WAG Clearhip to Handstand Help

[Gymnast127]

I am currently working on getting my clearhip to shoot to handstand. I have a consistent cast HS into it, but I keep opening too late. I can shoot to HS on strap bar.. Any suggestions/drills that could help??

 

[GymMin]

One drill that we do at my gym is we put a mat under the bar cast and right when we get to the point on the bar where we are supposed to open our shoulders we let go of the bar and land on our backs (if that makes any sense)
Another drill we do is we go onto trampoline and fall onto our backs and then right when we hit our back we open our shoulders and go into handstand so kinda like a back extension but on trampoline and you're jumping into it. (If that makes sense)
Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I'd have to see a video to be sure, but it probably has more to do with your entry into the clearhip than with your push away.

The key part that makes a clearhip a clearhip is NOT the push out at the end -- rather, it's the drop back at the beginning. By getting the shoulders and chest to drop further behind the bar (as opposed to on top of it) at the start of the skill, you will have much greater speed and therefore an earlier, higher, and easier push out at the end.

Hope that helps!

 

[CoachTodd]

One way I was told to look at it and I liked it was:
1. Back hip circle = bar at or near hips when you drop
2. clear hip = bar at center of thigh when you drop
3. clear hip - hand = bar near knees when you drop

some folks look at it as having the leg further away from the bar for each drop. I'm partial to the location point of view myself.

 

[Gymnast127]

Thanks for the drills it helps a lot!!

 

[iwannacoach]

Maybe your idea of where "upside down is" isn't quite right. Most likely you time your arm pull/shoulder opening one of two ways. One way is to fell the speed of your shoulders ad they fall back from the cast. You're upside down if you can feel your shoulders increasing their speed and know they've reached their fastest speed.... That's when you're upside down, but in a kinda sorta way if you define upside down the way I do.

The way I see it, upside down is the position and placement where you'd balance under the bar... or hang motionless if that's easier to think about..... while in the shape you get into for the drop. If you try hanging upside down you'll find that your head is hanging on the drop side of the bar while your feet are suspended on the pull side of the bar...... neither your head or feet seem to line up with a vertical line drawn through the bar, but your shape's center of gravity is lined up with that line.

Really, if your head and shoulders are directly below the bar, you're already about 1/8th of the way up. If you decide to open your shoulders at that moment it's going to take a brief instant to really have your opening effort take effect, and in that instant your body keeps moving for another 1/8th of the way up. So that means you're 1/4 of the way up and around with your feet pointing around and over the bar. There's no way you can make a handstand from there unless you stop pulling just before getting all the way up do some crazy arch-planche action to pause while you press back up to a handstand.

So if you feel your shoulders to know when your upside down, you're gonna have to get used to knowing when they'll be there and start your pull just before you hit upside down... Provided you have a good drop, you can do a sharp energetic pull for just a brief instant and then just coast (sorta) and open the rest of the way as your body rises under the power of that sharp pull. That's going to be easier than having to support your weight and and open your shoulders at the same time.

Another way to get the earlier pull is to do sets of three directly connected clear hips, and pull earlier on the second one than you did on the first, and more earlier on the third one.

Talk with your about this idea you came across and try it that way with spot a few times to see how early you can force yourself to go while holding tight in your shape, and see what happens. Then talk it over with your coach and go from there.

There's another way using visual cues, but try the above first since you probably squeeze your eyes shut somewhere during the skill.

 

[Lizzy LaSelva]

I am currently working on getting my clearhip to shoot to handstand. I have a consistent cast HS into it, but I keep opening too late. I can shoot to HS on strap bar.. Any suggestions/drills that could help??

Sadly, when it comes to these, my best bit if advice would be: Open when you feel uncomfortably early. THATS when you know. I'm a level nine gymnast currently, and my high bar has a clear hip to handstand into a giant giant toe on toe off dismount. Some good drills would be having your coach stand on a big block and spot you, so you can get a feel of when to open up. Other than that, it's trial and error. I wish you the best!

 

[CoachTodd]

I'm a confused. I don't know of any time during any bar skill other than a pull over when you would pull? I think iwannacoach may have meant push?

 

[iwannacoach]

I'm a confused. I don't know of any time during any bar skill other than a pull over when you would pull? I think iwannacoach may have meant push?

I've used a lot of elastic bands to work on strength and shoulder posture for this through the opening. When the exercise is being done the kids pull the bands starting at just above and away from their hips. I know it becomes a push once they pass the height of the bar, but prior to that it's a pull (in my mind).... especially at the instant they start to open.

I don't care what we want to call it as long as the concept of doing a short and fast motion at dead bottom will provide the best energy to elevate with. The thought is that if you want to hit a baseball as far as possible you have to bring the bat to the ball when the ball still has a lot of opposing energy. When doing the clear hip the drop is the ball, and the arm motion to open the shoulder angle is the bat. Once either the batter makes contact or the gymnast executes their motion, the rest is follow through.

I suppose the way to look at "late arms" would be equal to swinging late or early at the baseball. The result being that most of the energy goes somewhere you neither predict or desire.

It's pretty much the same concept used in a back giant on rings. It's all about effort on the turn over to capitolise on the swing energy. Done correctly the rest of the ride to the handstand is 70% coasting with enough pressure to prevent slack cables and 30% pressue later in the skill compensating for what you didn't get from the drop and turnover.