Coaches Specific BHS drills for taller athletes

[CoachGoofy]

I just wound up with a class of cheerleaders who want to work backhandsprings.

They actually aren't doing badly--we've fixed some handstands, some roundoffs, and the push back action. But when it comes to spotting them, I'm having some trouble-it's HARD when they're as big as the coach!

The biggest issue we seem to have right now is getting to the handstand fast enough. We're working jump backs on a resi, angle to jumpback on a mat on the trampoline, snapdowns, & spotted backhandsprings/spotted angle backhandsprings, but I haven't found the magic trick to help the bigger girls get their legs up.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

put them in a bungee on the tramp. so glad i'm not your wrist, elbow, bicep tendon, shoulder, back, etc;

 

[ryantroop]

put them in a belt, and get ropes with clips. 2 cheerleaders on each side hold the ropes tight, and walk with each flip flop. Make sure they wrap the ropes around their hands to hold on tight. The first few may want to do into the pit at the end of the tumble track, or on an 8" mat to make sure the girls understand how much weight they will be supporting on the side. I recommend you get clips that rotate to tie to the end of the rope (and use duct tape, or whatever securing method you feel most confident, on TOP of tying).

Another option for you is an overhead rig.

Another option is break the ff down into 2 pieces - the jump and shape, and the flick down. Use walls for shaping (arch, hs, hollow and push through shoulders), and when they master all the components, do them down a wedge (or, with the previously mentioned ropes on the side of a belt).

 

[CoachGoofy]

@Dunno: Small but mighty, that's what I am. We have all the trampolines a person could hope for (except not. There are a few I covet. Anyway...) but no overhead bungee yet.

@Ryantroop (or anyone really..): Is it hard to make your own safe belt?

I totally forgot about using the wedge. The week we used that *I* was certainly more comfortable.

 

[fuzi]

I'm sure you know this, but conditioning, conditioning, conditioning! The bigger/taller you are, the stronger you need to be. Cheerleaders taking tumbling classes rarely have the same athletic base as our competitive gymnasts.

 

[BlairBob]

Use a gymnastics octagon. If you only have the small ones, you can put 2 standard 6 layer panel mats side by side and put 2 more on top of these and that might let a small octagon act as a big octagon.

Or you could just get a bigger octagon.

I also liked putting a wedge in the pit and they would do a BHS from the wedge into the pit with their hands landing first (where they would start in the middle of the wedge). Pretty much go from there.

 

[CoachGoofy]

Thank you everyone!

We're going to try expanding our octagon or our large pacman, & we're beefing up the conditioning. Their moms will just have to get over it--my co-coach and I aren't required to wreck ourselves for their allstar team.

 

[nevertooold]

You have another coach? So just double spot them.
I would do one station with a double spot, I like tumble trak but you could do incline or 8in mat on spring floor or whatever you like, other stations of jump back to resi, handstand snap down off panel jump back up to panel and another station of conditioning. Additional stations if you have a lot of girls are wall sit, hs against wall, hollow & arch rocks, box jumps or jump up to stack of panel mats, push-ups on floor bar, etc. If you have a packman you can use that as a separate station as well.

Double spot is our method of choice although a high school cheerleader did lay out both myself and another coach earlier this year when she straddled and clocked us both in the head HARD. My jaw and neck hurt over a week and the other coach actually took the worst of it.

 

[peace.love.gymnast]

I too am a small coach and I have tons of cheerleaders that are much bigger than I. Here are some stations that I have the girls work through during class...
1) Octagon w/panel mat underneath to make it higher for them (our octagon is a bit too small on its own for those girls)...have them back limber over it & use their abs to pull their legs over to the floor (keep legs straight & feet together)
2) BHS down incline mat w/spot
3)waterfall drill...3 blocks stacked & then behind it an 8" mat on the floor...have the girls sit on top of blocks & back bend down to put their hands on the 8" mat then pull their body through the handstand position & fall flat onto their belly while maintaining a tight stretched position.
4) handstand snap-down rebounds off of a block or folded panel mat
5)walk hands down wall into backbend on floor then walk back up the wall
6) ALWAYS a conditioning station that changes in every rotation

 

[CoachGoofy]

We did a lot of shaping & strengthening today with our cheer group. It was way easier on my co-coach and I, & they accomplished better quality in the skills they were doing/attempting.

We got our first "I am paying you to teach my daughter a backhandspring! So do it!", which kind of made my day-I can get her doing all the shapes & able to move her muscles in the correct way, or I can chuck her over a few thousand times, obviously the first way is the way to go.

 

[10.0]

HAHA I know that one! We do cheer tumbling classes as well, as yes most of the girls are bigger than me, and I have hurt my shoulders and back all in an effort to keep the crazy cheer Moms happy. Then I stopped and we conditioned, and did drills and the kids and parents questioned and were angry and I said "Just because you go on a loop da loop roller coaster that goes upside down does not mean you can do a backflip, and just because I use 100% of MY muscles to THROW your daughter does not mean she has a back hand spring, if you want her to learn it the drills are esential." That was the end of that convo, some quit others stayed and more came to take the girls spots who quit, no worries.