WAG 8 Weeks to Cast Handstand?

[senorachalk]

My daughter's coaches have changed requirements for moving up and she now needs to have her cast handstand on low bar. She has approximately 8 weeks to master it. Would welcome any and all advice for training she can do at home. Thanks!

 

[estamey21]

Gymnastics training can’t be rushed, especially in that time frame. It’s also likely that the coaches already know who they want to move up, so they arbitrarily created a new rule to effectively remove your daughter (and others like her) from the pool of candidates. If the coaches were really interested in creating a fair and objective system for graduating students to the next level, they would have defined the requirements at the beginning of the season and designed a training curriculum around those requirements. Considering that the cast handstand requirement was added on such short notice and your daughter does not currently have a cast handstand, whatever your daughter shows them in 2 months will likely not be “good enough.” I’m using scare quotes here because the coaches will probably find something wrong with the cast handstand that they can use as evidence against your daughter’s candidacy.

Ok, with that aside, your daughter is still going to need to learn a cast handstand eventually. Can she do a press handstand? Can she do a press handstand on a floor bar? Can she jump to straddle up handstand from her knees on a floor bar? These are all drills that can be safely done at home if she wants to do some extra credit conditioning. You don’t necessarily need a floor bar, but it’s a nice tool for getting used to the hand placement of a cast handstand.

 

[Jenny]

I agree with the above post. However it will only benefit her to try. Youtube has lots of cast handstand drills to do. There are some that can be done on a floor bar and there are strength drills that only need a floor or wall. If she can get to some kind of open gym to do casts on a real bar that would really help. Would her gym allow her to do 15 mins at the beginning or end or every practice to just hammer out as many as she can.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

At home training for cast handstands? Press handstands are the best bet.

 

[Dahlialover]

Press handstands and all their variations like pike presses. Also, my son had trouble casting to handstand until I had him cast his feet to the bar and then fall over on to a mat. He had been so afraid of falling over that he wasn’t committing to the lean. Practicing falling over the bar on purpose cured the fear and he was able to get the skill almost instantly!

 

[NutterButter]

I'm so sorry. I can speak from experience that when move up rules change abruptly with no good explanation that it's usually a way to limit who moves up. This sucks because the next 8 weeks will be spent worrying about getting this one skill and I'm sure you know there is no timetable for skill acquisition. Even worse is when it gets into the gymnasts head and becomes the one thing that defines every practice. The focus on getting 'the one skill' can easily backfire due to unhealthy attention directed at 'the skill'.

Of course she has to try and I hope she makes it! Just make sure you are tempering expectations and helping her manage any pressure she's putting on herself.

 

[GymDadWA]

Just wanted to add that there is nothing wrong with repeating a level and often it's advantageous to the gymnasts overall development as the goal of gymnastics is to master skills not just learn as many as possible. I know it's hard especially when it might mean splitting off with friends and teammates but the gymnastics path is not a straight line and often gymnasts will be grouped up again in future seasons.

 

[JBS]

My daughter's coaches have changed requirements for moving up and she now needs to have her cast handstand on low bar. She has approximately 8 weeks to master it. Would welcome any and all advice for training she can do at home. Thanks!

Cast handstand vs no cast handstand is typically a great way to divide athletes into groups.

Press handstands at home is a perfect way to work it just as @Geoffrey Taucer mentioned.

Here's a good video of a bunch of things you can do...

 

[senorachalk]

Thank you everyone! I feared that might be wha was going on with the coaches. My daughter is finishing up her second year of Xcel Gold. (Both seasons have been very successful.) Until recently, she only needed a kip to move to Level 6. Now they added the new bar skill as a requirement. Frustrating for her to think about doing a third year at this level.

I appreciate the training tips and video too!

 

[senorachalk]

Cast handstand vs no cast handstand is typically a great way to divide athletes into groups.

Press handstands at home is a perfect way to work it just as @Geoffrey Taucer mentioned.

Here's a good video of a bunch of things you can do...

Any suggestions of how many reps of each of these to do a day?

 

[GymnastMomX2]

Agree with press handstand work at home. The cast handstand is how our gym separated girls into level 5 vs 6 this season. Even though a cast handstand technically isn’t required for 6, it is to be in optionals at our gym.

 

[Carly]

Could she move to platinum instead of 6 if she doesn't get the skill? That is definitely frustrating because there is no usag requirement for level 6. At both of dd's gyms, that was one requirement for moving to 7, not 6.

 

[JBS]

We also put that as a L7 requirement… however… it’s up to each gym to create the program that they want.

@senorachalk There are lots of press handstand tutorials and guides online… just Google.

 

[JBS]

Here is another one...

 

[JBS]

And another...

 

[JBS]

More...

The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Press

We all know how frustrating handstand press can be to achieve. In this article I take a deep dive into the mechanics and methodology of learning handstand press. I will help you to choose the right set of exercises and program your training in a logical way to make progress in your handstand press.

www.gornation.com

 

[senorachalk]

More...

The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Press

We all know how frustrating handstand press can be to achieve. In this article I take a deep dive into the mechanics and methodology of learning handstand press. I will help you to choose the right set of exercises and program your training in a logical way to make progress in your handstand press.

www.gornation.com

Thank you so much for the videos!

 

[senorachalk]

Could she move to platinum instead of 6 if she doesn't get the skill? That is definitely frustrating because there is no usag requirement for level 6. At both of dd's gyms, that was one requirement for moving to 7, not 6.

They are phasing out their platinum program next season. Yes, it's very frustrating between the short notice and it not being a USAG requirement for 6. She's pretty deflated at the moment!

 

[NutterButter]

Repeating Gold a 3rd year would irritate me to the point of looking for another gym. It's fine if the gym wants to change their requirements and get rid of Platinum but at least consider grandfathering in the few who may not make it. What sort of training have they been doing towards CHS until now?

 

[senorachalk]

Repeating Gold a 3rd year would irritate me to the point of looking for another gym. It's fine if the gym wants to change their requirements and get rid of Platinum but at least consider grandfathering in the few who may not make it. What sort of training have they been doing towards CHS until now?

Moving gyms has crossed my mind. Though I hate to be that family. Making it all the more frustrating is that she could have done Platinum this past year if she'd had a month or so more on her kip. (They tested out of levels in July with first meet in December). To my knowledge they've only been working on cast handstands since after the holidays. A new head coach has come in and I'm all for higher standards, but also think there should be fair rules.