Coaches ROFF BH Mental Block

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Otterly

Coach
I have a 9-year-old kid who has been at level 2 for around a year, year and a half, and has been on pre-team for several years. She has competed 2 seasons of level 2. Her best friend in the class moved up to level 3 this season which upset them both, and I kind of hoped that this would give the aforementioned level 2 some sort of motivation to work harder. (and thus get her round off backhandspring, which she has shown promise on in the past) It's not that she doesn't work hard... it's that she kind of picks and chooses what she wants to try hard on and what she's not really feeling that day...

Anyway, back to the point. She is the last out of the level 2 (prospective level 3's for next season) bunch who still doesn't have their Round-off backhandspring. She can't do it on the trampoline, on mats, on the floor, with a spot, not anywhere. We've been working on it for at least the past year. She can do a backhandspring on her own on the trampoline, and has been able to for probably at least 3 months now.

For some reason she just has a complete mental block with the round off backhandspring. It's not that she isn't strong or good enough, her brain just like shuts down or something. She either does a round off and rebounds straight up into the air, or completely stops her roundoff and falls backward onto the back. Otherwise she does round-off rebound, jump, back handspring.

We have been trying to get her to stick her roundoff, because she has gotten it into her brain where she rebounds her round off all the time. But when we try to get her to stick it, she does the thing where she just falls over onto her back, or lands in a low squat and sits down.

I have gotten her to work on doing round off connected to back drop, and backhandspring to backdrop, and she can do both of these things easily. Are there any other drills I can have her work on that (preferably) doesn't involve spotting? She tends to flop onto my arm when she gets scared and her brain shuts down when I'm spotting the round-off backhandspring, and I don't know how much more of that I can take.
 
In my opinion a good rebound out of the RO in and of itself is how it should be, unless your gymmie is putting it on the beam. However, I can see where it can cause issues if you're trying to get her to backhandspring out of it with minimal pause.

Do you have a wheel (the big, semi-soft, cylinder kind)? RO to backhandspring over a wheel would help her get the feel for connecting the two skills without the stop. Or, RO jump to back drop onto a stack of mats. This would be even easier and requires no spotting at all.
 
Maybe she can try 2 BHS in a row (or handstand snap down BHS to start with) on the trampoline to get the feel for connecting the BHS to something?

No idea if she is ready for it, but my own coach has used this (on floor with a spot).

You could also do this on a tumbl trak instead of a regular trampoline, but I guess 2 BHS will fit on a trampoline at 9 years old
 
Rebound from a round-off is good for a back handspring - but it needs to be a rebound traveling backwards. If she's rebounding straight up, she won't be able to connect the back handspring. Is she snapping down hard enough, popping off her hands, and traveling backwards? You can set up a resi and have her do a round off in front, rebound to her back on the resi. From there the back handspring should be easy.

Sometimes a double-spot helps kids who are nervous to just go for something - one coach on each side. All she needs to do is do her round off and turn it over, and keep her arms straight.
 
I had a girl recently who was similar- standing bhs on TumblTrak (and on the floor with a coach tapping her) but was scared to connect the ro-bhs. So we took a break and worked really hard on round off drills and making her standing bhs stronger, then we started adding it back in as a special treat. She got it pretty soon after we reintroduced it and after doing it a few times with a spot she was doing it on her own the same day. I think she really just needed a little more confidence with the pieces.
Have you tried ro-rebound back onto a mat stack? We did that with this particular girl (and a few others) to help them understand moving backwards out of the round off. And also 2 bhs in a row on trampoline/TumblTrak like someone else had suggested.
 
I have a 9-year-old kid who has been at level 2 for around a year, year and a half, and has been on pre-team for several years. She has competed 2 seasons of level 2. Her best friend in the class moved up to level 3 this season which upset them both, and I kind of hoped that this would give the aforementioned level 2 some sort of motivation to work harder. (and thus get her round off backhandspring, which she has shown promise on in the past) It's not that she doesn't work hard... it's that she kind of picks and chooses what she wants to try hard on and what she's not really feeling that day...

Anyway, back to the point. She is the last out of the level 2 (prospective level 3's for next season) bunch who still doesn't have their Round-off backhandspring. She can't do it on the trampoline, on mats, on the floor, with a spot, not anywhere. We've been working on it for at least the past year. She can do a backhandspring on her own on the trampoline, and has been able to for probably at least 3 months now.

For some reason she just has a complete mental block with the round off backhandspring. It's not that she isn't strong or good enough, her brain just like shuts down or something. She either does a round off and rebounds straight up into the air, or completely stops her roundoff and falls backward onto the back. Otherwise she does round-off rebound, jump, back handspring.

We have been trying to get her to stick her roundoff, because she has gotten it into her brain where she rebounds her round off all the time. But when we try to get her to stick it, she does the thing where she just falls over onto her back, or lands in a low squat and sits down.

I have gotten her to work on doing round off connected to back drop, and backhandspring to backdrop, and she can do both of these things easily. Are there any other drills I can have her work on that (preferably) doesn't involve spotting? She tends to flop onto my arm when she gets scared and her brain shuts down when I'm spotting the round-off backhandspring, and I don't know how much more of that I can take.

it's vestibular.
 
Maybe she can try 2 BHS in a row (or handstand snap down BHS to start with) on the trampoline to get the feel for connecting the BHS to something?

No idea if she is ready for it, but my own coach has used this (on floor with a spot).

You could also do this on a tumbl trak instead of a regular trampoline, but I guess 2 BHS will fit on a trampoline at 9 years old


I like this idea - HS snapdown into the BHS, that way it is just the end of the RO. Once she gets that she should be able to connect more easily. Since you know she can do it and it is just the mental I think this will help her get used to the motion.
 

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