Floor Mania!

Hi All,

Alright so I’ve been thinking a lot about front handsprings lately. It’s one of those skills that when taught incorrectly it seems like it takes FOREVER to fix. People go about teaching it many different ways, but I tend to start with a front handspring step-out off of a spring board. Although this only comes after the kids can do handstand hops on a panel mat in a split position. But the way I just described seems to mitigate a lot of the landing errors we run into. That being said, here are some videos that may help.

This first video is a drill I use all the time. I generally go on to something slightly lower than the cheese mat that they are using but it’s the same concept. I also spot it a ton. Front handsprings are one of those skills that I spot a long time for shapes because fixing bad habits in them takes so long.

The second video is of a flyspring/bounder on tumble trak. Its a great way to better isolate the shoulder action in front handsprings and also work on shapes.

I really like doing flysprings with these bands on. It ensures that kids really do keep their arms by their ears. But don’t try it until they are actually proficient with bounders.

How do you teach front handsprings?