Handstand Forward Rolls

momof5 · #1 05-10-2008, 10:40 AM

This is one skill that my dd has been working on for a long time and she just can't seems to figure it out. She is at the point now that she goes up into the handstandthen immediately "crumples" (my word for how it looks) into a ball and rolls out. She has no clue how to lean in the handstand before she rolls out. Any ideas for helping her get this skill?

MoonKid · #2 05-10-2008, 11:38 AM

You could try telling her to kick harder into the handstand and not to roll until she is already falling over. Also, if she the goal is to do it with straight arms (which it often is) then telling her to look at her hands until she feels like she's about to land on her back and then tucking her head in and rolling at the last second.

Is she being spotted for this? If she is, the coach could help her get get the feeling of when to roll by even just holding an ancle and telling her not to roll until the coach says to. If she isn't maybe she could ask for a spot. Sometimes kids are so afraid of falling on their back that they roll way too early.

I hope this helps.

kristilyn73 · #3 05-10-2008, 11:48 AM

One thing I see is that the kids tend to bend their elbows to roll.. She should keep her arms completely straigh then tuck her head in. they should roll down on the back of her neck.. I hope that make sense..

**Geoffrey Taucer** · #4 05-10-2008, 01:49 PM

Two things I do to address this.

First, I don't teach it as a handstand forward roll; I teach it as a handstand.... and a forward roll is one of the two acceptable ways of comming down when they start falling (the other being stepping down to a lunge.) The forward roll is not part of the goal, it is merely a way of comming down from a handstand once they start to lose their balance.

As for the skill itself, I first teach a candlestick. Then, occasionally when I'm spotting them on handstands, I "accidently" pull them slightly off balance to the front, and tell them to bail by dropping to a candlestick. From there, they simply roll forward and stand up.

The imprtant thing to me is that the roll is not the central focus of the skill; they need to be focused on holding the handstand first.

momof5 · #5 05-10-2008, 02:01 PM

I definately think that she is afraid of this skill. For months she couldn't even roll out and always flopped hard on her back. She had a hard time learning this because she didn't want to practice because it hurt.

**Geoffrey Taucer** · #6 05-10-2008, 02:49 PM

The candlestick is the way to go to avoid the back flop.

BlairBob · #7 05-11-2008, 11:59 PM

She can already do handstand flatbacks, right? She can easily roll out of a handstand against the wall, correct?

Stand up a cheese mat/wedge. She will kick into the handstand against it and as it falls will roll out.

Shan126 · #8 05-25-2009, 10:10 AM

A good drill I use with my kids is to place a line about a foot infront of a wedge mat. Have them handstand on the line and keep tight and straight as they fall. Once their shoulders hit the wedge mat they finish rolling and stan up.

gymgirl13 · #9 06-21-2009, 02:12 PM

tell her 2 do her handstand and lean then when she feels she is about to fall then she should roll out or she should do the handstand with u holding her legs so she gets into the feel of holding the handstand

CoachSara · #10 06-28-2010, 06:39 PM

What always works for my girls is reminding them to push the floor away from them (teaching them to push through their fingers) which will assist them in keeping their arms straight. As for the legs, I make sure to remind them to squeeze their bottoms and stretch as far as they can towards the opposite wall. A good verbal que for them is "toes to the wall".