January 12, 2011
A short first flying phase from feet to hands makes it difficult to create an effective second flying phase from hands to feet. Short undercut first flying phases cause the hands to touch the floor with poor body angles to make a quick arms repulsion into a powerful turn over to the feet. Before bad technical habits get too engrained it is wise to spend time reviewing basic drills. Like this one and many others. / Coaches must train their eyes to catch all kinds of big or small mistakes. In these undercut examples the gymnast shows more turn over power. He is still missing a proper hands placement to block and repulse the floor effectively. Even minor mistakes deserve time and effort to be corrected. Every skill must be refined to the maximum. /Deep squats slow down and diminish the explosive power to begin the back handsprings. Though there are slight personal differences in general the bend in the knees must not even reach a 90 degree angle. /Deep squats and undercuts together weaken the back handspring immensely. Serious basic drill reviews must be a priority. Notice that there is not a second flying phase due to the lack of blocking and arms repulsion.
January 12, 2011
On the next few clips a different gymnast offers examples of some of those basic back handspring mistakes already mentioned. /Undercut with poor blocking repulsion and pike turn over. /A much longer and nice back handspring example with good hands to feet turn over. /Second flying phase example with an incorrect pike turnover. /Much better hollow body turnover /Deep squat with very poor blocking and arms repulsion. /Still 3/ Deep squats slow down and weaken the jumping power. /Though it looks somewhat better still the power damaging mistakes must be adressed and corrected. /Deep squat and undercut. A Much better slight bent knees power jump and a longer handspring. / Another undercut example. / Deep squat and no arms block or quick repulsion. /Still1/ Squat. Still2/ the body is to far pass the vertical to block off the floor with effective arms repulsion and hollow turn over. Still/ Due to technical mistakes the legs are coming down but the body has not moved up for effective follow up connections tumbling. /Check this much better second flying phase turn over. Still 1/ Preparation. Still2/ Tight arch first flying phase. Still 3/ Deep hollow second flying phase.
January 12, 2011
If the gymnast is having problems showing a tight arch and the coach is confident of being able to handle the gymnast's weight he places a hand on the upper back reaching toward the further shoulder area while keeping the other hand on the hamstring. When the gymnast jumps back the coach stops the motion in mid air to allow the athlete to position her body into the correct shape. If the coach is spotting on the left side of the gymnast his right hand goes on the upperback to the far shoulder area and his left hand spots on the closer hamstring. This drill also allows the gymnast to work on her head position during the first flying phase. The head should not be stuck all the way down forward nor should it be all the way out backwards. It is more desirable to aim for a neutral head position or just slightly out in the flying direction. To master the second flying phase from hands to feet the gymnast must practice different drills because this one does not offer a good opportunity for arms repulsion. No coach should attempt this kind of spotting with gymnasts whose weight they have not tested first by lifting them from a standing position to a tight arch without any jumping back. For the large majority of gymnasts learning standing back handsprings the coach must spot standing up himself and placing his hands on the middle or far side of he gymnast's lower back and the close hamstring. A coach may decide to kneel down only to spot very light or small gymnasts so he can reach under their weight better. A coach should never attempt to spot from a sitting position because he will be unable to follow the gymnast motions and move himself quickly and effectively too.
January 12, 2011
Starting to teach back handsprings without arm swings may help the gymnasts to get used to keeping the arms closer to the head in the early learning stages plus it can save the coach a couple of face slaps. Place the gymnast on a position as if they were coming from a round off or another back handspring. Because this gymnast is light and already knows the skill the hand spotting the lower back is placed on the middle instead of farther across. Coaches must only spot back handsprings from kneeling when the gymnast is so light that her weight can be handled easy from this spotting position.
January 12, 2011
When spotting new gymnasts on backhandsprings we must keep our head further back away from them to avoid getting hit if they open the arms too much. The gymnast may get used to keeping the arms closer by practicing swing drills and some spotted standing backhandsprings without swinging the arms.
January 12, 2011
Once we are relatively sure that the gymnast is not going to throw the arms out too open we can add the arms swing to their spotted back handsprings. This gymnast is trying to master a hollow turn over second flying phase instead of just piking it down. Coaches may use every training opportunity to help establish good posture habits like standing up with stomach area in and buttocks tucked in too. Starting with a hollow instead of a totally straight back allows for a more explosive upper body range of motion and mimics an effective way to connect back tumbling skills like a roung off to back handspring a handspring to another handspring or to different types of somersaults.
January 12, 2011
Swinging both arms tilted to one side and twisting the body on that direction as if the gymnasts were trying to look over their shoulder to see where their body is going instead of keeping it square is another common back handspring mistake. Barrel back handsprings may help the gymnasts to work out the problem emphasizing to feel their backs landing on the barrell square and without turning the head sideways. / Also training back handspring set ups with a spot can help to solve the problem. /Double bouncing forward to begin the back handspring does not add any significant power. It complicates the skill and detracts the gymnasts mind from focusing on the correct body motions to accomplish the skill. In this slow motion replay notice several other mistakes such as elbows bent when the arms swing and when the hands touch floor and of course there was no blocking and arms repulsion. /Coaches must always search for and apply a variety of drills to enrich the gymnasts learning process increase their growing body awareness and their skills' execution mastery.
January 11, 2011
Once the gymnast has a fair snap down from folding mats, they can start practicing back handsprings with a spot. This is a good introduction to connecting a handspring from the hands-to-feet flying phase and is very helpful as an initial preparation for roundoff back handsprings. The spotting is similar to the one for roundoff back handsprings. If on the left of the athlete during the way down, the right hand moves to the lower back, and the left follows moving to the left hamstring.
January 11, 2011
The snap down back handspring is a very helpful progressive step toward the round off back handspring. Advanced gymnasts may practice this combination to refine some back tumbling technical details such as turning over from hands to feet on a hollow single body unit and rebounding with a tight arch first flying phase while the shoulder area is open. This gymnast is trying to turn over some more during the snap down. He is squating a little too much he needs to turn over and rebound more. /Last turn/ This example has a little better turn over than the ones before.
January 11, 2011
Piking down with knees bent and no arm repulsion at all is a very common novice mistake. There is not a flying phase and the feet touch the floor with the hands still down. Now the legs are straight coming down but still there is no arms repulsion. Observe once more these common novice mistakes. Bending the legs down without arms repulsion and piking down also without arms repulsion.
