bending legs to get into straddle cast postion

[momof5]

This question is from my L7 daughter who is trying very hard to ge rid of the bent legs in her cast handstands. She cast and then as she moves into the straddle postion her knees bend until get into the upside down straddle then the straighten out beautifully. Its not something that is terribly noticeable to my untrained eyes. I never even noticed until she was watching meet videos and was matching them in slow motion. Then it was very noticeable. She says her coach has never mentioned it. Now that she mentioned this to her coach he just tells her to squezze harder. She says she is trying. She has been working drills by herself at home but I don't think its what she needs to fix this. She is doing forward folls up to straddle handstands and she does those beautifully. It just seems to be a problem for casting. Are there any drills she can work on at home and any pointers for working on these at practice so that she can cast with straight legs

 

[Deleted member D3987]

she is using her back muscles to cast/press the bar. she needs to use her abdominals. she can practice/feel this by doing presses very slowly on a floor bar. she does them both ways. this way she'll 'feel' what she needs to do with her body/stomach.