This is usually the result of a slow arm swing. You can get some rubber bands and put 5 together. Slip one of each of the 2 sets of rubber bands around your shoe then with wrists down pull each of them up to your ears very quickly . This will increase your arm swing. Also make sure you are doing core exercises for the inner core like planks, bird dog etc. You can also use water bottles and lie down on a mat and swing them up and down as fast as possible. Usually what is happening is that you don’t get the arms all the way up and you are still going forward thus the landing on the toes. Also make sure you are strong in your glutes and hamstring area.
How Do I Land My Tuck on My Feet Instead of on My Knees and Hands?
This is usually a problem in strength in the glutes, hamstrings and sometimes plyo area. Go to my website and choose some exercises in those areas and you will begin to see better results. Also it may be that you are not getting your arms all the way at the beginning of the skill so therefore you are always going forward. The arms have to get behind the ears and the body must be stretched completely to have a powerful standing tuck.
How Do I Do a Full?
The first thing you will need to do is to make sure your layout is near perfect with a straight body and your arms go up Then you can do a couple of drills. One is to lie down on the floor and turn a 1/4 turn in a nice tight body with your core engaged ( pull the belly button to your back and squeeze your hips) Also you could jump and do a full turn without wobbling after it. If you have access to a resi pit above ground or stacked mats you can do jumps and pull your arms and do fulls to your back on the mat much like jump backs for back handsprings or jump up and back for standing tucks. The main thing to understand is that the dropping of the shoulder is what executes the twist so if you don’t use your arms it is ok. Just keep them up and turn your head the first time. You want to twist after the layout is executed. Some people think of it as twisting on top of the layout. It is at the point when your body is upside down in the layout and your body has come to your arms that the full occurs.
How Do I Get My Legs Straight in My Back Handspring?
First make sure you are following the right steps. Sit then swing your arms to your ears and then jump into the back handspring. Any other order will not allow you to push completely through your toes and get straight legs. The other common problem is your knees come apart when you push off so get a rubber band to hold them together so you have to push through your toes. Also you can put your feet halfway on a panel mat or piece of foam floor which will make your toes leave the ground last thus improving your plyometrics.Make sure you are stretching only through your shoulders not in the middle of your body during the handspring. Sometimes it is a need for the whole power base glutes, hamstrings, and calves strengthening. Again the exercises on the website are available.
My Double Doesn’t Get All the Way Around
This is a common problem. Check a few things to see what the problem is. First make sure the round off is long and low to the ground with the lunge lever and turn all moving forward. The toe in the front lunge leg must be directly under the knee and the lunge should be as long as your leg. Your arms should be by the ears the whole skill – smell your armpit during the round off. make sure the second arm is turned backwards to initiate the block. To block shrug through your shoulders and push your hands as if you were pushing the mat out of the way. Make sure there is a straight line from Hands to back foot throughout the whole round off. The legs must come together near the top of the round off to get a quick back handspring which is stretched a lot through the shoulders to produce a sling shot effect out of the handspring so you have adequate height for the double. It is rare for the problem to be in the double unless you are not executing a layout first then twisting. Most of the time it the round off back handspring that causes the problems.
Faster Standing Back Handsprings
This is a common problem in our sport. Most of the time this problem develops because we don’t know how to strengthen our athletes in the proper areas in order to produce a faster back handspring.
First, of all you need to check the plyometric ability (ability to jump) of the athlete. If you put the ball of their foot and elevate it on a mat and they do better this is one of their problems.
Secondly, you need to check their shoulder flexibility. If they cannot lift their arms up beside their ears then we need to work on their shoulders.
Thirdly, you need to check their thoracic mobility. Generally if they have a slight hump in their upper shoulder area it means they need a little work in this area! There are thoracic mobility exercises that can help this. Both the shoulder and thoracic problems will slow the speed of the back handspring by not allowing the proper positioning of the arms in the back handspring.
Fourthly, you need to check the strength of their core. If it is not strong the whole body will be weak because they will arch instead of stretching through the shoulders.
Fifthly, make sure they have proper technique. The steps are:
- Sit in athletic stance
- Swing arms to ears
- Jump up and back stretching through shoulders
- Pass through handstand
- Snap whole body down while blocking off the floor
Sixthly, if their block is not right do blocking drills. The block is up and back like pushing the floor out of the way.
Seventhly, make sure when arms contact the ground the shoulders are totally stretched out and arms are by the ears.
One of the best drills for making back handspring faster after making sure they have the proper strength and technique is to do them up a wedge.