Regardless of whether physical education was your favorite subject at school or not, everyone had to go through the goat in the lessons. Those who initially thought this gymnastic apparatus seemed a terrible beast, probably remembered the state of delight and relief when they managed to jump over it for the first time.
What is a goat gymnastic
This simulator for performing jumps is a body covered in leather on a steel support. Goat “legs” - metal racks, adjustable in height. The simulator is quite stable when installed even on uneven floors. Most often found in two sizes. Dimensions of a small goat: 500 * 320 * 270 mm, large - 680 * 360 * 270 mm. Together with the legs, the height of the gymnastic goat is from 85 to 135 cm. The simulator can withstand loads of up to 100 kg.
To complete the jump you need to land and push off from the springy bridge. And it’s better to land on mats. Accordingly, their availability must also be taken care of in advance.
At what age should I start jumping?
Previously, a goat jump was part of the compulsory school curriculum. Apparently, due to the existing risk of injury, exercises on this simulator are currently not mandatory. Nevertheless, many teachers, realizing the full degree of responsibility, organize lessons at school using a goat.
According to the old standard school curriculum, a jump over a goat was offered for execution in the fourth grade. However, some teachers included classes on this simulator already in the second or third grade, actively helping and securing the children.
If you want and have a goat, nothing prevents you from starting to learn to jump through it and in adulthood. And considering that 2015 is the year of the Goat according to the eastern calendar, this will be doubly pleasant to do.
Warm up before jumping
Jumping through a goat is best done on a warm body when the muscles and ligaments are prepared. Therefore, before the start of the lesson, it is necessary to perform the following exercises: normal walking in the hall, then on toes, on heels, with rifts from heel to toe; Squats, deep lunges with one leg bent forward in the knee, and then to the sides.
In order to warm up the whole body, add head turns from side to side, tilts back and forth, rotation in the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints, rotation in the pelvis.
Having done this set of exercises, you will feel greater mobility in the body, and the muscles will become more elastic.
Jump preparation
The technique of performing a jump through a goat is quite simple, but in order to feel confident, ideally it would be nice to practice exercises on mats or soft puffs up to the height of the pelvis line.
Do not forget that all jumps must first be insured - support by the arm and body. The most dangerous possible situation is when a person falls back. Mats for safety should also be placed on the side.
So, we start from the simple and move on to the complex so that the jump through the goat becomes just one of the stages of the exercise cycle.
First, try several times to jump on the mats with your knees, standing next to them and resting your hands. Next, we make jumps up and land with bent knees already on the feet.
Secondly, we repeat these two exercises, but with a small run. The technique of jumping over a goat suggests that before pushing away from the bridge, you need to land on two legs. Each time, try to land a little further than the previous time. It is even more difficult, but also as safe as possible, since we are dealing with soft mats, carry legs under us and sit down. If this exercise cannot be completed, we try to jump with legs apart, but have time to remove your hands so as not to land on them.
When all previous actions with mats are mastered, try to jump them and land on your feet, we’ll run a little stronger. At first, perhaps you can only sit on the mats on the other side, with your legs dangling - that's okay - this is another intermediate option for preparing for jumping over the goat.
Next, we put a bridge in front of the mats. Leaning with your hands, jump on it several times, pushing with your legs to get used to it. Then begin to land on the mats with your knees and then your feet.
The next stage is training jumping, i.e., running and landing with two legs on the bridge. You don’t need to run to the bridge, it serves only as a springboard for the jump. Start with two or three steps to take a run. But it is possible from one.
After the above actions on the mats, we make jumps through the gymnastic goat. To overcome the fear of jumping, we also start with simple exercises. Leaning on a goat, place your hands on top and not on the side, hold them tightly and jump well on the bridge. To touch your knees on the simulator, put your hands a little further. Repeat such jumps several times. If they work out well, try to get up on the goat with your feet, pushing well from the bridge: jumped up - stretched out to full height - went through the simulator and jumped down. So you get used to all the actions that can be performed with the projectile.
Now you need to jump onto the goat with your legs from a small run, walk along it and jump. If it turns out well, train to sit on the goat, also pushing your feet off the bridge. Hands should feel emphasis, for this they need to push off from the simulator.
The technique of jumping over a goat suggests that it can be accomplished in two ways: when the legs are bent and pulled to the chest and when they are pulled apart. There is also the third option - a jump - a coup, when the gymnast rests her hands on the apparatus and flips in the air and also lands on her feet. But this option is the most complex and not very common. Consider the first two options.
Jumping Goat With Bent Legs
In order for the force of inertia to help carry out such a jump, it is necessary to scatter well, push hard, pull your legs to your chest, bend to transfer them through the goat, land in a bent position, and straighten.
Getting up on bent legs is important at first. This allows you to cushion the jump and reduce the load on your knees. But in gymnastics they require a clear landing - to stand upright on straight legs. Around the goat, do not forget to lay mats just in case.
Preliminary preparation for performing this type of jump consists in the following exercises: to jump in place, trying to touch the knees of the chest; From an emphasis lying, pushing off by legs, to jump in an emphasis sitting.
Jumping goat with legs apart
Jumping in this way is optimal, since there is no way to catch the goat with his feet. Therefore, this method is the safest.
Just like in the first version of the jump, here you need to push upside down and with your hands almost simultaneously.
Then the legs spread wide and move back. An important point: you need to remove your hands in time so as not to impede the forward movement of the body, not to damage the hands and forearms. Hands move up, and this position remains until the moment of landing.
It will be useful before jumping to jump separately from the simulator - to raise and lower legs when landing; the same thing - in the position of the bar; to jump from the position of the bar at point-blank range to his knees and waving his arms become in a rack with legs apart.
When performing the first jumps, someone should help - support by the hand over the elbow.
Goat Jump: What's the Use?
Even in the case when the preparation for the jumps was carried out correctly technically and the coach managed to convey the desired mood to the students, this type of exercise, as a rule, causes fear to one degree or another. Accordingly, in order to take a jump, you need to overcome yourself, and this is not so simple, especially in childhood. Decisiveness and courage are qualities that are developed during such a training.
As for physical bonuses, jumping over a goat promotes the development of speed and strength skills - strengthens the muscle corset.
You should be aware that the implementation of vaulting is already gymnastics. Goat jumping is one of its subsections.