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.
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.
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.
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.
