Mastering Outstanding Scissors on Pommel Horse

It is no secret that gymnasts often struggle with pommel horse. Coaches and gymnasts toil away developing the circle. While circles are the cornerstone to excellent horse work, sometimes they overlook the scissors. Composing an entire element group, single-leg swings and scissors adhere to the principles of amplitude and rhythm of pommel horse. Yet, longer and slower than circles, scissors are an opportunity to display different artistry than circling elements. Let’s look at what makes an exemplary scissor and how to develop high-quality scissor work.

What is an Excellent Scissor?

Single leg swings and scissors are skills on pommel horse where a gymnast straddles and swings his legs like a pendulum up and over the horse. These skills make up the entirety of element group one on Pommel Horse in the Code of Points. As an example, lets take a look at the classic scissor:

To perform a scissor with no deduction, a few standards should be met:

• each time a leg swings up, it must go above shoulder height.
• the legs should separate at least 120-degrees.
• Basic standards of form such as straight legs and pointed toes should be maintained.

However, mastering a scissor and progressing onto more difficult single leg elements requires elevated standards. It is not sufficient for a gymnast to perform a scissor with no deduction. Virtuosity is a principle of the sport, so the gymnast should to exemplify the principles of amplitude and rhythm.

Our new standards of quality for excellence look like this:

• each time a leg swings up, the leg must swing above the head, ideally to or past vertical.
• the legs should separate to 180-degrees.
• Hips remain over top of the center of the horse.
• Rhythm is maintained in the context of the sequence of skills.

Physical Preparation for Scissors

Developing great scissors on horse requires developing a few key physical attributes. Because scissors use the basic straddle shape, most physical prep will involve hip strength and mobility. However, gymnasts will also be supporting themselves with only their arms, so they need enough arm and shoulder strength.

Flexibility

For high quality scissors, gymnasts should strive for a 180-degree straddle. This means we can set a standard for a middle split all the way down. Ability to compress in a straddle will also allow for a better kick on scissor skills, so a flat pancake will also be important.

Underused but very effective is eccentric training for flexibility. Eccentric exercises involve slowly lowering through an exercise, so the muscle is contract while lengthening. We can implement these by performing slow middle split slide outs, 5s down with a 5s hold, and slow pancake stretches, also with that same tempo.

Strength

While passive range of motion is great, we also want the gymnast to be able to move into this range of motion on their own. Seated straddle leg lifts are excellent. Performing various scales with one leg forward, backward, or to the side also help. To help with strengthening, the gymnast can support themselves by holding on to something, removing the balance component. Particularly helpful is a Y-scale performed without holding the lifted leg up with the hand.

Regarding upper body strength, gymnasts need to strengthen the arms and shoulders. Simple push ups are a good baseline, but dips and shoulder shrugs on parallel bars are more targeted for scissors. Shoulder shrugs especially help teach the shoulders to depress and elevate, which is an important concept for single leg swings.

Developing Scissor Mastery

With clarity on our scissor standards, we can discuss how we reach these standards. Skill progressions can lead us from basic building blocks to high difficulty gymnastics. While building up, we can avoid common mistakes by focusing on a few points of performance and coaching cues. The technique for each progression is cumulative, so what applies to the first progression will likely also apply to the last. To start, we need to work on our basic single leg swings.

Leg Swings and Leg Cuts

Forming the basis for all other single leg swings and scissors, basic leg swings involve keeping both legs straddled as wide as possible on one side of the horse while alternating swinging each leg up over head. These can be performed in front support, with legs behind the horse, or rear support, with legs in front of the horse.

Leg Swing Points of Performance

• Legs wide (avoid bringing legs together in the back)
• Lean onto post arm (avoid leaning toward kicking leg)
• Let the shoulders slightly sink at the bottom and elevate at the top of the swing (similar to PBars support swing)

Common Leg Swing Mistakes

• Legs closing together in back
• Leaning into kicking leg
• Bending the post arm

Progressing from leg swings, leg cuts involve performing a leg swing and then when the leg rising reaches its apex, cutting the leg slightly forward or backward to change sides on the horse. The athlete can extend the skill with a split leg swing. With the legs straddling the saddle of the horse, The same technique of a leg swing applies with a few additions.

