WAG Adult learning back handspring

[3Q3Q]

Hi, I’m 30 year old and just started learning gymnastics for about 3 months. I’v never done gymnastics as a child before.
My coach let me practice back handspring in a belt on trampoline. He told me let he didn’t spot me much with the belt now, and there were a few times I did it by myself with good form (but I’m still attached to the belt). But every time I really try a back handspring by myself, I fell on my head.
1. Is it just fear that is holding me back?
2. Is there other ways to practice jumping onto your hands?
3. Does it help if I gain more back extension strength (I found reverse hollow body rock/hold is hard for me)

I practice about 1.5 hrs once a week.

I would appreciate any advice from you all. Thanks!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Jumping on your head is quite dangerous, as you can imagine. I would keep practicing them in the belt, focusing on flying back (Roundoff and then jump to your back on a big resi), jumping to your back on the trampoline and then kicking to handstand or even doing them with a pac man/barrel if they have some appropriate for your height.

Have fun in your gymnastics journey!

 

[Carabistouille]

Hi, I’m 30 year old and just started learning gymnastics for about 3 months. I’v never done gymnastics as a child before.
My coach let me practice back handspring in a belt on trampoline. He told me let he didn’t spot me much with the belt now, and there were a few times I did it by myself with good form (but I’m still attached to the belt). But every time I really try a back handspring by myself, I fell on my head.
1. Is it just fear that is holding me back?
2. Is there other ways to practice jumping onto your hands?
3. Does it help if I gain more back extension strength (I found reverse hollow body rock/hold is hard for me)

I practice about 1.5 hrs once a week.

I would appreciate any advice from you all. Thanks!

Are you doing a standing bhs or from a roundoff ? When you tried it by yourself, I assume it was also from the trampoline ? (starting from tramp, hands on tramp, finishing on tramp) ?

1. Hmmm, hard to know without seeing/knowing you. If you are able to do it well with minimal assist with the belt, I would say you are at the point where you nearly have the skill but not quite, so basically if you remove just the tiniest bit of assist/self-confidence you just crash. Just continue doing them with the belt/do drills (with good form), at some point it will become very easy for you and you'll be able to do it on your own without fear.

2. See what Jard.the.gymnast said above : jumping backward is good (either onto a big resi or onto something circular [if so, you can jump onto the pac-man thing, put your hands on the floor and finish the "bhs"]).

3. It might, and back strenght is a useful thing to have in gymnastics anyway. As you sure know, don't practice arch holds only as you want your muscles to be well-balanced : if you want to train arch holds, you should train hollow holds as well.
Edit : obviously hard to know without seeing you, but I noticed shoulder over-head mobility is often an issue with adult gymnasts trying bhs, especially male gymnasts.

 

[3Q3Q]

Jumping on your head is quite dangerous, as you can imagine. I would keep practicing them in the belt, focusing on flying back (Roundoff and then jump to your back on a big resi), jumping to your back on the trampoline and then kicking to handstand or even doing them with a pac man/barrel if they have some appropriate for your height.

Have fun in your gymnastics journey!

Thanks for your advice. I’ll keep practicing.
How high should I set up the big resi if I want to practice round off and jump back?
And I don’t quite understand what it means to jump to my back on a trampoline and kick to a handstand. Is it like a back extension roll?

 

[3Q3Q]

Are you doing a standing bhs or from a roundoff ? When you tried it by yourself, I assume it was also from the trampoline ? (starting from tramp, hands on tramp, finishing on tramp) ?

1. Hmmm, hard to know without seeing/knowing you. If you are able to do it well with minimal assist with the belt, I would say you are at the point where you nearly have the skill but not quite, so basically if you remove just the tiniest bit of assist/self-confidence you just crash. Just continue doing them with the belt/do drills (with good form), at some point it will become very easy for you and you'll be able to do it on your own without fear.

2. See what Jard.the.gymnast said above : jumping backward is good (either onto a big resi or onto something circular [if so, you can jump onto the pac-man thing, put your hands on the floor and finish the "bhs"]).

