Parents Cartwheel help

[GymMathDance]

My daughter is 6 and in group tumbling classes twice a week (not quite gymnastics, but similar at this age). She can do fairly controlled other skills including backbend kickover, front limber, back limber, almost has the back walkover, handstand for like 5 seconds. But her cartwheel is a mess. She does not get her legs all the way up like in front limber and when she lands, she lands on kind of bent legs as opposed to straight legs.

I'm not sure if this is common - or if there is a weakness somewhere. Or if she's just not using the right technique. I see girls that are much worse than her in the other skills do way better cartwheels. Her class does some cartwheels but doesn't really focus on these skills as much as back/front walkover and limbers at this level. Should I see if she can get some private lessons to work on her cartwheel or will this work itself out? I feel like cartwheel is a more basic skill than the other things.

 

[JBS]

Could be technique or flexibility... hard to say without a video.

Overall at that age it's probably just a numbers game. When I used to coach preschool gymnastics I always did 2 minutes of cartwheels either once or twice during each class. This is when I would give each of the 5 or 6 kids in class their own spot to do cartwheels and have them do as many as they could in 2 minutes. This basically helps them get their rhythm... hand... hand... foot... foot. A kid that is not so good at cartwheels may try 10 in the 2 minutes... a kid that gets it will do 30-40 attempts in those 2 minutes.

So if you did that 3 or 4 times per week... she could do 100-150 cartwheels per week without too much time at all. I probably would take more than time than 2 minutes though. As long as nothing is sore or hurting... wrists... elbows... etc... I would just go to town on cartwheels.