Free Hip to Handstand, The Silver Bullet

[Stretchsportguy]

Spotting helps the gymnast get the feel for the proper technique, timing, and motion, but doing it, even with a spot, will help develop the necessary muscles.

Back extension rolls are good drills. Using blocks and other props are good.

Drop early, be aggressive.

I've heard it all.

But what is the silver bullet that makes this skill work? What is the secret key to this skill? How can I get any gymnast to a handstand in ten tries or less?

The ones who have it proficient say when they do it, its just a fast thing that doesn't take much effort. They just enjoy the ride. What's the deal?

 

[slkbeambabe07]

I just think it's the timing of the shift in all truth. I found that this drill helps from Kellie Mizagouchialskdjfalskdjfasdk or however you spell her name . Instead of timing a toe hand, I just use it for the girls to shift. I yell now when they need to shift to hand, and they do it about 3 times, and then count in their head, and then they usually get it!

YouTube - thegymnasticminute's Channel

 

[Stretchsportguy]

Wow...very good, slkbeambabe07. One of the coolest tips I've seen in a long time.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

There is no magic silver bullet for free hips; there are very very few if any skills for which such silver bullet techniques exist. The silver bullet is a coach who is patient and attentive to detail, who is willing to take fifty, a hundred, a thousand attempts -- not to just get the skill, but get it right.

That said, one often-underemphasized point in teaching a free hip which makes a big difference is shoulder position on entry. That is, the thing that makes a freehip a freehip is NOT the push out at the end, but the drop back at the beginning. The skill does not begin above the bar, but rather behind the bar.

 

[Stretchsportguy]

Excellent point, Geoffrey Taucer.
Please watch YouTube - gymnastics - FANTASTIC set-up for Bars
drill may help teach shoulder drop because shoulders fall back before gymnast can pull in to the bar.

Yet, I have found that coaches have one important cue or aspect about any skill that they emphasize. And that's what I'm looking for about the free hip to handstand. What is the secret key aspect of this skill a coach looks for when they teach it?

I would like to run a thread for the Silver Bullet of every skill. And see what we get. Pick the most important decisive success generating tip for every skill. What's the MOST important point to emphasize?

 

[gymdog]

10 tries? I would say this is almost like the kip in the difficulty for gymnasts, even very talented ones. I've seen girls get a lot of hard skills quickly on floor, vault, and beam. But I don't think I've ever seen a girl doing free hip to handstand in any close to 10 tries. That's less an average optional bar rotation. Learning a free hip handstand "fast" would be to me, oh, about 3 months or so. That to me would be fast. I know plenty of L10s, even good at bars L10s, who took longer than that. Were doing it for 6 months, a year before they were even doing spotted handstand. And then of course, with optional rules, they need to go handstand to handstand even in L8 not to get amplitude deductions. Even trickier. Before many L8s were doing A cast to free hip handstand.

We have to keep in mind they don't have much of a reference with this skill at that point. Typically this is the first skill to a clear support in the US (we tend to teach it before or concurrently to giants). With many skills in gymnastics that a kid could be doing at this level (i.e. BHS on beam) they have a reference - they do BHS on floor. Double full? By that point they have done a lot of tumbling and twisting and they may be able to understand the mechanics of this pretty quickly if the right "gymnastics properties" align. So they can get it very fast if they are not afraid and have the proper strength and flexibility. Here we are trying to get a kid to do something they have never really done at all. We're at ground zero. So like the kip, we are going to have to do a lot of things to get them doing every part of the skill correctly - the drop, the shoot, the shift, keeping straight arms/not collapsing, not leading with the belly. Even after most kids are able to get themselves up to handstand, it's just a start, because most often there is a shaping problem that needs to be worked on and the skill is still not very powerful. Things like back extension rolls are helpful but it is not the same as swinging around a bar. I was able to do a back extension roll pretty much the day whenever someone showed me, maybe a couple months after I started in gymnastics. Free hip handstand, I would say from the introduction of the free hip, probably three months on strap bar and six months for no straps to get the handstand without spot.

If both sides keep working and do the appropriate drills for shaping and timing, then it pays off. Like most bar skills, progress seems slow. Usually they aren't doing it, then things start clicking, and suddenly they're doing it by themselves, and 3 months after that everyone's forgotten that at one point this one was the kid always crying about it or falling over the wrong way or never shooting at the right time without a spot.

 

[ryantroop]

I usually tell my gymnasts its a thigh circle, and the closer they can get the bar towards their knees the easier time they will have making the handstand. That is, a hollow shape maintaining pressure on the bar with sufficient drop - it's all about symmetry.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I just think it's the timing of the shift in all truth. I found that this drill helps from Kellie Mizagouchialskdjfalskdjfasdk or however you spell her name . Instead of timing a toe hand, I just use it for the girls to shift. I yell now when they need to shift to hand, and they do it about 3 times, and then count in their head, and then they usually get it!

YouTube - thegymnasticminute's Channel

hi silkbeam. lol. it's mizoguchi and she's mizo's wife. years ago he was on the USA national coaching staff with mas watanabe on the men's side. kellie is a former elite gymnast from the late 70's and early 80's. her maiden last name escapes me at the moment. i remember when they 1st married, and mizo was a bigwig, they always referred to kellie as "mizo's wife". lol. she's was a great gymnast and a great coach in her own right.

 

[Stretchsportguy]

Drills, drills, drills...

YouTube - Kip Drills

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i think the post above belongs in one of the "kip" threads?

this one might be more useful for this thread and especially the last couple minutes of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/v/gOeqKA_Wess&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param

 

[Stretchsportguy]

Of what mind are you? 1) Underswing to handstand, 2) Neck-Kip to handstand, 3) Back extension roll to handstand, 4) Stem rise with straight arms to handstand, 5) Peach basket to handstand,6) Other

 

[bogwoppit]

The edit button goes away after three hours, this is to stop people removing things that affect the context of a thread.

There still is no god on the CB, regardless of the edit button!!