Coaches drills for undercut backhandsprings

[ri3la]

I feel like I posted this before but I can’t find it.

I tumble at a decent level, but I have a super bad / undercut back handspring that’s affecting me a lot. I don’t have a spotter right now. Are there drills to help with this?

 

[sun]

The two key points I see are:
1. Your back is super flexible which is contributing to the undercut - if you can make a longer arch position, or simply keep your core tighter when you extend, should help make more distance.

2. Your knees are in front of your toes on both videos which is going to cause a "backhandspring in-place" effect.
-on a standing bhs or a punching bhs, simply leaning back a bit more and paying attention to where your knees are relative to your foot will help
-on the ROBHS, you are limited by your chest position - turning over your roundoff will help make it possible to fix the knee problem, or might just fix it outright.

Getting your knees and chest on the green lines will stretch out your bhs - keep your core rigid. Good luck!

 

[Mthegymqueen]

Something that helps me when undercutting bhs is drawing a line with chalk on the floor where your foot starts before the bhs, do a bhs (you can also put chalk on your hands to see where your hands land on the bhs, and draw a line where your feet land on the bhs, then keep repeating your back handspring trying to reach farther then where you landed before.

 

[superNova08]

Use panel mats. Start on one end. Hands go not in the next one but the one after that. Feet go in the same pattern. Essentially you hit every other panel.

OR

If your floor has panels and lines, try to start at the beginning of one panel and end over the line behind you if that makes sense.

I also like the chalk idea, this should even work at home on a panel mat if you want to use sidewalk chalk.

 

[ri3la]

The two key points I see are:
1. Your back is super flexible which is contributing to the undercut - if you can make a longer arch position, or simply keep your core tighter when you extend, should help make more distance.

2. Your knees are in front of your toes on both videos which is going to cause a "backhandspring in-place" effect.
-on a standing bhs or a punching bhs, simply leaning back a bit more and paying attention to where your knees are relative to your foot will help
-on the ROBHS, you are limited by your chest position - turning over your roundoff will help make it possible to fix the knee problem, or might just fix it outright.

Getting your knees and chest on the green lines will stretch out your bhs - keep your core rigid. Good luck!

I’ve worked on my round off a lot recently and getting it turned over more. I’ve definitely made progress there, but my back handspring hasn’t changed much. It feels like my handspring is really the bottleneck.

I’ve definitely thought about keeping my core tighter to reduce the arch but that hasn’t worked. I’ve just done handsprings like that for most my life. I’m trying to see if there’s a way to feel or exaggerate that position without simply doing handsprings on repeat.

 

[ri3la]

Use panel mats. Start on one end. Hands go not in the next one but the one after that. Feet go in the same pattern. Essentially you hit every other panel.

OR

If your floor has panels and lines, try to start at the beginning of one panel and end over the line behind you if that makes sense.

I also like the chalk idea, this should even work at home on a panel mat if you want to use sidewalk chalk.

I’ve done this sort of drill a million times throughout the years and trying to make it longer doesn’t make it longer at all unfortunately

 

[gympoppop]

Two things I see. Your hurdle should be longer and lower, you are jumping to high. Also, your arms are bending in your round off which is killing your block and results in landing with chest down. Push more through your shoulders and reach farther forward. I agree it looks more like a RO issue than a BHS issue which is usually the case.