Undercutting back handspring

[momof5]

My L5 DD has recently developed some problems with her standing back handspring. She undercuts it and badly so she also looks archy and stick her head out. Her coach has been increasingly frustrated with her. She had a private with the head coach this weekend and they went back to drills. Jumping back to land on a raised mat and then spotting her with him behind her and she jumps back and he holds her in the air in the correct body postion. She gets all the drills and does them correctly. She understands where her hands are supposed to land. He had her put down a chalk line. But she can't seems to strech out her jump back when the tried the back handspring. She goes back to her regular coach today( her coach doesn't do privates and recommeded she do the private with the HC) and she is worried he will continue to be frustated with her inability to make this correction. Any advice for her. Something to think of or consentrate on with doing this skill so she can strech out her jump back.

 

[CoachTodd]

I like the following view of back hand springs that I was told by a college coach

1. Sit back
Don't lean back but sit. I'm sure the coach has already worked this with her.

2. Jump up. That's right up. If you are already sitting back correctly and you jump back, you drill yourself into the ground. There needs to be an up in the equation for the skill to work properly.

3. Don't let your head hit the ground.

This is basically an over simplified view saying don't try to flip a back hand spring. Most kids that undercut are too focused on the flipping part of the back hand spring. Break it down into the pieces is has and do them properly and the skill will all but do itself.

 

[MdGymMom01]

What really helps my daughter is if I videotape her at privates and then we play back the video to her in slow motion. Her coach LOVES this and thinks that it is a great tool and way to "show" kids what they are doing right and wrong. Sometimes making corrections by hearing someone tell you is hard to comprehend but seeing yourself do the skill is much easier to understand. Most cameras and even cell phones these days have a video feature where you can take video clips and play them back at various speeds.

I would reccommend only using this camera idea in the gym with a coach so that you can insure that she is getting the proper instruction.

 

[gymcoach26]

Try telling her to keep her shoulders behind her feet/hips. Hopefully this helps prevent leaning forward at the beginning. With the correct starting position and a good jump up and back, a correct backhandspring should be about the length of the gymnasts body.

 

[coachinkal]

Sometimes timing can be an issue too. I like to teach it as counting 1,2,3 (as in roundoff, hands, feet. If the timing is 1 - 2,3, then this sometimes seems to result in the undercutting.

I agree with what others have said about the start position. I get gymnasts to stand on a wedge and sit right back until they can feel their centre of gravity shifting, I then get them to dive back onto their backs onto a crashy.

 

[Mustanggal99]

The one thing I have found about kids undercutting is a fear issue. They try to quickly throw their head back and look for the ground so they can see where they are going and this creates quite an undercut. A lot of times I'll put them doing back handsprings over a barrel- if they do not have the right body position she won't be able to do it over the barrel. That is one of my favorite drills because you can let the child basically mess up and she won't get hurt. She either won't be able to make it over the barrel or she'll hit her head, etc. and she'll be able to really see what she's doing wrong.