3. It might, and back strenght is a useful thing to have in gymnastics anyway. As you sure know, don't practice arch holds only as you want your muscles to be well-balanced : if you want to train arch holds, you should train hollow holds as well.
Edit : obviously hard to know without seeing you, but I noticed shoulder over-head mobility is often an issue with adult gymnasts trying bhs, especially male gymnasts.

Yes, all the back handsprings practice so far with and without a belt were on a trampoline, and were just standing back handsprings.
I assume you have to have standing back handspring first before you do round off back handspring?

I’ll have someone video tape me when I get a chance. We always run out of time with just practicing.

My shoulder flexibility is not good but also not awful. I’ll try to get a picture of my back bend. I still can’t get my backbend kickover though. My hands slid away when I tried to kick. I did it successfully once with my feet on a mat about 4 inches high.

Thank you so much for your reply and advice. Gymnastics is fun!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Thanks for your advice. I’ll keep practicing.
How high should I set up the big resi if I want to practice round off and jump back?
And I don’t quite understand what it means to jump to my back on a trampoline and kick to a handstand. Is it like a back extension roll?

For the resi I would start at about hip height and go higher and further back as you get more confident.

For the trampoline drill, you start with a back drop: demo around 1:08 .
However instead of bouncing back to your feet, you pull over backwards (towards your head) into a handstand. This handstand can be slightly arched. I see how it could look like a back extension roll, but it is very different since there is no rolling part in this skill, you bounce from the pike to a very slight arch basically.

 

[Aussie_coach]

It is a very good idea to master your standing back handspring before even attempting the round off back handspring.

The round off back handspring is actually, generally, easier to do than the standing because the round off creates power and speed. But, it is also much harder to control, once your body already fully understands the way to do a back handspring it is safer to attempt this skill.

Also doing it from a round off before learning to do it standing can create technical problems. The power of the round off, can often get you over in the back handspring with technical problems and mistakes. The standing BHS, will just not work very well, if there are technical mistakes, so it is harder to just let those mistakes slide and become bad habits.

 

[3Q3Q]

It is a very good idea to master your standing back handspring before even attempting the round off back handspring.

The round off back handspring is actually, generally, easier to do than the standing because the round off creates power and speed. But, it is also much harder to control, once your body already fully understands the way to do a back handspring it is safer to attempt this skill.

Also doing it from a round off before learning to do it standing can create technical problems. The power of the round off, can often get you over in the back handspring with technical problems and mistakes. The standing BHS, will just not work very well, if there are technical mistakes, so it is harder to just let those mistakes slide and become bad habits.

Thanks for the response! I’ll work hard to master my standing back handspring first. I don’t do my round off well enough either to try a round off back handspring. It’s probably gonna take a really long time for me to attempt a round off back handspring, but it’s okay. Feel so jealous to see my classmates doing those drills, but a lot of them have done gymnastics as a kid before.

 

[3Q3Q]

For the resi I would start at about hip height and go higher and further back as you get more confident.

For the trampoline drill, you start with a back drop: demo around 1:08 .
However instead of bouncing back to your feet, you pull over backwards (towards your head) into a handstand. This handstand can be slightly arched. I see how it could look like a back extension roll, but it is very different since there is no rolling part in this skill, you bounce from the pike to a very slight arch basically.

I see. I’ve never done this drill before. Thanks for posting the video.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

I see. I’ve never done this drill before. Thanks for posting the video.

It was actually something my own coach recommended to me (I am bigger than him so it's hard for him to spot me), glad I could be of help!

 

[3Q3Q]

Sorry guys for my super late reply. I really appreciated your advice, and please keep giving me advice.
I got my first back handspring on white trampoline last month.
My Back handspring video
I know my form was quite bad, but I finally got over the fear. Unfortunately, I had to move to another city for work right after I took this video. I have no access to a gym now.
All I can do now is to keep working on my handstand, and do conditioning to improve my strength.
Hope I’ll become good at handstand - handstand balance and handstand walking.

 

[rd7]

Good job, well done.