WAG ROundoff back handspring before standing back handspring on the tumbl track

[sythiel]

Hi, I am a 29 year old female gymnast training recreational gymnastics three times per week (about nine hours). I have never done gymnastics as a kid and started adult classes three years ago. I have been learning standing back handspring for two years but I am still not able to do it. My shape is correct using the roller but when my coach spots me it feels like I completely lack power to go over. It is really frustrating because if my power is not enough it can be painful for the people spotting me (spotting an adult is not always easy). Occasionally we train RO BH on the tumbl track and at least in that case I feel like I have enough power to go over. I still need to work on the transition tough because my arch is always insufficient. I guess my question is: "is it possible to learn RO BH before standing BH?". I only have six months left before I move to a new country where I am not sure I will find a gym with a good adult program and I would really like to get RO BH before leaving. Should I concentrate on that or is it better to just keep working on standing BH even if I don't see any improvement?
Thanks a lot in advance for the help

 

[Deleted member D3987]

maybe concentrate on your exciting move to another country. what do i know...

 

[Aussie_coach]

Yes, it's quite possible to learn a round off back handspring before a standing back handspring and many people do.

My preference is for a gymnast to learn the standing back handspring first, so that the gymnast learns where they are in the air to help once you add the power of the round off.

But a round off back handspring is easier for most gymnasts as they have the power of the round off to take them over.

But a bigger concern is why you have not achieved the standing back handspring on the tumble trak yet after two years of training 9 hours a week.

Perhaps if you posted a video of yourself being spotted by your coach for the standing back handspring we could give you some help as to why it is not happening.

 

[wsg13]

Decently allot easier with round off before. Just chuck it! If you are on tumble track not much bad can come! Good luck

 

[Sixmonkeyjungle]

At our gym the girls learn them both concurrently but from watching it seems like everyone gets the ROBHS faster and cleaner before they are able to really do a clean standing.

 

[aileenmaryf]

I coach high school gymnastics in a place where at least half of our JV girls have not done gymnastics ever or did some rec gymnastics when they were younger. I have one girl who started gymnastics only a couple months before she joined my team. she was really close to a back handspring but is one of those girls who is sometimes afraid to jump backwards so she developed a habit of doing this weird jump where her feet stay together but her knees go apart and then she pushes her hips forward and goes into a really deep squat and then jumps backward which makes her go over really slowly or sometimes get stuck. I finally gave up on making her do standing back handsprings (at least for now! ) and decided to make her work RO-HS and guess what.... She can do it and it looks a lot nicer than her standing back handspring. She still has a lot of work to do, but I definitely think some people have to work backwards.

One other thing I don't know if you have considered is a back tuck? I have a lot of girls who will probably never do a back handspring--Its hard on me and sometimes them. BUT we do back tucks instead. Its a lot easier for me to have them do it off of a vault or a beam or a block. I feel more comfortable because if someone were to say get too close to the vault when they went its a lot easier to just push them away from it and I know they aren't going to land on their neck. So another idea would be to try back tucks.

Hope this helps!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Decently allot easier with round off before. Just chuck it! If you are on tumble track not much bad can come! Good luck

"chucking"= injury

 

[sythiel]

Thanks for all the comments. Aileenmaryf, we have recently started working on back tucks and I got it on the trampoline fairly quickly (compared to all my other skills). Still need to work a bit to get it on the tumbl track. For what concerns why I am still not able to do my standing back handspring I really have no answer. My coach is puzzled as well...I always feel like I do not have enough power to go over and the fact that my arch is not really great does not help. My coach tried plenty of different drills but nothing seems to help. Maybe I need to do some extra conditioning, is there any particular conditioning I could do?

 

[BlairBob]

I have gotten kids to do robhs wo standing bhs if they understand the mechanics of the bhs and have some guts.

For more power do back squats with bar. As an adult you can play with airsquats and lunges and kettlebells or you could uae the backsquat to fetway stronger.

However if you can back squat 3/4 to same as your bodyweight, you're strong enough.

Another metric I use is a standing vertical of 6-10" at least...which shouldnt be challenging.

 

[Kiwi]

Here is a drill one coach gave me: put a block on its side so it's tall, then put a soft mat (about 6 inches thick) on top. Stand in front and jump up and back onto the mat like you would for a BHS. If your jump is powerful enough you will land with your hips up on top, but if your jump is not very powerful you will only get your shoulders and back on but your hips and butt will still be off. You might also need to work on shoulder and upper back flexibility, e.g. bridge with raised feet.

 

[Aussie_coach]

"chucking"= injury

I second this, don't just chuck the skill. Even with safety equipment like tumble tracks and foam pits, you can still get very seriously injured.