Pommel Horse

Pommel Horse, arguably the most difficult apparatus in gymnastic, is one of my favorite events because once you get in the swing of things, pommel horse is enjoyable.

When doing pommel horse, you first start out on mushroom:

so you can learn how to do circles. Circles on mushroom are a skill in which you place your hands on a horizontal line through the center of the mushroom and move your feet to one side. Then, while balancing on your hands, you fling your feet around the mushroom in 360 degrees, and miss the ground with your feet, and do the same thing repeatedly.

When you move to the actual pommel horse, you can either do loops and or circles. Loops are when you do a circle with the long ends off the horse to your sides, whereas a circle on the pommel horse the short ends are by your sides.  

My favorite part of pommel horse is working scissor skills. Scissor work has many different skills that include scissors, false scissors, scissor travels, and scissor twists. Personally, I am partial to twisting travel scissors. My favorite of these is a full twisting scissor travel. Because it is difficult to explain, I am including videos.

            Full Twisting Scissor: Here

            Basic Scissor Work: Here

When first starting out on the pommel horse, especially if you start out as a level seven, it can be difficult and aggravating, but it gets better if you try your best to learn the skill that you need.

Pommel Horse Picture: Here

Mushroom Picture: Here