Handstand shaping

We’ve been spending a lot of time on handstand shaping lately, and I wanted to share a few videos that can be really helpful and easy drills to pop into your workout. One of the great places we do drills is on the gymnasts way back from their turn on tumble track. It’s easy to incorporate pertinent drills, and the kids aren’t standing in line as long.

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These first two videos are shaping drills from Enrique Trabanino, if you’ve got panel mats out at the beginning of practice for over splits or something like that add in an extra five minutes for shaping. If not, like I said – tumble track or even between tumbling passes is a great place.

This third video is also from Enrique Trabanino, I’ve started using a lot of tuck handstands and have had great success – for this set of drills though you have to make sure the gymnasts have the shoulder strength to push tall. If not I would have them put their knees on a mat/block until they can.

I also really like this video for general strength/shaping. We’ve been working on things with instability a lot lately – foam rollers, upside down bosu balls, etc. And this type of work seems to give the girls a) a lot more control over their bodies when something minor is out of place and b) it gives them A LOT of confidence.

This last one while I get is a little hokey really places an emphasis on something I think a lot of coaches miss which is that shoulders need to be in ears, ie. shoulders need to be extended in the handstand. I see lots of coaches focusing on ribs and hips and not nearly enough on the shoulders and how that effects bars, tumbling etc.

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