Women press handstand pike through question

[cbifoja]

My daughter has been playing around with doing a press handstand than then piking through her hands to hold herself up off her floor beam. She saw the American Girl movie and said that was what McKenna does.

She can't do it and I was teasing her telling her that her legs are longer than her arms so she'll never be able to do it. I forget that she doesn't have much of a sense of humor about gymnastics.

Well now she's convinced herself that she needs longer arms and has started "stretching" them. Of course this is ridiculous as everyone's legs are longer than their arms and she can stretch her arms until the cows come home and it won't do a bit of good.

But given how much she has tried and her incredible failure rate (LOL), I'm starting to wonder....is it possible for some kids not to be able to do this because of short arms?

(I feel ridiculous even asking this!)

 

[CoachGoofy]

It's largely a pike flexibility thing, though longer legs/shorter torso make it harder.

 

[Faith]

Ooh interesting, my DD has also been playing around with this.

She's super strong, and pike flexibility is the one thing she does have. Kid has the worst flexibility (for splits/bridges/shoulders) in her group, except for pikes, where they have to give her separate stretches.

But she has inherited my short arms, and long torso. She has short legs too, but her arms cannot lift her far enough off the ground to allow her to pivot her legs through. Even with a spot it's just doesn't seem possible...

 

[cbifoja]

It's largely a pike flexibility thing, though longer legs/shorter torso make it harder.

Well I don't know about her pike flexibility but I can say that long legs will NEVER be her problem! LOL

I'll tell her to stop pulling on her shoulder joints and start stretching more!

 

[gymdog]

It's easier for some than others depending on some body type factors, but the main factor is the ability to "compress" the legs toward the body enough. If you compress your legs flat on your chest, then your arms would easily reach past them, however without the aid of gravity this is very difficult/requires a lot of flexibility and shoulder control to do. Also, it's easier on beam.

 

[cbifoja]

It's easier for some than others depending on some body type factors, but the main factor is the ability to "compress" the legs toward the body enough. If you compress your legs flat on your chest, then your arms would easily reach past them, however without the aid of gravity this is very difficult/requires a lot of flexibility and shoulder control to do. Also, it's easier on beam.

I don't enough about the mechanics of the skill to tell if this compression factor is her problem although I will say that she isn't exactly known for her flexibility! And yes, it does seem like it would be much harder on the floor.

 

[tumble&turn]

Tell her to flex her feet as she passes the beam. That's what a girl at my gym does and it's the only way she can get the pike past the beam.

 

[CoachTodd]

The pike press through is as much shoulder flexibility as it is the pike. A flat pike makes the skill easier but also the range of motion in pushing the shoulders is very useful. You can look at it from various angles. If you can do a flat pike, do a handstand in the flat pike. You should notice that there is plenty of room to get the feet through the hands. This is where strength comes into play. If you have a little more open pike or really long legs, you have to start to roll through from a pretty high angle. That's the easy part. Once you start the pike through, you usually hit that one strange angle where no normal person has the strength to planche the rest of the way through to the L-hold.
If they really want to get the skill, I would say work the flexibility in the pike and practice lowering do the hold with a spot.

Hope this helps.

 

[leotardmakermum]

Wow, what a fascinating discussion. My daughter is working on some weird pike press handstand beam mount thing. I knew she was strong to be able to do it, but I didn't realise that shoulder flexibility also came into play so much for it. Thanks for the input, CoachTodd.

 

[mommyof1]

My daughter has been playing around with doing a press handstand than then piking through her hands to hold herself up off her floor beam. She saw the American Girl movie and said that was what McKenna does.

I just had to laugh at this since my gymmie also loves to imitate McKenna's beam routine. Her skills pretty much limit her to jump half-turns and holding her hands out in front of her to line up her "dismount" the way McKenna does. I wonder if there is a whole crop of younger optionals out there this year begging their coaches to make their beam routines look like McKenna's.