WAG Is there a preferred way to do a BHS on beam?

[cbifoja]

One night, while waiting for the girls to release from practice, a couple of the moms noticed that a couple of the girls did their BHS different from some of the others. I'd really kind of forgotten about being curious about it until another thread reminded me so I wanted to come ask this question.

A couple of the girls go into a back handspring with their legs together until they hit handstand and then step out. The other group of girls did theirs like a rapid back walkover with their legs in a split when they hit handstand and then obviously step out.

I hope that makes at least a little sense. LOL

 

[LizzieLac]

I have been told proper technique is for legs to be together when they hit handstand. My DD always split too soon and it was one of the reason it took her a long time to get this skill (or so I was told ).

 

[COz]

and I think it is easier to step out of it than come out with legs together.

 

[gymdog]

They shouldn't land in HS and then step down. That's incorrect technique for accelerating series. Occasionally you will see a kid go too far in the other direction and do almost a back walkover without enough simultaneous push off the legs. But that takes a ton of flexibility, and is less common. It's more common to lack an open stretch snap that accelerates.

 

[COz]

Ooh. Just realised this was on beam. does this change things?
Edit: Ah, thanks gymdog.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Interesting! Gymmie says she is being told to start with "beam feet" (close together but not exactly parallel), jump, split right away before you hit HS and the step out-land.
ETA: I've seen them work this with many of the girls, making sure they are already in their splits as they hit HS on beam. There may be many correct ways to do this skill..?

 

[Firefly]

Right now my daughter would very much like to do one without falling off.

 

[sce]

Right now my daughter would very much like to do one without falling off.

Ha, ha awesome!

I watched some you tube videos of national team members, they all seem to begin to seperate their legs pretty early when doing BHS SO on beam.

 

[Moxiegrl83]

My DD is always told to split early.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

goods ones split just before the hands contact the beam. is that what you wanted to know??

 

[thefellowsmom]

Funny, I am in the middle of editing state videos so I watched her beam in slow motion. She starts to split when her hands are somewhere between 6" and 1 foot from landing on the beam and she is in full split over the top in handstand.

 

[COz]

Fantastic pic by the way @thefellowsmom !

 

[gymdog]

Interesting! Gymmie says she is being told to start with "beam feet" (close together but not exactly parallel), jump, split right away before you hit HS and the step out-land.
ETA: I've seen them work this with many of the girls, making sure they are already in their splits as they hit HS on beam. There may be many correct ways to do this skill..?

This is right. They are probably telling them to "split right away" because like I said it's physically impossible for most people split too early and get no flight but it does happen that their lower back is so flexible they basically do a really fast walkover and don't get credit or deductions. But your hips and back have to be so flexible. If you tell most of them to split right away and "kick" themselves over, they will do the right thing. If you jump to a handstand you're basically going to lose all momentum there.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Fantastic pic by the way @thefellowsmom !

Thanks! Found it free out on the internet. My daughter loves the chalk. She claims it is one of her favorite things about being a gymnast. The chalk bowl is definitely her zen happy place.

 

[sevenatenine2]

A funny story.

In 1997, USAG was implementing the new routines for the new quad. There was a clinic near Dallas where coaches and judges could go to learn the ins and outs of the routine. It was held at a newish gym in the area which had started to do very well at a state level but hadn't made much noise nationally at the time. The owner volunteered his daughter, who was maybe 8 and training L6, to demo the routines.

Now, this kid! Teeny, tiny, little blonde. Her l6 bars I will never forget. Squat on, kip, chs, baby giant that literally looked like a giant, stop in hs, then come back to the bar as an underswing. The judges found almost nothing to critique.

We went to floor and after the girls (outstanding) routine, the judges eagerly pointed out an error. In the backhandspring stepout, the girl split far too early! The text clearly called for the split to come after the block! She was going to lose .2!

The floor coach (and mom) very quietly and respectively told the judges and USAG representative that she understood the text but disagreed with it bc it is teaching them the wrong bhs for beam. Since she wants good optional beam workers, her whole team would just take the deduction. The judges were a bit taken aback and it was kind of funny to watch.

I guess the gym's training worked out, since the little girl ended up being the 2008 Olympic AA Champion!

 

[thecurseofthechalkyhand]

The late split technique in back handspring step out and layout step out is supposed to help keep the hips square. I prefer the earlier split just because I think it's much prettier.

 

[thecurseofthechalkyhand]

The floor coach (and mom) very quietly and respectively told the judges and USAG representative that she understood the text but disagreed with it bc it is teaching them the wrong bhs for beam. Since she wants good optional beam workers, her whole team would just take the deduction. The judges were a bit taken aback and it was kind of funny to watch.

I guess the gym's training worked out, since the little girl ended up being the 2008 Olympic AA Champion!

Makes sense. Most likely they weren't even going to use the skill on floor in optionals. Teaching both techniques would have just been a waste of time.

 

[gymdog]

A funny story.

In 1997, USAG was implementing the new routines for the new quad. There was a clinic near Dallas where coaches and judges could go to learn the ins and outs of the routine. It was held at a newish gym in the area which had started to do very well at a state level but hadn't made much noise nationally at the time. The owner volunteered his daughter, who was maybe 8 and training L6, to demo the routines.

Now, this kid! Teeny, tiny, little blonde. Her l6 bars I will never forget. Squat on, kip, chs, baby giant that literally looked like a giant, stop in hs, then come back to the bar as an underswing. The judges found almost nothing to critique.

We went to floor and after the girls (outstanding) routine, the judges eagerly pointed out an error. In the backhandspring stepout, the girl split far too early! The text clearly called for the split to come after the block! She was going to lose .2!

The floor coach (and mom) very quietly and respectively told the judges and USAG representative that she understood the text but disagreed with it bc it is teaching them the wrong bhs for beam. Since she wants good optional beam workers, her whole team would just take the deduction. The judges were a bit taken aback and it was kind of funny to watch.

I guess the gym's training worked out, since the little girl ended up being the 2008 Olympic AA Champion!

Interesting, because I've seen that above video of Nastia floating around before. She does split extremely late after the block though, you wouldn't want to do a BHS on beam like that, for one it's not a spring floor and for two it doesn't turn over. Theres not going to be any layout after that no matter how square your hips are. Anyway, I don't remember being taught that for floor but it must have been that way, hmm. Before those routines in that video there were running roundoff back handspring step outs. Not that that has anything to do with anything, just remembering.

 

[sevenatenine2]

That is funny!

The clinic was in June. Maybe they were less inclined to follow their convictions and take the .2 by the time States rolled around in December!

She was an awesome Level 6, though, wasn't she?

 

[gymdog]

By the way, I believe you, just remembered seeing the video and went back to check it and found it interesting. I'm sure they just changed their mind. Blast from the past though. Anyway, the video is pretty illustrative of what will happen if you try to jump to handstand and block off your hands to a split. It should be relatively obvious to any observer it would be hard to connect anything to that. Contrast that to Nastia doing back handspring series and layout series on beam later on and it's easy to see the difference.