Front handspring power?

[sasquatch]

How do people get power out of their front handsprings? I learned how to do a good front fulltwist on a trampoline, but I don't know how I can ever do it on floor without a strong front handspring.

[Blairbob]

Besides a front handspring, you can do work a really arched, whippy front layout as an accelerator to the front full.

As for FHS, you must kick the crap out of it to really turn it over. Don't just kick to HS. Don't just kick past HS. Kick through the HS as if you were going to land in a bridge. Bare in mind if you were to kick that hard through HS and land in a bridge, you would collapse because of the power and momentum ( besides a bit of help from gravity ). Think of instead of the controlled lowering to bridge in a front limber ( kick to HS and lower to bridge then stand up out of it ), you don't control it.

Other than that:

Strong HS. I teach this first as a strong HS unless their HS is proficient enough to learn how to hop/prop/shrug in it. The last part after you have kicked the crap out of it is to shrug and open the shoulders, not just shrug/pop/hop in the HS.

Eyes looking at wrists, head neutral, open those shoulders up! Of course if your shoulders are tight, it's gonna be rough. Don't close the shoulders, don't tuck the chin and don't pike/tuck at the hips.

Obviously, good deep enough lunge. Relatively open shoulders upon reaching to the floor, not diving on the hands.

Reach hands, kick-KICK. That second leg has to try to play catch up to the first leg.

Lead up skills...

front headspring which is developed from floor kip to bridge, floor kip to stand. Working FHeS down a wedge, out of a roll, up a wedge.

I try to teach a flyspring on tumbl-trak before I teach the FHS or FHeS ( I have them learn hug the twinkie as an off station ). It teaches the strong kick and how to shape change from hollow>arch. Before this is simply kick to handstand flat back and a FHS/FWO over a barrel. Next is knee drop to HS, arms by ears kicking back and up so it floats to HS.

Way more involved than you ask but know I don't need to say anymore about progression.

Again, good tight arched HS, hard kick-KICK and to get them used to the idea that it's blind.

It's good to learn over-rotate flyspring to flat drop on front on a soft surface. Another is flyspring>flyspring or FHS>flyspring then do front whip ( archy front layout ) instead of flyspring. Another is FHS step out, FHS.

Obviously at the base of this is working the basic front limber and I like to drill FWO even if they have no hope of ever doing one by themselves.

[sasquatch]

Wow :shock:

Thank you for taking the time to write that very detailed post.

I'm not very flexible in the bridge, or shoulders, I have to work them more.

I'll also work on kicking it really hard and arching my back. I can't try any front whipe layouts until I go to the gym, but I'll give them a try next time.

[Blairbob]

FHS, front whip, front full is a pretty common pass.

Good front tumbling typically requires flexible shoulders are it's just gonna be ugly. You can kind of get away for this in back tumbling.

[sasquatch]

Well, when I try a bridge I can't even straiten-out my arms. I guess I need a lot more flexibility in the shoulders.

I have a stupid problem with back handsprings also. Sometimes when I do them I bend my arms and rotate my hands inward. I recently realized I do this because I'm afraid I'll land on my fingers and break them. Shoulder flexibility probably help with that also.

[Blairbob]

Rotating the hands inward is a common technique taught for back handsprings as the elbow is typically safer when done this way.

If you're shoulder flexibility is poor, the shoulder will be closed and have an angle upon hitting the handstand phase. A closed shoulder means it require more strength to stabilize ( think planchey ).

[sasquatch]

Thanks for the tips!

I was able to try a front whip last night, I could actualy feel some power in it! ... and paine in my back.

I was able to land a front full on the tumble track also... It could a lot look nicer though.