Parents Press Handstand

[3LittleGymmies]

My youngest gymmie is five years old and she is on pre-team. While she is well beyond the other girls in her group in strength and maturity, she doesn't have all of the skills she needs to move up to the next pre-team group yet (she still needs her back hip circle). I suspect that this is mostly because she was adopted internationally just over a year ago and she is still learning how to use her body in different ways (since she didn't exactly grow up running around, doing flips, monkeying around on the playground, etc). She started gymnastics just a few months ago (her older sister is a new level 4) and already has a great bridge with her legs together and pointed and her hands together, handstand, cartwheel, splits all the way down, round off, back handspring on the trampoline, pull over, great casts, etc. She can do 200 push ups nose to floor and over 20 pull-ups and can climb the rope to the top with no legs.. just to give you an idea of how strong she is! Our gym doesn't do special TOP's training, but she seems to have such an interest in the strength side of gymnastics. Our biological older gymnast is very talented, but I would not say that she is "naturally" strong like our younger gymmie is and she loathes conditioning whereas her little sister does it for hours at home "for fun"! She is strong because she trains so much and so hard, but her little sister just came that way - with BIG muscles! Anyway. Our little one has been trying to get her press handstand. She can do it against the wall and she can do it on the floor or beam to where her back is up completely horizontal. But she can't figure out how to flip herself up/lift her hips, if that makes sense. She goes up much higher than her big sister can, and her big sister can't really help her because she can't do it. It's not something that they work on at practice, but it really does seem like she could get it if she could just figure out the logistics of it. Are there any key words/phrases that I can share with her to help her understand how to get her hips/legs up from underneath her? She is so determined to get it!

 

[gymdog]

Just help her to go up and then help less and less.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

with mine I used to stand in front of her (between the straddle) and just hold her hips as she rotated her legs through. It helped her understand where her hips needed to be for balance and gave her the confidence that she wouldn't tip over too far as I was in the way. As time went on I helped less and less.

hth

 

[Flossyduck]

The best advice we were given is to focus on rolling her back up until it's straight and not to think about lifting her legs until her back is upright. She doesn't need to 'flip' her legs up, that'll result in her dropping back down or arching to try and get a handstand. So keep as tight a pancake shape as she can and think about rolling her spine carefully up to an upright position and then her legs will be out to the side and pointing down and she can circle them up.

A trick we used a lot when learning was for dd to stand in elephant stand, with her feet raised on a mat or cushion so that she could put her hands on the floor and get her back straight up. She could then learn the circling/lifting her legs out and round up to handstand bit to get a feel for it. And yes, just put a finger either side of her hips to support.

We used a barbie (although her arms were a bit short!) to show her that her back needed to be straight to allow her to get her balance ready to swing her legs up. If her back isn't straight and she throws her legs out you can see how it would be impossible to get up to a handstand, as gravity will do it's thing. Surprisingly useful visual tool is barbie and it came into use again more recently to look at the balance points in pike up to handstands. Other than that I detest them!

She's doing really well for five though

 

[gymboymom]

We read in a kids gymnastics book that doing a pancake on the floor and swimming your legs back is a similar motion. Worked for my ds at 5 to help him figure it out.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

Thank you all so much for your advice and encouragement, I really appreciate it! Okay, trying to visualize this pancake drill. She should be down on the floor in a pancake stretch and then swing her legs behind her so that they are straight?

Here is a little video I took this morning of her attempt.. this is about as high as she can get right now.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

she wants to keep her centre of gravity as close over her hands as she can - so back straight and the roll the hips up. She could try getting to handstand against a wall from straddle stand

 

[Flossyduck]

She's doing great - legs straight, good clearance from the floor, shoulders well over.

I'm not an expert, but at the point, personally, I would be standing in front of her (so she's facing you as she sits and has her back to you as she rolls up) and just reach out and gently press your fingers either side of her chest (below the shoulders and above the waist) and help support her to push up higher, hopefully to handstand. Leave the legs as they are until she's up. You might need to help pull her a little to begin with, but if you press your fingers to her side, rather than actually grasp her, it's easy to gradually reduce the amount of help.

