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First,
I assume you are working this skill in a gym. To attempt it at home could
cause injury. If you are not in a gym, see if your local gyms have an
Open Gym day or evening, and perhaps you could get in once a week and
work with the coaches. Also, ask your PE teachers/coaches, most likely,
they have taken a course in gymnastics in college.
If you are working this
skill in the gym, then here are some tips that might help. I advise beginning
this skill on cheese, or incline mat. Begin as if you are sitting in a
chair. As you sit back, you will feel you are about to fall on your behind;
*this* is the time to jump, and jump hard, pulling the legs over the head.
Push hard off of the hands, and keep the arms straight and strong. Try
to think of it as jumping backward into a handstand. Some coaches teach
this skill with an arm swing, others like the arms to start by, and stay
with the head. Ask your coaches what they think is best.
Back handsprings aren't
so much about arching. In fact, when you start getting to roundoff flip-flops,
there should be very little arch in your back. But doing back handsprings
from a stand, of course, is much harder, requiring you to generate momentum
from almost nothing -- so, you will need to arch a little. But what you
should focus on is throwing your arms back, opening up your shoulder angle.
If you have a Port-A-Pit
handy, try this drill. It is almost the same as the initial "throw" into
the flip-flop. Stand in front of one end, with your back to the Port-A-Pit.
Swing your arms down and back, then as fast as you can throw them back
over your head. At the same time, push back with your legs so that you
go into the air and onto the mat. The goal here is to get as much power
as you can and travel backwards as much as possible. That
is it for the first phase of the back handspring.
Now for the second phase,
get a folded panel mat -- or even better, a springboard -- and place it
flat on the floor in front of you. If you are using a springboard, place
it so that the thicker end is facing you. Now, kick up to a handstand
onto the board/mat. Bend your knees slightly, arch a little bit, and push
you shoulders open as much as you can. Then using your stomach, back,
and arm muscles, snap your body back to a hollow position, pushing off
your hands, and land on your feet on the floor in front of the board/mat.
This sounds complicated,
but it's the exact same motion you use in the second phase of the back
handspring. You want to try to keep your body hollow, drive your feet
to the ground and lift your chest at the same time. This will make getting
to your feet a lot easier.
When these two drills
are comfortably in your grasp, you're ready to put it together. Definitely
have a spotter for this. Place a folded panel mat at the head of an 8-inch
crash mat. Stand on the panel mat with your back to the crash mat. With
a spotter carefully monitoring your height and rotation, go ahead and
put the pieces together.
If you have trouble
getting over to your hands, you need to swing harder with your arms. If
you have an incline mat, do a back handspring -- with a spotter -- on
that. This will get you accustomed to going over right to your hands.
Once you are comfortable
performing this skill down the incline without a spot, try it on a level
surface mat, again with a spot, until you feel comfortable *without* the
spot. Once you can do it alone on a level surface mat, you are probably
ready to perform it on the floor.
Roundoff,
Back Handspring, Tuck - Photo courtesy of Gymworld.com
Note: The above
information is used with the permission of Lee, a host of the Gymnastics
Forum. Please note: advice given in this article is opinion and may not
be the best advice for *you*. Always consult a gymnastics professional
in your area, with your parents permission*
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