I was recently out doing a LIVE IN PERSON clinic for my friend Steve. It was so great to be out and in person NOT ON ZOOM. His gymnasts were really well trained and a joy to work with. On the drive home I had some time to think about some of the things we had covered. On tumbling we talked a bit about LOADING and getting their bodies to turn over. I wanted to repost this from a few years ago. If you want to have a good roundoff back hand spring- you need to start it correctly. With a good cartwheel.
A common mistake is when a coach moves from cartwheel to a roundoff too soon or with out care to make sure the cartwheel is good. If the cartwheel is weak and doesn’t turnover, the roundoff will be weak.
Bad Cartwheel= Bad back tumbling, bad yurchenko vault, bad beam dismount…..
This is only the first step but it keeps the gymnasts moving and challenged.
The next step is combining it with a back handspring BEFORE you let them do Roundoff Back Handspring
- Use your side stations to drill and correct your body shapes
- Condition for success- strengthen the movements that they need.
- Keep your explanations simple- BUT- explain to them what they are expected to do, to see, to feel.
THANK YOU TO THE GYMNASTS IN COSTA RICA FOR WORKING SO HARD AND BEING PATIENT WITH MY LACK OF SPANISH!
