Arching back

[nicci1999]

Anyone have any good ways to help with not arching my back when I am casting? I don't know if this is something that I started doing recently or not, but maybe some more shoulder exercises, so I use my arms more instead of kicking up with my legs? I do have a video where you can see it, but I can't get the computer to upload to here for some reason

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I, for one, hate, loathe, and despise hollow casts; in my opinion, casts SHOULD be arched until they hit handstand. Once they reach that point, only THEN should the body hollow.

This technique is evident in almost every elite gymnast I know of who competes a legs-together cast handstand on bars; in fact, Shawn Johnson is quite literally THE ONLY elite gymnast I've been able to find who casts to handstand in a hollow position.

Liukin arches. Shapiro arches. Kexin arches -- in fact, the entire chinese national team does.

I suspect your coaches will disagree with me on this point (as do the powers that be in the Women's USAG program), so I guess I can't really help you much.

Good luck.

 

[GetaGrip]

Although I completely agree with Geoffrey Taucer, here's some tips anyways.

-When you cast, make sure to hollow at the top
-Lots of crunches will make your abs stronger and easier to hold a tight hollow position
-Leaning your head over the bar more will make it easier to cast to handstand so you don't need to arch as much

Hope this helps!

 

[CoachTodd]

Although I completely agree with Geoffrey Taucer, here's some tips anyways.

-When you cast, make sure to hollow at the top
-Lots of crunches will make your abs stronger and easier to hold a tight hollow position
-Leaning your head over the bar more will make it easier to cast to handstand so you don't need to arch as much

Hope this helps!

Get used to feeling like you are going to fall over the bar onto your face. Leaning more as listed above is exactly right but it feels weird until you get used to it.

Ride the pike longer. If you are casting out of a kip, let the momentum of the kip do more work. If you do the kip correctly, you will find that you are casting even if you don't want to. Let the kep start to cast you more then lean forward a bit and open the pike you had from kipping. You will find that this will throw you to or past handstand pretty quickly if done with the correct timing.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Get used to feeling like you are going to fall over the bar onto your face.quote]

I'm working on my cast handstand on low bar, and this happens to me a lot. As in, I try to keep my shoulders over the bar too long and I sort of "roll" around it forward, slamming my knees/thighs into the bar, landing on my butt. I'm really close to making it all the way to handstand, though (the fall only happens once in a while).

 

[GikiGirl]

We'll work on this at open gym