WAG Round Off: Handstand?

[melissaallen59425]

One of my friends helping me with round off says, its like 3 steps,

1) first going into a cartwheel phase
2) in the middle, you go into the "Handstand"
3) finally, snap your feet down into a hollow

Is the middle step correct? Do you enter a true handstand in the round off?

 

[Sylvia]

One of my friends helping me with round off says, its like 3 steps,

1) first going into a cartwheel phase
2) in the middle, you go into the "Handstand"
3) finally, snap your feet down into a hollow

Is the middle step correct? Do you enter a true handstand in the round off?

You do get close to a “handstand” position in the middle of the roundoff, but I wouldn’t think about doing that. If you’re thinking about getting into a handstand in the middle, you are likely going to slow the skill down to get to that position and a roundoff is supposed to be a faster and more powerful skill. Ideally, you will enter like a cartwheel (usually from a hurdle) and then push off your hands and snap your feet down to the floor (or tramp or wherever you are doing it), landing with them together and then eventually rebounding out of it.

 

[LucyRobinson]

No, I don't think it is a "true" handstand. There is a time when you are upside down and your legs are together, but you are still facing sideways and have you second hand in a "T". You don't cartwheel, turn to handstand, and then stand up. Once you push off your hands it is a rather simultaneous motion.

It seems like a generally correct explanation of a roundoff, but perhaps not the best way to think about doing the skill. I would listen to your coach rather than your friends.

 

[JBS]

One of my friends helping me with round off says, its like 3 steps,

1) first going into a cartwheel phase
2) in the middle, you go into the "Handstand"
3) finally, snap your feet down into a hollow

Is the middle step correct? Do you enter a true handstand in the round off?

This is good for beginners... but no... it's really not a handstand in the middle.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Yes and no.

A handstand is an important building block for all tumbling, and I can see emphasizing the (straddled) handstand position in the middle of the roundoff as a way of correcting or preempting issues with form and alignment, but once it really starts looking lie a roundoff, there's no longer really a handstand in it.

To me, a roundoff is the first half of a cartwheel and the second half of a backhandspring.