Q&A for How to Improve Your Back Handspring

I always tell people to join something like a yoga class, for example. It's an excellent way to get flexible and also strengthen your core!

The lowest you want to be in your seat is 90 degrees. If it is any lower, it will make it harder to get over. Definitely keep your chest up.

Take a video of yourself and see if you are bending them. You can also ask a friend to watch you. If they say that you are bending and shrugging, here's what you do: try doing some handstand hops. There are videos on YouTube. This helps you use you're shoulders to not bend your arms. It helps you block, which makes you not bend or shrug.

Try putting a sheet of paper between your legs. If it stays in place, then you haven't opened your legs. Or, you could put a scrunchie around both of your ankles.

When you start you back handspring, swing your arms around a couple times to get momentum, then push off your feet. Your power comes from your push off and your arms.

Try spotting. Keep your eyes focused on one thing while attempting your flip, turn, or kick. It helps balance out the gymnast/dancer and is used an many activities to straighten the body.

It's all leg power, so make sure to do leg conditioning. Frog jumps are really good for this.

If you don't swing your arms, that is called a standing back handspring. This is actually harder than a normal back handspring. Swinging your arms just is like a way to make it easier to get over.

Have a handstand all the way up; also a back bend would help. Practice standing up from a bridge. When you are practicing the bridge standing part, move all your weight from your hands to your feet and be fast when doing this, to stand up. The front limber is just basically and handstand falling into a bridge and standing up. A good drill for the bridge standing is to do it climbing your hands up and down the wall.

Yes, when you do a back walkover it's technically a back handspring slower and without the spring. Try doing a fast back walkover with your feet together.

Use a tool, like a barrel, to improve your posture and position on the floor. Remember, repetition is key! The more times you practice, the more likely you are to get the back handspring down.

Just do a back handspring and land with one foot out.

When doing a skill, (like a back handspring), its best to "sit in a chair" and get the right formation. This will help your skill be tighter and cleaner.

The easy answer is don't bend your hand inward. You control your hand, not the other way around. Look into exercises to improve your awareness of the position of your entire body. Isolate each separate step of the movement and practice it individually. If you turn the movement into a reflex, you can trust that your body knows what to do while you focus on your hand placement. Finally, overall strength training leads to stronger muscles and more control.

Yes. Make sure to have a spotter the first time.

The mental block goes away through practice and learning everything about the movement. Repeat the bhs movement until you are confident, then reduce the speed and run-up. Increase again if you feel the fear coming back. As for the forearms, try approaching the bhs from a back flip. In a back flip your rotation is higher off the ground; if you reduce that height, you might simply touch the ground without putting much strain on your arms. Think about this, though, as it's not for every skill level.

Just keep at it. This is a matter of practice. Don't give up, keep practicing and you will get it.

If you are landing on your head, you may have not yet sufficiently mastered the back handspring technique. Break the movement down in smaller steps and practice those separately until you control them completely. For example, handstand variations and the back flip itself have much in common with this move. Contact a local gymnastics club to see if they will let you practice at their facility. It might also be because you are not going up high enough. Consider practicing the back flip first and coming down from that into the back handspring.

Your pain may be a result of simply doing the movement too often. Another cause may be that your arms are too straight, which causes the impact of the hand placement to be absorbed only or mostly by your shoulders. It might also be because your rotation is too low. Try increasing the distance between your head and the floor, going more towards a backflip, but still touching the floor with your hands.

Basically, you jump up and at your highest point, tuck in and spin backwards.

Try practicing handstand variations. For example, do a handstand and exit it in a different direction than you usually would - all 360 degrees are possible. Alternatively, ask someone to shout out a number corresponding to the face of a clock, that will be your exit angle. This will improve your hip and leg control, reducing the arch of your back. Alternatively, film your movement and watch the slow motion replay to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong.

Always have the side of your arm touching your ears. This way your arms will stay above your head and hit the ground first.

Use a spotter, and try putting more power on the other side than the one you crash into.

You could work on handstand snap downs, where you go into a handstand, push with your shoulders and snap both of your feet down together. This will simulate the end half of a back handspring. Keeping your feet together requires strength in your arms to help you push off, so try doing arm strengthening exercises, as well.

Keep your dominant leg in front a little bit. As soon as your hands hit the floor, push up with your dominant leg and kick your legs over your body. Then you got it.

Yes, definitely. It just takes a little bit longer to perfect alone, and it is also a little bit more dangerous.

You could try walking around your house with your feet straight and pointed for a day.

Use your thigh muscles. If you do this, it will have the strongest pull out of all the muscles in your legs. Just pull them to the middle of your body.

If not already, try having a coach or a higher skilled gymnast help you. Give yourself encouraging words and believe in yourself. Once you do it one time, it will be easy for the next time!

Picture yourself doing it correctly, and also put a soft cushion underneath to stay safe.