Journey to Kovacs - Week 3

[@BramVerhofstad]

Yes letsgo! Dish shape after the tap definitely made things a lot better. Also in the backflip before the cody: jump more on the spot, less far back. And KEEP THE KNEES AS MUCH BENT AS YOU CAN. Your progressing very fast. Please realize this.

[@XxOffTonexX]

Definitely looks good when you added the dish after the bounce! The bounce is smaller than it could be mainly because of your basic issues with back extension pop. The idea is to accelerate your feet and hips rising towards the ceiling. As long as you are accelerating you are weightless, this will increase the pop. Then you apply this idea to the giant, if you accelerate up faster (and keep tapping late) you'll notice how your body will lift the bar as one unit, and you'll be ready to go to start prepping the release! This is the last part of the basic technique you're missing, the handstand pops on trampoline (while important) are not as crucial as understanding the acceleration to create the bounce. As for the Cody (again, important but not crucial), using the lazy back setup (3/4 back) will make the skill a lot safer, I wouldn't recommend doing straight from a front drop unless you can already do the skill easily. Remember, the Cody is supposed to help you drive your hips for the tuck in the Kovacs. So pushing off the trampoline and mainly focus on driving your hips over your head (right now you have very little hip lift, mostly cannon ball tuck) this will give the most carry over for Kovacs. I'm a gymnastics coach, and while I don't know your specific situation perfectly I think having the right idea in mind for each skill will help you improve a lot faster, rather than just practicing a lot and hoping something sticks. Hope this helps and looking forward to week 4!

[@LachFlex]

Thanks so much for all this! Such kind strangers here on KZbin!🤗

[@lachieforato2169]

Huge grind! Already excited to see the week 4 video 🔥🔥🔥

[@nickevanoff8712]

🔥🔥

[@natcomber13]

Hey man, great series, loving the raw style, reminds me of your older series! I may be a little late to the party to give any advice which will help in time, but a couple of observations: Firstly, I'd say there's probably over perfectionism of the tap going on here. Of course, consolidating the action is very important, and if you were setting this as a long term goal, it would be sensible to get this right before moving on, but with the limited time frame you've given yourself, there's no replacement for going for the skill, even if supported, or over pit or whatever. I'd say your action has been good enough for a while to start hopping over the bar at the very least, if not turning the skill over the bar. Chances are it will take a lot of attempts at the Kovac to even touch the pad and then a bunch more to actually catch the bar and swing out, so the sooner you can start attempts the better. I think freerunners have shown in recent years that mad stuff is possible off a bar without perfect actions; the body can find other ways to compensate. Even though this doesn't produce 'pure' technical gymnastics, it can still be possible to get an end skill as a result. I don't think I've ever seen a kovacs in this context but certainly some crazy dismounts with no discernable action, on a bar that does not bounce, so I'm sure similar principle applies to releases. Next, I would have probably made better use of strap bar to practice your actions and then moved across to chalk bar when you were ready to release - you could have probably got way more reps in that way without shredding your hands as much.. Lastly, the tramp drills are good, but there are other ways to train the awareness and in particular practicing how to see and catch the bar. Something simple like standing on the edge of the pit and doing tuck back to 'catch' the edge, or even standing tuck back off the bar to touch the pad, would be good additions to your repertoire to rehearse the 2nd half of the element. Personally, I'd be surprised if you catch Kovac within the month given how little time is remaining to attempt it, but I'd love to be proven wrong! Even if you don't, I think it is certainly something that you could catch one day, with your determination and discipline. As you alluded to in the first episode, there's probably no one who has started as late as you, who's done this skill, so it would be a mega acheivement. Best of luck, looking forward to the next episode!

[@Daltonator87]

Keep at it Lachlan! I agree with the 3/4 back tuck entry to that kovac. Also I’d recommend to pull into the flip faster off the trampoline. It looks like you are waiting to rise too long before initiating the pull.

[@LachFlex]

Cheers man, will do. Big gains coming ;)

[@wa-hy4ho]

using hands more to push on cody makes it easier

[@LachFlex]

@@wa-hy4ho definitely, thanks!

[@Noam_.Menashe]

I thought I was the only one feeling the biceps in the bridge 😂

[@LachFlex]

Bridge biceps bros 👊

[@kumbackquatsta]

i'm just glad you're an android boy

[@millacabral9475]

I'm not a gymnast, but I do watch it a lot, and I think I've seen someone else commenting this, but it seems like you're not working on the part right after the tap at all. When you watch someone winding up for a Kovacs, they do the motion to get the bar moving in the right direction, but then they immediately bring their feet down and do a very exaggerated dish-arch-kick motion to launch them up in the air so that they have time to flip and catch. You're doing the tap but then releasing tension and just swinging around, so there is that very key "launching" motion that's missing from your build up. It doesn't seem like you're ready to even think about releasing because you would just fly away from the bar or maybe get 2cm above it and then land right on top of it right now. If you notice gymnasts warming up in big competitions, a lot of the time they will prepare a kovacs skill but then not release the bar, and that's when you see the full windup and the bar bouncing like crazy when they don't let go, but it looks like the reason for that is the strong dish-arch-kick they do right before letting go, because that's what gives them the height. I'm sure the steps before it are just as important, of course, but there must be a reason why people can connect a Takemoto half to a freaking Kolman with zero buildup beforehand, and it looks like it's more about the motions just before releasing the bar rather than the windup with the tap that you've been discussing here. But again, this is just based on a comment I saw in your first video in this series and some things I observed from watching Kovacs tutorials posted by high-level coaches on youtube. Good luck man.

[@millacabral9475]

I just saw that you started doing this at the end of the video, it looks like you're getting closer to doing the skill!

[@edwarddeane9853]

During the front on clip at 6 minutes, it looks like during the front swing and coming over the top of the bar your arms are bending very slightly. You can see them just coming straight as you move over the top, losing power here maybe?