WAG BHS Analysis

[AquaticSoul]

Hi everyone. I’d like some feedback for my daughter’s back handspring. As you can see, her knees buckle out of the round off and she jumps off of her toes. This has caused significant issues with her “throwing” her RO BHS BT so she’s opted to stop competing floor altogether. We know this issue is requiring her to go back to the basics to remedy. She had a great coach that fixed it over the summer, but with lack of practice, coaching changes and leg growth, she has reverted to old habits. I’m sure there’s more than one issue going on, but we’d appreciate any help.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Gonna post comments while watching through the slow-mo, then give recommendations for drills/etc when I'm done.

-Hurdle is a bit high, but not enough to be a huge problem. The lunge in transition from hurdle to roundoff needs to be much lower, though, to eliminate the airtime in the first half of the roundoff. Hands need to get to the floor faster -- again, there should be no airtume in the first half of a roundoff
-Different coaches will give different opinions on arm position on the roundoff landing, but imo the arms should be much lower when her feet land in the roundoff. Horizontal or lower, ideally. this shortens the body for faster rotation, and also allows a more aggressive push-off into the backhandpsring
-A slight delay (like, a tenth of a second) between the roundoff and the BHS would allow her to get her center of mass farther behind the feed before taking off for the BHS, which would make the connection much more efficient.
-Feet are snapping over top slightly too early; the hips and shoulders should remain extended until after her center of mass passes over her hands. This will generate greater acceleration in the second half of the BHS.

I would focus on two things:
1) Most important thing: many many rows of 3 or more backhandsprings from a stand (can be on floor or tumbletrak). She should be trying to make each BHS as long as possible -- she should NOT be going for speed (and in fact should try to keep them a little bit slower than they normally would be)
2) Less important but still worthwhile: roundoffs on a line from knee lunge, and from a fall-step. She should aim to keep the entry low and get the hands to the floor as quickly as possible