Handstand Hold Drills

[gymjuice]

DD is level 7 gymnast and lacks that basic fundamental ability to hold a handstand. How did this happen? She can hold for about 10 seconds but then begins to walk it. Her age is important here. She's 10, and says she understands the concept of using her core and her legs to hold it when she starts to fall but that she just can't put all the concepts in place to keep from falling. I'm not so sure she really comprehends all that comes into play. I think she thinks she just needs to use her arms.

Are there any drills that can be recommended to help her with this at home? Obviously by this time in her career, she's not spending much time on handstands at the gym so she's working on them at home and becoming very frustrated.
Thanks!

 

[gymdog]

Find one spot on the floor to stare at (this is how I learned to hold handstands). Press the fingers into the floor...the weight should balance in the fingertips.

You just have to work on holding it a lot.

 

[ryantroop]

First, 10 seconds isn't so bad...

Second - 10yrs old. Her body still has some developing to do. Some of her fine motor muscles are still developing and getting stronger. Whatever she was doing to get to 10 seconds is fine. She should shoot for 11 seconds, then 12... It may be something as simple as her relaxing after she's held it, and that "relax" is in the wrong place. It may be silly like her needing to learn how to breathe upside-down.

Sounds like she's doing great. She will get there when her body is ready. Handstands are tough for all gymnasts at all levels. There is a reason they are encouraged to work at home.

 

[Bobby]

I used to reliably hold handstands for several minutes at a time - I would have lasted hours if it wasn't for the whole blood rushing to the head thing.
Once you hit the required shape (hopefully in the 1st second) the only thing you need to think about is shifting the weight on and off the fingers. It's not noticable to anyone watching but you constantly 'rock' ever so slightly to take more/less weight onto your fingers between vertical and slight overbalance (several seconds at a time each way so your fingers don't get puffed, and so you don't get cramps from being genuinely static).
I actually think it's easier to learn this in a split handstand until you get the finger control (because you can cheat and use other muscles to rock back and forth until you can confidently feel your centre).

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

At our gym, the girls hold their handstands against the wall for 3+ minutes at a time, doing several rounds of this - it really helped them when they brought it away from the wall.

 

[JAO]

DD is level 7 gymnast and lacks that basic fundamental ability to hold a handstand. How did this happen? She can hold for about 10 seconds but then begins to walk it. Her age is important here. She's 10, and says she understands the concept of using her core and her legs to hold it when she starts to fall but that she just can't put all the concepts in place to keep from falling. I'm not so sure she really comprehends all that comes into play. I think she thinks she just needs to use her arms.

Are there any drills that can be recommended to help her with this at home? Obviously by this time in her career, she's not spending much time on handstands at the gym so she's working on them at home and becoming very frustrated.
Thanks!

If she is not spending much time on handstands in the gym, her coaches are doing some very bad coaching. I agree with Ryantroop that 10 seconds is not so bad, though I would add, "provided it is a straight handstand and not a banana-stand," (realistically, she only needs to ever hit a handstand for 2-3 seconds at most on beam, and then only fractions of a second on the other events, but it needs to be straight and not all warped). But still.

There is no such thing as "at this point in her career." Not working on handstands in practice would be like pro baseball players not taking batting practice. It's beyond basic fundamentals. That's my opinion obviously, but I simply can't fathom a gym not working handstands, at every level. Maybe I misunderstood how much "not much" is, but no matter, it's a basic shape, it's in every event, it should be worked on at every event.

That being said, here's an article on a different gym blog. These guys present some good videos and info on some basic handstand drills:


Basics, Basics, Basics!!!—The Training of a Handstand. Coaching Gymnastics in the New Millenium