Technique Tuesday: Front Hip Circle : Speakers & Interviews

I agree with Bar Coach. I don't see anything useful in this video. While I am one of those who hate the front hip circle, I do not "skip over it" to train higher level skills. It's in the routine, therefore they must learn it correctly. Unfortunately, after 18 years of coaching, I have found that the best way to get good front hip circles is to spot about 50,000 of them!!

The kid in this video is unquestionably strong/tight enough to push down on the bar and do a straight arm front hip circle. She hasn't learned a straight hollow fall yet and possibly hasn't learned how to hold her legs on without swinging them backward/upward in an arching cast. The point: it will take time to learn this cheat just the same as it will take time to learn a good front hip circle in the first place. If you take a day-one beginner, she won't pick this up either, and by teaching her to crunch forward you're just asking for her to miss her knees with her hands and bash her chin into the bar since her legs swung backwards and she's not holding on to the bar with anything but maybe her armpits. Have fun icing that bloody lip. If she's brave enough to fall forward and LET GO, she's brave enough to fall forward fast enough and do it right. It might be an "easy" way to get around the bar, but you're not "teaching" squat.

You're going to have to spend time training the cheat-method. You might as well spend time training the right front hip circle in the first place.

I kind of like it. This isn't the ONLY thing I would use to teach the skill, but I think its good to use with beginners just as a way to introduce the circle around the bar and get them comfortable with it. Looks like it would be a fun drill for the kids, too.

In my opinion this is an inefficient use of time. The trick of a front hip circle is learning how to push down on the bar (see-saw/lever forward: the JO text specifically says not to start in an arch). All this drill is doing is teaching the girl to crunch (instead of hollow), bend her elbows and let go of the bar (which is consequently NOT pushing on it).

The hard part of a FHC is not just circling the bar, it's circling the bar with straight arms, in a hollow, finishing in a pike that can cast. This is just teaching the girl to "survive" around the bar which will develop habits detrimental to future circling, specifically with FHC'ing out of a kip for level 5 and squatting on after it.
...I'm aware, however, of the criticism that the FHC itself is pointless and so people don't want to spend the time on it to make it right. But regardless, it's in the routine, we have to coach it, so we might as well coach it to be pretty instead of disgusting.