MAG Back Handsprings

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Men's Artistic Gymnastics
Should a first year level 4 have his back handspring by now? Mine does not, but he is still working on it. I just feel like most boys have this skill by now. Am I wrong?
 
I don't think so .. My son is just a beginner but there are girls that hAve been going to our gym for years who don't have the back handspring . Heck I'm still waiting to see a great cartwheel :)


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Oh yeah .. They are using that backhandspring pacman trainer to teach the backhandspring to my sons class . :)


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My son did not have his bhs at level 4. He was working on it, but didn't get it solid until before his level 5 season.
 
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Not necessary as it's a bonus skill. It would be great if boy's had all their skills when competing in L4 but it's more than common for many boys to not have the bonus skills and not have all their skills period.

It's not like Girls L3/4. Depends on the program, but many boy's L4 programs are an introductory level. Ideally, I could prepare a boy to do L4 in 6 months to have more than enough success. They might not medal AA or podium, but they would probably medal in local meets sometimes Vault. I had one little boy and he didn't compete HB his 1st year or PB all the time, but he did medal on Vault. He was small and just turned 6 and didn't train FT and trained for about 6mo.

OTOH, some boy's L4 programs are so established that boy's really to be sharp and have all their skills to even get on L4 team. Some of the philosophy of L4 is to get them young before the ball sports take them.
 
Thanks for the feedback. So I guess I should give him the summer to figure it out...and then be worried? And I recognize the pacman trainer now. Thanks for the clarification, though I don't think the boys use it much anymore. They also only practice back handsprings only once in a while and not every practice. At this point, I would think that they should be working on it every day.
 
Don't worry. DS did not have a BHS at L4 states. He only had one his first year of L5. He won floor in his second year of L5. The coaches spent a LOT of time working on roundoffs, because it is such an important foundational skill. Only after a boy had a really solid roundoff did they start working seriously on BHSs, and even with BHSs, they did a lot of shaping drills before the guys were spending any significant time putting them on the floor independently. DS and all his preteam buddies were competing 2 BHSs by the end of L5 last year, and the BHSs looked really good, even though it took many of these guys a lot longer to get to two than boys from other teams.
 
Not necessary as it's a bonus skill. It would be great if boy's had all their skills when competing in L4 but it's more than common for many boys to not have the bonus skills and not have all their skills period.

It's not like Girls L3/4. Depends on the program, but many boy's L4 programs are an introductory level. Ideally, I could prepare a boy to do L4 in 6 months to have more than enough success. They might not medal AA or podium, but they would probably medal in local meets sometimes Vault. I had one little boy and he didn't compete HB his 1st year or PB all the time, but he did medal on Vault. He was small and just turned 6 and didn't train FT and trained for about 6mo.

OTOH, some boy's L4 programs are so established that boy's really to be sharp and have all their skills to even get on L4 team. Some of the philosophy of L4 is to get them young before the ball sports take them.

This is one of the differences between boys and girls gymnastics that I find so fascinating. My son couldn't do a cartwheel last year when he was asked to join the team. I think they just saw that he was strong and fairly coordinated, and they figured they could teach him the rest. It made for an interesting first few meets. o_O

If the coach had waited until his skills were more polished, it probably would have been too late. He's 6 and in kinder, and this was the year he started asking to play other sports. He's playing baseball this spring, and it turns out he's pretty good at that. At this point we're trying to fit other activities in around the gym schedule. If it were the other way around, we probably would have thought gymnastics was too much.
 
No, not all boys have their backhandspring for level 4. Also, our coach did not let boys do a bonus if their form was bad, as it would often negate the bonus. So some boys could do the skill but not well enough to compete the skill.

Some of the philosophy of L4 is to get them young before the ball sports take them.

I love this. Though I often see here though that the ball sports still take a lot of them. But their time in the gym still built a good physical foundation that they take to any sport.
 
My son was just invited to L4 team, and he doesn't have it yet but is working on it. My understanding is that it can be added to the L4 floor routine for extra points, but is not required. I think they'd like him to get it though...
 
I'd love for them to do bonus but not at the expense of taking deductions generally.

However, I'd have some boys try anyways. Sometimes it's good for them. You have to sit down with them and explain the pros and cons. If they're not gonna win a medal, why not?

And of course, some boys don't listen to you anyways. I think I've had a few boys try and all you can do is shrug ATM.
 

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