Hi All,

I wanted to talk a little about series development today. One of the things that I always, always talk about when I’m lecturing about series development is that we really need to start them early. I find that a lot of anxiety around series comes from not introducing the concept of a series until AFTER gymnasts have back walkovers on the high beam. I am a huge proponent of starting to introduce the concept as soon as they can handstand well on high beam.

The screen cap below is taken from this gymsmarts video and is actually my first step. I want them to be able to come down from handstand and find that shape. The biggest thing is that I want to make sure that they can come down with their foot facing the right direction, and finish with their hips flat and straight. I start introducing this handstand as soon as they can handstand well on high beam.

The video below is my second step – one of the biggest problems I find is that when we start series the only handstand we’ve ever taught gymnasts is one to a lunge, they have trouble figuring out the connection because the end of the handstand is so different. So the sooner we can introduce handstands for connections the better I find those connections go. The things I want at the end of this handstand are similar, lever out, hips straight, finishing with feet together and hips flat.

Once they can do these handstands with control – connecting a back walkover or a back handspring becomes a lot easier.

Train hard!