For Coaches Help with Backward Roll to Push-up

[Mom2Gymgirls]

Hi. I'm hoping to get some tips from some of you on the L4 backward roll to a push-up position. Just about everytime my DD does this, she ends up going splat on her stomach at the end of the roll once her feet hit the floor. I can't figure out why this happens. Sometimes it seems as if she is doing it too slowly. She starts up on her toes with her arms straight up with her hands hooked together. What are the tricks to the this? Does it make it harder if you go slower, or is the main thing to do it with straight arms?

She has problems with staying tight on other events, so I was also wondering if this could be part of the problem as well. She is 6 years old and hasn't gotten the idea of keeping her body tight. I would like to help her with this if I can because she did it this way all last year on the training team and is still having the same problem this year. It hasn't gotten any better. Her first meet is in a couple weeks. She can do everything else in the floor routine with no problem.

 

[gymkat]

Can she do a backward roll to pike with straight arms, like in L3? If she can do that, it's mostly a matter of learning to keep pushing through your arms. I have a few drills that I like to use, like fast candlesticks. I have them start from a stand, hands turned in, roll back as quickly as they can into a candlestick, and I tell them to hit their pinkies against the floor as hard as they can with their arms totally locked out. After they're comfortable with doing that, I stop them when they reach a candlestick, grab their shins, count to three, and tell them to keep pushing against the floor while I pull their legs over and help them get to a push-up position. (Hopefully that makes sense; it's really simple in person!)

 

[Mom2Gymgirls]

I haven't seen her do a backward roll to a pike for a while. I will see if she can do it with straight arms and let you know. Thanks for the tip.

 

[BlairBob]

If her core and butt are loose when she places her feet on the floor it's gonna go all splat.

Are her arms straight in the roll till the end?

She could just not have learned how to stay tight. Basically a lot of body tightness drills are in order till she can figure out what it means to be and feel tight. Many young gymnasts never really understand what they are doing half of the time anyways.

 

[Mom2Gymgirls]

BlairBob: I think you are right. Last night she was showing me her backward rolls on the trampoline. She can do a roll to pike with straight arms, and she can pretty much do the roll to push up with straight arms too. Sometimes they bend a tiny bit though. However, I told her to start by squeezing her tush and belly, and once she did that, she was popping right over to a push-up position after a couple of tries. Now it's just getting her to remember to stay tight. She seems to forget all about this if you aren't constantly telling her. She has this problem a lot on beam and bars too. I guess a lot of this is due to her age. Hopefully after she does her first couple of meets she will start to get the idea more.