Round off and handspring progressions

[-Trisha-]

Hey all,
Some of my girls are still having problems with their round offs and nearly all of them cant seem to get their handsprings on floor either.
Can someone tell me all the progressions they use for both these skills so i can start again with them and see where the problems lie. Perhaps ive missed a vital progression!
Cheers

 

[CoachKat]

Doug Davis from TumbleTrak was just at our gym the other day and gave us some cool drills. Have them roundoff/cartwheel on a straight line looking at the far end and make sure they keep thier heads tucked in and not poking out like a turtle. They should be looking under their arms like they are sniffing their arm pit.
Once they have that down we start working on hurdles have them try to stretch their hurdles out over a mat or a tape line something like that so that they are making them longer.
Then After hurdles we put a panel mat or an octogon mat up that they have to put their hands on one side and then their feet land on the other side doing a run hurdle roundoff.
Then we work on flybacks. So the roundoff and land in front of our tall oranges mat and see how far they can flyback onto their backs with straight tight bodies. This helps them going straight into the back handspring.
This is just the progression of skills that we work. There are many times that our roundoffs get sloppy and we make them go back to basics. Because without a solid roundoff those backhandsprings are so difficult.
Hope this helps.

 

[Rec Coach]

We do a few drills with a folded panel mat. 1) they have to hurdle before the mat and place their hands on the other side of the mat - helps reach into the RO. 2) Place hands before the panel mat and feet have to land on the other side - helps push off the hands. 3) place panel math longways, hurdle before the mat, hands go on the mat, feet land off. - when folded our mat is about 8inches so they really need the power to get over that extra bit of height.

 

[ryantroop]

Front handsprings -

If you have the time, learn front limbers. It helps with that feeling of moving forward and letting your feet blindly hit the floor.


I teach front handsprings by taking a porta pit (2-3 stacked 8 inch mats) and having gymnasts do handsprings onto their backs. When they can show a solid reflection from the floor (by coming in short on the handstand and blocking through their shoulders, looking at their hands as they come over), I hand spot them onto 2 stacked 8 inch mats to their feet.

When they can do the handspot relatively easily, I remove an 8 incher and have them do a front handspring on their own into 1 8 inch mat. Then when comfortabel, move to a sting mat, then floor.

The hard part is learning to not go through the handstand until past vertical with the shoulders.. I know that sounds awefully wierd, but if you think about it, it's just like a handspring on vault, only you drive your heels while you block instead of on the rise.



If you are thinking of flyspring drills, I start with bear walks. You can use that body position to show your gymnast how far their punch should travel.

Then, I take an 8 inch mat, and do punch to handstands, and drop. When this is done easily, put a folded pannel mat where their hands should hit from a good punch, and handspot the flyspring, telling them to drive their heels when they hit the handstand. When they can do it on their own, have them simply unfold the mat bit by bit until it is floor level. Then they have a flyspring.


Good luck!!

Ryan