnout until you have mastered the basic swing. Right now by turning out the rings you are killing the development of the height of the front or back swing (Some coaches advocate only working on developing the front or back one at a time in the beginning). Focus on pushing the rings forward in the back swing and pulling them backwards in the front swing. Actually I would wait on this until you have gained competence with just swinging your body back and forth.

KEEP YOUR HEAD INSIDE YOUR ARMS! I do not know how many times I have yelled this. Pinching the ears when they are exposed is something I will do lightly. In time they learn to dislike this.

In the front swing you are popping your hips. You have to kick your toes while not arching your hips. Hips should stay flat like a candlestick/body lever. I don't mind that you are tucking your head down in the back swing at this point. Work on straight knees and pointed toes with feet together.

If you have a partner, have them tie your legs together with small rope squeezing a small beanbag or small foam cube between your knees and/or feet.

An interesting way to discourage ankle or knee flex is to tape down a piece of a paper clip folded out or thin slat of metal with sharp sides. When you bend the ankle or knee, it pokes into the body. It's not very comfortable and you can always threaten the kids by carrying around nails or screws. :twisted: It takes careful application though and is time consuming. Works well on 5 and 6yo, especially on pommel horse. I am not the originator of this trick :wink:

Lol poor Coach Dave... he originally had me starting to learn ring swings starting from an inverted pike. Didn't make half the progress I did until I found the sticky. And yes, this coach was the one who taught me to turn the rings in and out.

Am I to assume that the proper pushing/pulling on the rings will keep my head in-between my arms, or is this something I'll have to put more conscious thought into?

So first things first is to work on keeping the legs, ankles, and hips without flexion, as well as that push/pull on the rings without turnout. I'll practice them again at the gym this Friday and get a second video up with what should be some more progress. Thanks for the speedy, dare I say passionate response.

A lot of coaches who coach rec adult gymnastics will introduce ring turnout far too soon. It's important but it's not the first thing to focus on.

Here is an exhaustive video on developing rings swing. It wasn't the one I was looking for but I do like it. It starts off way more advanced than you need to worry about it so I would skip about 3 or 4 minutes when it begins on the basic swing.

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Proper pushing and pulling and being conscious about not letting your ears show.

So, while I don't have video proof and I'll explain why in a moment, I was able to practice more swings last night. Your advice really helped my front swing a lot, as I was able to swing all the way up to inversion - I didn't turn the rings out at all or push down on them at that height so I think that's what caused that. I think my back swing improved a bit too - I see what you mean by keeping the arms by the ears at all times, because every time I pushed and pulled on the rings that's what happened. Unfortunately, in the middle of coming down from a front swing, the strap for one of the rings broke (I didn't realize the leather strap was potentially older than I am) and I took a hard fall to the ground - when I say ground I mean the only thing between me and concrete was a vaulting path (I'm too tall to swing from the rings in this gym otherwise). Got some big bruises in a select few bad spots, namely my acromion process and my anterior ribs, meaning it hurts to breathe deeply or do most humeral movement with my dominant arm. Also I had a minor concussion at the time but fortunately that appears to have dissipated, and should be fine as long as I rest.

So yeah... Now I don't have any rings to swing from. I guess I should try pommel horse work the next time I'm there.

In any case, my point is your advice did help, as did that video. So again, thanks for sharing like always (you seem to be the only person that responds to my topics anyway :| ).

Tyler that was a bad break (pardon the pun) hope you are ok.

BlairBob, you constantly come up with these great video resources, i'm curious what you were originally looking for was.

Ouch, Mr Brady, I thought there was a video on developing basic ring swings for beginning competitive gymnasts somewhere. I didn't find it on my youtube search so it might be have pulled down.