Circle Up/Chin Up Circle Over

What is a circle up?
A circle up consists of two moves. A chin up and a leg lift.

Need to know:
A chin up involves the hands to be in an over-grasp of the bar, which involves the knuckles facing the gymnast. The gymnast will now begin to bend their arms while holding onto the bar, allowing their chin to lift towards and above the bar, without putting their chin on the bar itself.

A leg lift involves a gymnast starting in a hang, then, using their stomach muscles to lift their legs from vertical (toes facing the floor, to vertical - feet by the bar, toes pointing to the ceiling.

How to do a circle up:
For a circle up, the gymnasts starts by performing a chin up. Once their chin is above the bar, they will then begin to lift their legs from hanging below them to pointing at the ceiling.
At this point, the gymnast most rotate their wrists, so that their hands are underneath the bar, while pushing their feet over the top of the bar, resulting in them being in an upside down pike shape.
Once the feet are over the bar, the wrists must continue to turn around the bar, the shoulders then lift up as the arms straighten.
They will now finish with their legs below the bar, their hips next to the bar, their hands on the bar and their upper body above the bar.

Coaching Points/Things to look out for:

1. The chin up (bent arms and chin above the bar) must be maintain for the whole leg lift and wrist movement, otherwise it will be impossible to lift the legs over and around the bar.
2. The head must remain still in this move. If the head is thrown backwards, there will be too much weight behind the gymnast and they will be unable to get up and around the bar. 
3. A rounded chest should be encouraged during the rotation - to help and to avoid bad habits in later moves.
4. If there is no wrist movement, then the gymnast will get stuck, this is the same with lifting the shoulders. 
5. Do not allow a gymnast to change from over-grasp to reverse grip (under-grasp) during this move. most beginner gymnasts will do this naturally - but it has to be stopped.
6. It takes a lot of arm strength to perform a chin up and a lot of core strength to perform a leg lift - the main issue may simply be that the gymnast is not strong enough/ready for this move. 

Drills/Preps for working and improving the circle up:
Strength: Practice chin ups and leg lifts a lot - the more they can do, the easier this move will be.
Multitasking: to make sure the gymnast can hold the chin up while doing a leg lift the coach should support them. Hold the back so they can maintain the chin up, then give slight guidance by supporting the legs as they go over. Then stop the gymnast at the top to stop them falling back.