Question Regarding Standing BHS

[livelifetumble8dx]

Okay. So whenever i do my standing bhs, i get soo much pain in my wrist and it shoots up my forearms, my coach said you shouldn't feel any pain in your wrist or forearms for back tumbling. What am i doing wrong to cause this? it never happened before i started standing bhs on the floor.

(NOT a medical question. just wondering what im doing wrong in my standing bhs that is causing so much pain)

 

[gymnasticsluver12!]

this happened to two of the girls on my team, and my coach said cause of all the pressure that's on your wrists and cause back handsprings are different from any other skills in the way your wrists are used....they both got wrist braces and they say it doesn't hurt anymore..

 

[CoachTodd]

You are hitting at the wrong angle (most likely) and putting too much weight on your hands. I try to look at the back hand spring as kind of hitting the floor as your body passes by. It's basically the angles that the skill is being done at. i.e. if you bend forward and jump really high, you come straight back down, land on your hands with 4 to 6 times your body weight, then try to snap down. If you sit back at the correct angle, jump up at the correct angle, you actually push off the floor as your hips pass over your center of gravity. This push speeds the skill up preparing for what ever you would want to connect to it.

This is a bit of a simplified version of what happens but that's pretty much it. I would suggest either using a rod floor or tumble trak for standing handsprings until you feel the correct angles and speed that keeps most of the pressure off of your hands. If you are feeling it out of the round off hand spring, you may need to work on getting the round off to turn over more. It is difficult to say without a video.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

put on wrist supports and see if the pain changes or moves or goes away.

 

[Kiwi]

I'm just a beginner trying to learn BHS on tumble track, but I have noticed that it is much harder on my wrists when I don't jump back enough. It's about the angle, as Coach Todd said. Someone here described a good BHS shape as a rainbow shape so I try to imagine that.

 

[AmandaLynn]

You are hitting at the wrong angle (most likely) and putting too much weight on your hands. I try to look at the back hand spring as kind of hitting the floor as your body passes by. It's basically the angles that the skill is being done at. i.e. if you bend forward and jump really high, you come straight back down, land on your hands with 4 to 6 times your body weight, then try to snap down. If you sit back at the correct angle, jump up at the correct angle, you actually push off the floor as your hips pass over your center of gravity. This push speeds the skill up preparing for what ever you would want to connect to it.

This is a bit of a simplified version of what happens but that's pretty much it. I would suggest either using a rod floor or tumble trak for standing handsprings until you feel the correct angles and speed that keeps most of the pressure off of your hands. If you are feeling it out of the round off hand spring, you may need to work on getting the round off to turn over more. It is difficult to say without a video.

That. almost exactly.

Also, I've noticed that many people that have very poor shoulder flexibility have pain in their writs when they do back handsprings. Raise your arms over your head and flex your wrists. If you can not get your hands parallel to the ground while standing upright (IE: unable to get your arms by your ears, or perpendicular to the floor), you are more likely to have wrist pain when tumbling than someone with better shoulder flexibility. This is because of the extreme flexion that the wrist is forced to make to compensate for the lack of extension in the shoulder area.

As coach todd mentioned, it's very difficult to say what the problem is without a video.

 

[tumble-ready]

I, too, would agree with CoachTodd and AmandaLynn that the pain is because of the angle of the wrist when it hits the floor. The pressure is more on the heel of the hand (wrist) instead of on the balls of the hand (opposite side of the knuckles). The problem is the angle but the solution is in the reason for the bad angle. Without a video, my first guess would be that the hands are hitting the floor too soon which translates to the BHS being too low. If the hands hit too soon, the body weight is behind the hands putting more pressure down on the wrist instead of the body weight being above the wrist and moving in the same direction as the BHS. I compare it like skipping a rock on water. If you have the right height, and are moving across the floor, the hands and feet shouldn't have much weight at all and your body should move across the floor much like a rock skipping across the water. If you go too high or too low, you will sink into the floor (water).
I see this a lot and the correction is simple. As you reach into the BHS, be sure you get fully extended through the rib cage. The reach should be up in relation to the body giving you the "right height". The jump back initiates the backward movement and with the hips tucked under and squeezing when the hands hit, this will continue the backward movement and create the "skipping" off the hands as the athlete transitions back to the hollow position for the second half of the BHS.
Hope that helps!

 

[gymnastralo]

you are probly not jumping hard enough to get height for the backhandpring. If you dont get enough height you can hit the ground at a really hard level impacting your wrists a lot. I would recommend wearing tiger paw wrist supports or taping your wrists if they are giving shooting pain like you described.

 

[CoachTodd]

you are probly not jumping hard enough to get height for the backhandpring. If you dont get enough height you can hit the ground at a really hard level impacting your wrists a lot. I would recommend wearing tiger paw wrist supports or taping your wrists if they are giving shooting pain like you described.

Just keep in mind, you do NOT want to go straight up. I do agree that most beginners and quite a few not so beginners tend to jump straight back. It's all about the vectors. If you sit/fall/lean (what ever wording you use) back at the correct angle, and jump at the correct angle (what ever those angles may be), your body will fly and flip at the correct angle. The hard part is finding that angle for yourself.