WAG Handstand question

[mllea2]

What would prevent a child who is very strong (amazing at bars, conditioning, Rope climb) from holding a hand stand for more than a few seconds??? I just assumed if you were very strong in your upper body and stomach that holding a hand stand would be easy..... I am just curious! TIA!

 

[raenndrops]

Can she hold the handstand against a wall?
It may be a balancing issue.

 

[Mamabear123]

I have found that super flexible kids sometimes have a hard time holding handstands because they are just so bendy. Is she really flexible?

 

[mllea2]

Yes she can hold handstand against a wall and no she is not super flexible! She has that very muscular body especially her shoulders. She is getting frustrated because she just struggles with this.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

How old is she? What level?

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Are her shoulders flexible enough? How about wrists? Is her form good against the wall?

If she has flexibility issues, it's very hard to get the center of mass to stay on top of her wrists.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

 

[Aussie_coach]

As gymisforeveryone points out, very muscular shoulders are often a cause formstruggle in holding a handstand. If the shoulders are tight they may be closed, as in the picture above and the gymnast is forced to over compensate by arching their back and misaligning the body.

At best this will prevent her from holding a handstand long at worstnit can lead to stress fractures in the back from the constant pressure on the lumber spine.

 

[sewgood]

Not being tight enough (body is wavy instead of a straight line, closed shoulders, palms aren’t all the way on the floor etc. Basically, the pic above.

Looking at the floor - this is a huge one. They look down at the floor instead of keeping head neutral and looking straight behind them.

Not levering into the hand stand correctly. Fix the lever, and it fixes the hand stand.

 

[kiwi2406]

To hold a handstand, the whole body needs to be in a straight line, from the wrists (where the centre of gravity should be directly above) to the toes. If one thing is off, the rest of the body will try to compensate by closing the shoulders, arching the back etc.

One tip I have been told also is to push to the ceiling through my shoulders and keep my bellybutton (about where the centre of gravity is) directly above my wrists and shoulders.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

All of the above and:

Active shoulders. If you get your arms up while just standing and not doing anything with your shoulders, there will be a gap between the ears and arms. Pushing shoulders out will fix it.

Also digging hands into the ground not just having them stand on the ground. Really try to grip the ground and squeeze it.

 

[mllea2]

How old is she? What level?

She is 6.... she has not started competing yet

 

[mllea2]

Are her shoulders flexible enough? How about wrists? Is her form good against the wall?

If she has flexibility issues, it's very hard to get the center of mass to stay on top of her wrists.

I know her flexiblity has shown a lot of improvement. I think her shoulders may be flexible enough as she does back walkovers, back handsprings, front handsprings, front walkovers, kip. But I really do not know how to tell, I am not well versed in Gymnanstics. I just find it odd that she can do front tuck on floor but Can't hold a 10 second handstand...lol. She of course has to work on her form with these skills, and I know most problems with form are caused from her lack of flexibility.

 

[mllea2]

As gymisforeveryone points out, very muscular shoulders are often a cause formstruggle in holding a handstand. If the shoulders are tight they may be closed, as in the picture above and the gymnast is forced to over compensate by arching their back and misaligning the body.

At best this will prevent her from holding a handstand long at worstnit can lead to stress fractures in the back from the constant pressure on the lumber spine.

Yes I notice that she often holds a handstand with her back arched and her legs curved torwards her head. Is that what you mean??

 

[Aero]

To hold a handstand, the whole body needs to be in a straight line, from the wrists (where the centre of gravity should be directly above) to the toes. If one thing is off, the rest of the body will try to compensate by closing the shoulders, arching the back etc.

While most of this statement is correct, I have to clear up one thing: the center of mass should be positioned over the edge of the fingers, instead of the wrists; a perfectly balanced handstand has a very slight lean towards the fingers, about five degrees, give or take. This allows the fingers to dig into the ground and directly control the balance of the handstand. It is a series of micro muscle movements to maintain balance, which can also be described as a bunch of tiny falls that are constantly saved/corrected by the fingers and wrists. If the handstand becomes more drastically unbalanced, it can still be saved without compromising the straight body shape by using the shoulder weaving technique. This means that when the center of mass moves too far out of the base of support on the fingers, the shoulder joint has to take over by planching or reverse planching. This is also the most effective way to save handstands on bars since the fingers cannot really be used as they are wrapped around the bar.

As far as the ability to hold a handstand, it is really a very technical and specific talent. It takes a lot of practice and learning to feel the balance in exactly the right place, as well as quick reaction time to save it when it becomes unbalanced. This is all completely beside the fact that the gymnast has to be considerably strong to hold the correct shape while making all of these minute balance checks. There is a large amount of fine motor control involved in holding a handstand, believe it or not.

I would seriously not worry too much about your six year old being able to hold a handstand. Any decent gymnastics program will teach this technique in time.

 

[Natasha]

All of the above, and a good program will work on getting the handstand with correct form, and then working on holding it. Working on holding a bad handstand will just reinforce bad habits, so please do not stress yet about how long she can hold it. My dd had to relearn her handstand at L6 because of this.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

She is 6.... she has not started competing yet

Time. Time will help a lot

 

[sce]

She is 6.... she has not started competing yet

Just encourage her to keep practicing. It takes awhile to gain the body control t hold a handstand. She needs to really squeeze her stomach and butt to stay upright. As others said, she should not look at the floor either.

 

[gymmom41]

My daughter is also very strong but does not have good shoulder flexibility. She used to be able to hold a handstand for 30 seconds but her shoulders weren't "open" and she was arched- basically just holding it with brute strength. Once her coach insisted on the proper form she couldn't hold it more than 1-2 seconds. Then they kept working on it with the proper form and now she is back up to 30 seconds. All to say... sometimes the strength doesn't help.