front handspring tips

[cathal]

in addition to the Gymnastic Strength Training™ i currently do i would also like to learn some basic gymnastic tumbling.

at the moment i am currently perfecting my roundoff technique as well as working on my front limbers by doing wall walks. i am having trouble with front handsprings though. when i block and flip over i always land on my ass. as far as i know i am keeping my legs and arms straight throughout the movement but im still not seeing progress. should i wait until i can do an unassisted front limber before training front handsprings? any tips to help me out? thanks

[Blairbob]

Possibly you are tucking mid air as you are kicking over.

Keep your legs straight. Kick hard. Try to kick the first leg over to stand on the ground like a front limber. The second leg should be trying to catch up.

Keep your shoulders open and your eyes on your hands. I'm not saying stick your head out but you could be closing that angle and looking for the ground which will really screw up your front handspring.

I reccomend doing this down a wedge mat. However, unless you are short like me, most wedge mats will not be long enough. Extend the wedge by placing a smaller wedge on blocks of equal height of the tall end of the main wedge. Now you have a longer downhill platform. This is also good for back handspring series or round off back handspring as it gives more time and momentum to turn over.

Doing these over an octagon can be helpful if you don't cheat and round your upper body to stand up and close your shoulders. We want that nice tight arch.

You can also do these into a foam pit. It's very simple. Basically it's a front limber with a kick and is similar to doing it down a hill without having to worry about the landing.

I would also suggest learning a flyspring or bounder front handspring on a tumbl-trak or trampoline. This is a front handspring that takes off two feet. A headspring will eventually develop into this.

[cathal]

thanks blairbob you've given me a lot to work on.