Another thing we were told, which seemed to help, was to tell her to think about pushing the floor down, as she presses up, rather than pushing herself up - if that makes sense.

After that it just takes time and lots of practice and for my dd, as I recall, she needed to still feel my finger tips at her side for a while, long after she could clearly do the skill on her own.

I love this skill still. dd was playing a friends the other day and they were asking her to show them various skills and this was the one which blew them away

 

[Flossyduck]

Yes, as Margo says, it's a sort of rolling motion from the shoulders, up the spine and through the hips. I found holding her at the chest encouraged her to roll up whereas holding her at the hips encouraged her to tip those up too soon and arch, but you'll find what suits you best.

 

[gymdog]

She is close enough at this stage that you can just help her lightly by lifting her hips until she is in a handstand. Also help her lower down to the starting position to build balance and control. JAO put up a stalder video a couple months ago on YouTube which outlines many of the drills people are mentioning.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

She was able to get up into handstand today with me just supporting the sides of her chest a bit (and her doing all of the work of getting up there). I will be sure to post a video once she gets it all on her own. Thank you all!

 

[iwannacoach]

Lean forward and lift your knees up next to your arm pits..... while keeping straight legs and arms.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

I just wanted to post a little progress video! It seems like she is getting a little bit higher.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

Oops... the video would be helpful! And yes, this was on the beam versus the floor. Not sure if that makes it easier.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

Here is another video update on my little gymmie. She has been working so hard! She can get up into a handstand with some support on the sides of her chest, shown here:



Here is another progress video with no help



It will be so fun to look back st this thread when she finally gets it! You have all been so helpful. In other news, she got both her back hip circle and handstand bridge kickover yesterday at gym. Her big gymmie sister was so proud of her that she gave her the prized gymnastics panda bear that she got at a meet! Having two gymmies is so fun... (and expensive! ha!).

 

[Iwannabemargo]

she is improving all the time, she needs to try and keep her arms straight. A lot of children bend their arms and the "muscle up" the last bit to handstand. It will be a lot easier if she locks out her arms all the time. xxxx

 

[GYM0M]

When my DD was first learning her presses, the coaches would often hold her at the arms/shoulder region. They also told her to get her bum up first and that the legs will follow. Something clicked in her little head as she challenged the gym record holder for most in a row recently (record holder is now one of her coaches) and won with 26 in a row! Granted the pretty ones were limited to the first 5 or 6!

 

[iwannacoach]

It's gotten better, but she's going about it the hard way. In the second video there's a moment when her feet are just about in line between her feet. At this moment her knee caps are just below the height of her armpits. I'm gonna call this her compressed position and say it's her best position and best chance to continue progressing to a handstand in a modified position.

The handstand I'd like to see her get to is one that has her hips within an inch or 2 of their final position while she remains in her compressed position. Her shoulders would be slightly forward in this handstand to counter balance the weight of her legs, but barely more than she's already doing, and that will keep her mass centered over her hands.

You can see that her hips stop going up as soon as she moves her legs away from her compressed position. The reason for this is her the weight of her legs has moved farther back from the vertical line of her hands, and she's unable to lean far enough forward to keep an equal amount of her weight in front of her hands.

The solution comes from three primary sources.......

Pike and piked straddle flexibility to allow for a deeper compressed position.

Abdominal and hip flexor strength to hold her legs in the compressed position.

Shoulder strength to allow for increases in her lean forward.

These three are not the only things going on in a press, but are the major elements contributing to the skill. It's possible to trade more of one for less of the other, but only a little and even just a tiny amount of trade offs will make reduce the ease and elegance of the skill.

But hey, she's only five years old and looks pretty good to me for what she's already doing.

 

[Galadriel]

Dds coach used to have them pressing only to the position where their bum was up over their shoulders (forward) and their feet off the ground -like IWC described. And hold this for 5 seconds x 5 times. OR if they cant then press so bum as high as they can and hold. Also from straddle stand learn to balance in this position.

 

[Galadriel]

Dds coach used to have them pressing only to the position where their bum was up over their shoulders (forward) and their feet off the ground -like IWC described. And hold this for 5 seconds x 5 times. OR if they cant then press so bum as high as they can and hold. Also from straddle stand learn to balance in this position.