Women Backhandspring Floor Troubles

[CathiiTumbles]

I have recently learned my round off back handspring, I can also do this as a series. However I am having difficulties with keeping my arms straight. My coach says it's because I need to push from my shoulders not arms/elbows, but I don't know how to do this! I find it especially hard on dead mats/grass than sprung floor.

I was thinking maybe it's fear of keeping my arms locked in? Or perhaps not enough strength? But I am also a cheerleader and have no problem using my shoulders to lift girls above my head.

Here are a couple of videos of my ro bhs you can take a look at:



I'm aware my legs weren't straight or toes pointed, but I was trying to focus on my arms

 

[ayyyrial]

One thing I am seeing is not enough turnover from the roundoff. You are landing your roundoff almost straight up and down so when you go for the back-handspring, you are forced to jump up instead of back. You should be landing leaning back with your feet in front of you. A lack of turnover isn't good for developing fast tumbling and makes you come down pretty hard on your hands, which might cause your arms to bend. There are a lot of drills for round-offs; I'm sure your coach can help with that.

 

[ROMfan]

BH looks undercut as well. You should be reaching back further/BH should take up more room lengthwise.
Like previous poster said--too up and down. Look at a video of a good BH and watch how the handspring takes up more room lengthwise and hands don't hit so close to where feet were.

 

[iwannacoach]

I'm not sure if this is the exact image, so I'm gonna post it and check to see what it looks like.​

 

[iwannacoach]

Didn't turn out the way I wanted, but referring to the first video at the instant the counter rolls from 5sec to 6sec.....

Agreement with previous posts. You're going up instead of back because of your round off, and you aren't waiting to pass your feet before pushing into the bhs. Look at your position relative to the mat at 6sec and notice how far your hands are from making contact. The 5-8 inch shows your body must drop to the mat when it should be skimming along at a height that allows hand contact/push off. The idea is to avoid going up any higher than needed so you don't have to catch your weight on the way down and spoil your chances to push off into the next phase of the movement.

As far as waiting for your body to pass your feet is concerned...... The best course is to do a better round off that sends your body past your feet as your feet contact the mat.