Coaches Cast Handstand issues

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Bumblebee462

I have a few gymnast that are constantly getting almost to handstand and not making it. Ugh I feel like I gave every correction and drill I can think of ... this is important as they need to turn pirouettes, I've tried teaching early turns in the pirouettes ... but my issue is the HANDSTANDS!! ::laughs:: wrist and shoulders on top the bar but the body is a little behind. Tried to teach them how to save it ... smh ... nothing. UGH. Any help is appreciated.
 
I have a few gymnast that are constantly getting almost to handstand and not making it. Ugh I feel like I gave every correction and drill I can think of ... this is important as they need to turn pirouettes, I've tried teaching early turns in the pirouettes ... but my issue is the HANDSTANDS!! ::laughs:: wrist and shoulders on top the bar but the body is a little behind. Tried to teach them how to save it ... smh ... nothing. UGH. Any help is appreciated.

not the wrists and shoulders. try instructing them to place/align their elbows over the top of the bar. i'm certain you will see a different effort and result. :)

when you tell them wrists and shoulders they will invariably push their wrists forward. and they do this ahead of the shoulders. so, the wrists go forward and the shoulders actually go backwards or the the opposite direction that you want them to go and they planche. then the coach says "more" or "lean more" and when they do the elbows go forward of support, a severe angle is created and they fall on the bar.

the secret is in the elbows. then you don't have to say anything about their wrists and shoulders. :)
 
not the wrists and shoulders. try instructing them to place/align their elbows over the top of the bar. i'm certain you will see a different effort and result. :)

when you tell them wrists and shoulders they will invariably push their wrists forward. and they do this ahead of the shoulders. so, the wrists go forward and the shoulders actually go backwards or the the opposite direction that you want them to go and they planche. then the coach says "more" or "lean more" and when they do the elbows go forward of support, a severe angle is created and they fall on the bar.

the secret is in the elbows. then you don't have to say anything about their wrists and shoulders. :)
Thanks sounds different will try
 
Thanks for posting those gymdog. The second one left me scratching my head a bit, wondering what it was I just saw. ;) I think I liked it, but not sure. What is your thinking on doing that? Getting over the fear of leaning over the bar? How to safely get off? Seen and done a lot of progressions in this area, but that was new, and I'm always up to learning new things. :)
 
Thanks for posting those gymdog. The second one left me scratching my head a bit, wondering what it was I just saw. ;) I think I liked it, but not sure. What is your thinking on doing that? Getting over the fear of leaning over the bar? How to safely get off? Seen and done a lot of progressions in this area, but that was new, and I'm always up to learning new things. :)

Seems like a good time saver to me. Like how many casts do you see kids do that aren't high enough to learn the learn correct posture and positioning for the last 10 degrees.
 
Well, she did a front flip over the bar basically. She could have gone a bit higher ideally but that's fine to start. The point is to drive the legs and lean over hard. Since she doesn't have to go to a handstand she doesn't try to push back the other way or bend her arms or arch or pike or tuck or whatever. The easier progression is to just to pike press up and roll over the bar. That's just to get used to the feeling. If you think they cannot do a straight front flip at all, then they have to from a trampoline device do a straight front flip to the back proficiently. But that is not very hard. Then they can do the drill with hands on the floor or mat stack and hips on the exercise ball or handstand trainer (it will need to be the right height - hands higher than hips) and do the drive to flatback a couple times. Then put it on the bar with a spot driving the legs over.

The other helpful exercise is to be able to do a tuck planche on parallettes with straight arms at a forward leaning angle and rounded back. If this is not strong then the cast will be bent arms cast.
 
I just figured out that I can't count to 2. My post was about the first exercise and thinking gymsanity was wondering about the wall handstands. Whoops!

I first saw something similar to the 2nd drill when the team kids had a sleep over, and were just playing around making up an obstacle course combined with wacky skills. I guess you could say I stole it from them the following monday and had a few of the kids teach the littles how to have fun......
 
Thanks gymdog and IWC, just further proof there is more than one way to skin a cat! ;) I've always been a huge believer in the fact that no kid is going to handstand if they don't know how to safely get of it, whether beam, floor, or bars. My favorite similar drill is to have a single bar about waist high and a vault board on one side and a porta pit on the other. I have the girls punch the board and do a straddle press handstand fall to their backs. It may take ten bounces on the board to make it over at first, but I tell them to try and reduce the number of bounces until they can just jump (instead of bounce) into it. Finally they can just press into a HS. Also, as soon as they start making over to their backs, I have them start to turn a half to their stomachs on the way down to help introduce them to pirouetting. I have a 5 year old right now that loves that drill and has a wild full, but give it some time! :) Thanks again for the explanation.
 
the 2nd video is excellent for kids that are scared of falling forward. this would be considered a safety fall. it's a good one. :)
 
One of the drills that I did a lot was that second one gymdog put up. Sometimes we would do it on a pit bar too to get over the fear of doing them on high bar. We did a lot of variations of press handstands too. Sometimes we would have a bar between hip and bellybutton height and jump press handstand over to either a pirouette or flat back to a mat. Another way we did them was actually jumping to a straddle on the bar and then trying to press up.

Hope this helps!
 

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