BacKhandspring on beam

[Muddlethru]

According to my daughter, her coach spots backhandspring on beam differently depending on the gymnast. Hence, the backhandspring performed by the gymnasts in her gym differs slghtly. The first half is uniform, jumping backward etc. The last segment and/or coming out of a backhandspring is slightly varied. Some gymnasts push off hard off the beam and almost jumps on their landing. My daughter told me when she is spotted on her double back handspring, the coach kind of holds her hands down a little longer and the effect is she kind of just steps out of the backhandspring. She was puzzled by this last night.

She thinks she is doing it correctly because she said those that jump out of it seem to have bent legs. To her it does not look as pretty. But I wondered, it would seem harder to pop or jump out of a handspring then just stepping out of it. But why does the coach seem to hold her hand down? And she thinks she is supposed to go longer and not higher. Is there a right or wrong? If both are acceptable, is there a preferred style? Why does the coach spot differently (holds my daughters hand down, forcing her to go longer and the others she suports their back without any attempt to hold the hand down and lets them jump out). Is there a deduction for either one? I've watched girls in youtube do backhandsprings on beam and they don't seem to jump out of it. But I do have an untrained eye. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

in all my years at this...***shakes head***

 

[Muddlethru]

in all my years at this...***shakes head***

Don't know why you are shaking your head. Can you please elaborate? Thanks.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

you don't "jump" up off your hands to a landing, and this is a first where i hear that a coach "is holding" down the hands of the athlete to the beam. absurd. good luck. ***shakes head***

 

[Muddlethru]

O.k. Dunno. Then basically both spotting techniques are wrong. (shakes head too! Yikes)

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yikes is right.

 

[AmandaLynn]

I'm lost. Is the coach actually physically touching the gymnast's hands during the back handspring with his/her own hands?

I can't imagine this being a productive (or safe) manner of spotting this skill...

 

[Muddlethru]

I'm lost. Is the coach actually physically touching the gymnast's hands during the back handspring with his/her own hands?

I can't imagine this being a productive (or safe) manner of spotting this skill...

My daughter is the one that described these spotting techniques of her coaches. She was puzzled at the difference. I personally have not seen them. I meant to ask my daughter to elaborate but it kept slipping my mind. She just turned 10 and maybe her descriptions are not the most accurate. I'll let yoy know wht she says.

 

[CoachTodd]

I can only guess, but it sounds like the coach may be trying to tell your dd not to block so much in a BHS series on beam since it gets harder to control. The BHS that rebounds is most likely a drill for either a dismount or maybe a BHS tuck. It's hard to say since the description of what is happening seems a bit strange.

 

[Muddlethru]

To Amandalyn, yes the coach is actually holding her hands down. And to Coach Todd, that may be the reason. Her backhandsprings look beautiful (straight legs, etc) but I think the backhandsprings of the other other gymnasts get more air and/or the feet and hands being on the air is more prominent than my daughter's but their legs very noticeably bent. I guess the best of both worlds would be the combination of both.

 

[gymdog]

The only way to know really would be to ask the coach because it seems like something may be getting lost in translation.

 

[GetaGrip]

In my gym's level 8 team, EVERYONE has a different back handspring. On of my teammates has longer back handsprings and pops out of them from her hands. However, this makes them look pretty crazy and a lot harder to land successfully. Another one of my teammates has a short, high back handspring that steps out like out of a handstand. While both are valid back handsprings, I've got to be honest, the short high one looks a LOT prettier and is less likely to get massive deductions or a fall.

Also, how on earth is the coach holding the gymnast's hand onto the beam? Is he physically grabbing the hand and sticking it on the beam or something else, because I have no idea how anyone could pick a hand out of the air and push it onto a 4 inch wide surface.

 

[Muddlethru]

I finally clarified it with my daughter. I think when my daughter said her coach holds her hand(s) down, I assummed she meant holding her hands down on the beam. I finally remembered to ask her yesterday (don't know why it took me so long--age maybe?), she said her hands were not being held down on the beam, duh, just that the coach would hold her left hand as she landed her secondBHS. In my defense, she did use the words "hold down her hands". I figured maybe because she was opening up her hips to the left and/or not squaring her hips enough. So, the coach was teaching her to reach out her left hand to pull in her left hip and stay squared. But dunno had a better solution to the problem. Something was indeed lost in the translation.

 

[GetaGrip]

So, the coach was teaching her to reach out her left hand to pull in her left hip and stay squared. But dunno had a better solution to the problem.

Ohhhhhhhh that makes a lot more sense! Being square can be a pretty big problem, and pulling on her hand is one way to solve that problem. Although I've never had a coach spot me like this (then again I don't really like spots on beam) it sounds like it's reasonable and has purpose.

Stepping out of back handsprings as opposed to "popping" or "jumping" out of them is much safer and prettier in my opinion. Also, I've noticed that girls who step out of their back handsprings look more controlled at tend to get slightly better scores than gymnasts who fly out of them and look like they barely found the beam. But sometimes you really just can't change how they look. There's a girl in my gym who probably couldn't do a long back handspring to save her life, and another who doesn't go very high no matter how hard she tries.

Personally I think that back handsprings should be higher, not longer. The beam only goes so far, and the last thing you'd want is to run out of space in a bhs bhs on high beam! Also, if they're higher, they have more time to grab the beam with their hands, and generally step out prettier. I'm not sure why her coach would make her back handsprings longer, but maybe they're already pretty high?
Most of the YouTube gymnasts probably have high back handsprings because parents generally put pretty high scoring girls up on YouTube to watch, and high scoring gymnasts generally have high, clean back handsprings that step out nicely.