Leg Cut Points of Performance

• Limit front leg motion, transfer momentum through back leg
• Lean onto post arm (avoid leaning toward kicking leg)
• Sit hips on top of horse and keep hips open, like a PBars support swing
• Follow through kick (tendency is to continue leg in circle or cut the kick short)

Common Leg Cut Mistakes

• Swinging both legs up at the same time
• Leaning away from or bending the post arm
• Sitting the hips too far back in the saddle
• Kicking the legs too early or cutting the kick short

False Scissor and Scissor

Moving from regressions, we finally get to scissor elements. A false scissor involves, from front support, perform a leg cut to bring one leg in front of the horse. Swing the back leg up as high as possible, and at the apex, swap the front leg under the back leg to the back to return to front support.

A scissor involves performing a false scissor, except at the apex of the swing the back leg will move to the front of the horse while the front leg moves under, swapping legs into a split leg swing.

Scissor Points of Performance

• Limit front leg motion, transfer momentum through back leg
• Keep the legs moving upward and downward, limiting forward and backward movement.

Common False Scissor and Scissor Mistakes

• Swinging both legs up at the same time
• Moving the kicking leg too far forward or backward
• Piking the hips while switching legs

Reverse Scissors

Reverse scissors involve driving momentum through the front leg as we swing it up and back behind the horse. The same concepts as scissors apply, except the actions are in reverse. These often point out a few bad habits that gymnasts can get away with during previous progressions.

Points of Performance

• Shift the hips so they are slightly turned from square with the horse.
• Emphasize sitting the hips on top of the horse.
• Avoid unnecessary forward and backward movement of the legs.

Advanced Scissor Variations

Full Scissor and Traveling Scissors

Once a gymnast can perform great leg swings through scissors, they have all the tools necessary to perform more complex scissor elements. A full scissor, sometimes called a double scissor, is a scissor where the gymnast performs a half turn and the legs swap over the horse twice, once on the way up and once on the way down. Traveling scissors involve moving from one third of the horse to another while performing a scissor. Additionally, traveling scissors can combine with other variations such as full scissors. For example, the Mikulak is a full scissor traveling the entire length of the horse.

Scissor to Handstand

When an athlete gains sufficient lift through scissors, they will naturally start to rise toward a handstand. A scissor to handstand is essentially a full scissor or reverse full scissor with the body passing through handstand. When performing a scissor to handstand, judges deduct for any show of strength, so mastery of swing is important. Not only should the leg lift up and past vertical, but the hip should lift up toward vertical. Likewise, leaning on top of the post arm is key.

Example Training for Scissors

One method of training for scissors that I have seen produce positive changes in single leg skill quality is brief daily practice of basic scissor work. At the start of every horse practice, gymnasts warm up with one set of six leg swings in both front support and rear support. Then, a set of three leg cuts on each side. Finally, a set of six false scissors on each side. The athlete should try and keep these consecutive to maintain rhythm.

As the gymnast advances, progress these basic sequences. A higher level athlete may start with leg cuts, proceed to scissors, and finish with reverse scissors. Perform scissors in the uphill and downhill positions to add in variation. Some higher level scissor skills like full scissors and scissor travels can be included to finish off sequences of basics.

Benefits of Daily Scissor Training

I find that this high frequency approach has a few benefits. It allows athletes to get daily touches on these skills, and this consistency over time helps compound progress. By performing scissors at the beginning, it also helps athletes warm up for the rest of a horse session. Performing scissor on the handles taxes the wrist less than circles, so it helps warm up the wrist and elbows as well.

A downside to this approach the limited volume in a single training session. Although excellent for achieving great basics, sometimes the training isn’t sufficient to develop high level skills without extra scissor work. Similarly, the daily routine can get repetitive and tedious without variation. Battle these downsides by adding supplemental scissor work when athletes are looking to learn new skills and adding variations or challenges to the daily drills.

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