handsprings

[searchsoul]

i watched tutorials for fhs, bhs, roundoffs and they say push off with your shoulders, like you were shrugging or smth

i tried and no, i couldnt jump off the ground with my hands.. is there another method or is the method wrong?

[V-flip]

I had same problem before.. I just trained my handspring more and more... And now it is good.;)

[Dragonic MiKe]

It's more about the legs. You have to throw your legs over hard.

Once you can land it well you should start thinking about using your arms/shoulders to push off just for a bit of extra boost.

Edit: For fhs.

[tricker_d]

For handsprings, focus your eyes on one spot on the ground and there only. Thats what helped me overcome always falling on my ass and back. If you look at only one spot during the spring, your legs will snap over, your upperbody will get caught and as a reaction, you will flip over and land a front handspring. Back handsprings are different though.

[searchsoul]

thnx for the tips for fhs

but what abt roundoffs and bhs?

[k-slash]

Yes your arms are important.

[searchsoul]

Yes your arms are important.

er.. yes.. of course they are, but how do you push off from your hands with shoulders in bhs and roundoffs?

[drewpate]

in your bhs, you don't want to use your arms, just the shoulders. so you want to have your arms perfectly locked out, when you do this, all BHS immediately improve, simply becasue you don't lose any energy towards the ground. You want to "block" off your shoulders.
Heres a few drills to help you learn how it feels
1. standing or sitting, just raise your arms above your head like normal.
now just push them up as high as you can.
2. Do a handstand against the wall and do handstand shrugs. simple keep your arms locked and push your shoulders up like earlier, and back down. do a bunch of these.
3. DO a handstand on the ground, and do the same drill as number 2, but try to launch yourself off the ground with JUST YOUR SHOULDERS. do not bend your elbows and use your arms. You can do this on to mats, etc. get creative, try to land back in the handstand position, you get the point.

now, if you can do all this, but you can't block in a BHS, you've narrowed your problem to your body position in your BHS. you ahve to touch your hands in a position that allows you to block.
now alot of people think of a BHS like a fast backbend walkover. However, an arch as big as one in a backbend is not correct, and you cannot block from it. it leaves your hands on the ground for a longer period of time, causing a slow bhs and wrist pain.

what you want to land it in is a tight arch position. think of a gymnast swinging on the highbar doing giants. He only has two position, arch and hollow. well, the same is true for a gymnast doing backhandsprings. you want to have a long backhandspring, with a straight body that is in a tight arch. You want to have your hands touch the ground in a fully VERTICAL tightly arched handstand. Then you want to block with your shoulders and fingertips, while snapping powerfully to a hollow body position.

I teach a drill I learned, called the tight arch snap to hollow.(creative name, right?)
what you want to do is lay on your back and put your hands behind your ears and straight out. Now push up your hips and lower back, keeping your legs tight and toes pointed. this is the tight arch position. Make sure your head is neutral,(you never want to throw your head back or forward in tumbling, so don't do it here) and your upper shoulders are still on the ground. Now, As fast as you can snap to a tight hollow body position. You don't want to be piked or anything, just hollow enough that only your lower back is touching the floor. make sure your feet are above the floor and in line wit hthe height of your head and up shoulders. This is exactly the move you want to make when your hands touch in a bhs.

Combine this drill with your blocking drill, and you now have a powerful BHS

TO not go so overwhelmed and think about how complicated this all is, realize it isn't. all of tumbling is simply based on a handstand position that is relatively simple to learn. You want to hit a handstand position in your r-off, land in the same position on your feet, with a hollow body. your sets should have a hollow bodied handstand position, everything in tumbling revolves around the handstand. So work these drills your handstand, and you will start to feel how the handstand applies to tumbling.

Good luck :)

[searchsoul]

in your bhs, you don't want to use your arms, just the shoulders. so you want to have your arms perfectly locked out, when you do this, all BHS immediately improve, simply becasue you don't lose any energy towards the ground. You want to "block" off your shoulders.
Heres a few drills to help you learn how it feels
1. standing or sitting, just raise your arms above your head like normal.
now just push them up as high as you can.
2. Do a handstand against the wall and do handstand shrugs. simple keep your arms locked and push your shoulders up like earlier, and back down. do a bunch of these.
3. DO a handstand on the ground, and do the same drill as number 2, but try to launch yourself off the ground with JUST YOUR SHOULDERS. do not bend your elbows and use your arms. You can do this on to mats, etc. get creative, try to land back in the handstand position, you get the point.

now, if you can do all this, but you can't block in a BHS, you've narrowed your problem to your body position in your BHS. you ahve to touch your hands in a position that allows you to block.
now alot of people think of a BHS like a fast backbend walkover. However, an arch as big as one in a backbend is not correct, and you cannot block from it. it leaves your hands on the ground for a longer period of time, causing a slow bhs and wrist pain.

what you want to land it in is a tight arch position. think of a gymnast swinging on the highbar doing giants. He only has two position, arch and hollow. well, the same is true for a gymnast doing backhandsprings. you want to have a long backhandspring, with a straight body that is in a tight arch. You want to have your hands touch the ground in a fully VERTICAL tightly arched handstand. Then you want to block with your shoulders and fingertips, while snapping powerfully to a hollow body position.

I teach a drill I learned, called the tight arch snap to hollow.(creative name, right?)
what you want to do is lay on your back and put your hands behind your ears and straight out. Now push up your hips and lower back, keeping your legs tight and toes pointed. this is the tight arch position. Make sure your head is neutral,(you never want to throw your head back or forward in tumbling, so don't do it here) and your upper shoulders are still on the ground. Now, As fast as you can snap to a tight hollow body position. You don't want to be piked or anything, just hollow enough that only your lower back is touching the floor. make sure your feet are above the floor and in line wit hthe height of your head and up shoulders. This is exactly the move you want to make when your hands touch in a bhs.

Combine this drill with your blocking drill, and you now have a powerful BHS

TO not go so overwhelmed and think about how complicated this all is, realize it isn't. all of tumbling is simply based on a handstand position that is relatively simple to learn. You want to hit a handstand position in your r-off, land in the same position on your feet, with a hollow body. your sets should have a hollow bodied handstand position, everything in tumbling revolves around the handstand. So work these drills your handstand, and you will start to feel how the handstand applies to tumbling.

Good luck :)


sweet, sweet advice!

thanks a LOT!!

PS: wuts hollow and arch?:p i have a feeling arch is bending with your back, like bridges

[Bumstead]

hey i got a quick question to add and i don't want to start a thread about it. Anyway in a bhs are you supposed to have your arms locked or slightly bent because i been doing them with slightly bent arms and they tire out after about 2.

[drewpate]

to search soul, an arch is when your back is arched, and when I said tight arch, think of it is a small arch,
and to bumstead, arms should be all the way locked out.

[Bumstead]

thanks

LOL useless post