Warning about US WAG program.

[KristyJ]

I totally agree. Alba Petisco is a really good example of this. She does not have Melnikovas body type but she shows excellent extension, form, poise and artistry.

Alas Petisco's carriage is not so good. She carries her shoulders very high and a little forward and it has the unfortunate effect of making her upper back appear somewhat rounded and her neck shorter. Her posture is the primary reason I struggle to enjoy her gymnastics even though I appreciate her tenacity and difficulty.

 

[Doug1233]

I totally agree. Alba Petisco is a really good example of this. She does not have Melnikovas body type but she shows excellent extension, form, poise and artistry.

Disagree on artistry. Or posture. But she does have nice extension through the knees and toes.

Not through the upper body though.

 

[MaryClare]

Disagree on artistry. Or posture. But she does have nice extension through the knees and toes.

Not through the upper body though.

Yes. She has the combination of poor upper body posture that was never corrected prior to building a high level of core strength. Once that happens it’s almost impossible to correct. A shocking number of elite gymnasts fall into this category. Acceptable legs and feet, shocking posture

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

I remember in our gym, one athlete who was very talented, with great knees, ankles and toes, but very rigid in the torso - she spent countless hours just working on contractions and expansions of her upper body. I remember her draped over the vaulting horse trying to adapt her body. The poor soul.

 

[MaryClare]

I remember in our gym, one athlete who was very talented, with great knees, ankles and toes, but very rigid in the torso - she spent countless hours just working on contractions and expansions of her upper body. I remember her draped over the vaulting horse trying to adapt her body. The poor soul.

That rigidity is caused by muscles developed on bad posture. You can’t correct it unless you stop your normal training regime and allow some muscle wastage. So yeah, almost impossible

 

[KristyJ]

I think it can be corrected with a lot of intentional lengthening and a focus on strengthening antagonist muscle groups to those that are shortened, but the lengthening itself may cause a bit of loss of strength during the process. I developed some bad posture habits when I gained curves, from trying to hide any change, and I'm still working through undoing it with so much work since the bad posture really does self-reinforce. Yay decades of harm done due to being taught to hate body change (I actually blame Little Girls in Pretty Boxes for this one because their wording about curves was more damaging than anything I heard directly elsewhere and I made the mistake of reading that when I was a teen and developed more fears because of it).