Quick Tip – Back handsprings (revisited)

Hi All,

So today I wanted to revisit back handsprings. I’ve shared both of these drills in Quick Tips before, but they were in picture, not video, form and I always come back to these two drills so I wanted to share them again.

This first one is back handspring – fall to stomach. This is one of my favorites as it reinforces body tension, helps get all of the angles out and generally makes kids think about more than just making it over. If you have gymnasts that do beautiful back handspring drills and then bend their knees and lose their form in their back handspring I would do these. It helps them really understand being tight well.

This second one is another one I use a lot and that’s back handspring to knees. Here is the rational, when kids are starting to back handspring they may not generate enough power or have good enough technique to land on their feet without piking. When they land on their knees (only do this on soft mats) – it shortens their body length so they are better able to turn over and keep their hips flat.

If you’d like even more basic tumbling drills – you should check out “Beginning Tumbling – Where to start with preschool and rec (from handstands to back tucks)” it’s 94 minutes of easily taught drills and progressions that will lead to bigger and better tumbling.