Do you have to be able to do a split in order to do a back handspring?

[pink ranger]

Just curious. We've done a few back flips in the gym occasionally. I was wondering, for a beginner, would not being able to do a split/very flexible prevent you from doing a back handspring?

 

[CoachL]

no, they use completely different muscle groups. If you have shoulder flexability problems it could affect how fast you learn a bhs.

 

[pink ranger]

Thank you!

By shoulder flexibility, I presume you mean when our coaches have our arms up above our heads while they push their knees from behind our arms?

 

[BlairBob]

Bingo. You don't need back flexibility at all for BHS. If you can hold a HS, you don't even need a bridge on ground really as just knowing the bridge shape with feet elevated would be enough.

It's nice to be able to back limber before BHS though.