With a gainer dismount, the gymnast should travel forward and sideways to avoid the beam.  To accomplish this during the take-off, this gymnast leans her body away from the vertical in the desired traveling direction.   Check a couple of technical motions for the side gainer.

  • Still 1 – After moving both arms and the free leg back the arms make a strong forward and upward swing to set up the somersault in coordination with a strong forward and upward kick of the free leg.
  • Still 2 –  The support leg performs a strong jump to take-off as the whole body tilts moving the center of mass from the vertical support.

Once a given gymnast has mastered a fair side gainer somersault in tuck position, they can start learning the skill in a layout position.   Eventually this gainer can be performed with single or multiple twists    Check one more side gainers in layout position and analyze her weak and strong technical points.