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Program Patterns of Movement for Success: How Doing Round-off Backhandspring Rebound first before doing two backhandsprings in a row can help you succeed and prevent problems.
By Mack | August 1, 2006
There was a time at work when we had an accident with a Cheerleader; she was supposed to do round-off to two backhandsprings. She told the coach, with confidence, “I’m doing two backhandsprings; can you spot the second one?”
The coach, let’s call him David, stepped backward and was looking for the second backhandspring. She went for the round-off and undercut the first backhandspring and “ate” the mat and of course didn’t make the second backhandspring where the coach was standing in a stance expectantly. She was down for the count. She was cupping her mouth with her hands; she hurt her lips on the mat.
These moments are what coaches hate the most. The guilt we feel is indescribable. We just feel REALLY bad when accidents happen. We always first blame ourselves. We quickly think of the ways we could have prevented what happened.
Could coach David have prevented what happened?
Well, I think I would have tested how well she did her round off backhandspring first if I wasn’t familiar with the girl’s skill level. I would have had her do a round off backhandspring to a rebound - backwards 2 to 4 feet. The backwards trajectory is important as we don’t want them to go straight up; that’s for the back tuck; we want a backhandspring out of it.
I met my friends at Fridays restaurant today and I told my friend, (let’s call him Phil) that his backhandspring drill that he showed me a few times was really cool and implied that I’m going to use it. I learn from everybody.
He said, cockily, “Dude, I’m the legend… You guys have no idea.” He then went on and on about his accomplishments as a gymnastics coach and a cheer tumbling coach. I had this girl doing this, I had this girl doing that. Everything was about him.
Then the subject of the accident with the girl attempting two backhandsprings came up. And also his own experience with another girl who was attempting a round off backhandspring back tuck. He went on and said that the girl did Round off Tuck (instead of round off BACKHanspring Tuck).
He said that “it’s not the coach’s fault. ….If you tell the girl to do round off back handspring tuck, and she doesn’t then that’s her fault.”
I said, “Well, people get confused (while doing gymnastic actions).”
“Mack, we did Round off two Backhandsprings FOUR TIMES!”, he emphasised.
“Well, with that, I would go Round off Back handspring rebound so she doesn’t get confused. Has she done round-off tucks before(without the back handspring before the tuck)?”, I asked.
“Yeah,” Phil said, “she’s done round off tucks before”. Phil said that when she went to do ROBH to a tuck he asked her, ‘what are you going to do?’. And she said, ‘Round off Back Handspring tuck.’ So, it’s not like she didn’t know what she was supposed to do.”
See, my theory is that she was confused. Her body was confused when going at 30 miles per hour accross the floor because She only had two patterns of movement that were programmed into her mind and body. They were:
- Round off Backhandspring-backhandspring, and
- Round off Tuck
Her mind-body patterns chose number 2 in this case since she was instructed “Do round off backhandspring TUCK.” The word “tuck” was enough to set off the #2 pattern of movement that was practiced. She wasn’t used to doing the ROBH tuck movement. That’s why I suggest doing the Round off backhandspring rebound (The rebound programs the pattern of movement for the tuck). Please see my post “How I got Roy to do Round off backhandspring tuck while others failed.” Put it in the search box.
During our argument, he asked me with arrogance and insult, “How many regional champions have you coached?”
I said, “It doesn’t matter. it has nothing to do with it.”
“Yes it does,” he said.
We’re friends. We do this more often than I would like.
We made amends after he said, “Man, I can’t even talk to you.” (back turn)
Here’s what I say, “You can talk all you want about your accomplishments but you can’t argue with what actually happens. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve accomplished. You can’t tell me that it is safe to do two backhandsprings in a row when your first backhandspring is “blocked” at 45 degrees (not landing at least close to vertical with your chest up on your first backhandspring) and then doing another backhandspring out of it. Gymnasts and Cheerleaders don’t lie when they eat the mat.”
Again, to summarize, I would
- For RO backhandsprings: “Take a step back”, Do round off rebound backwards 2 to 5 feet. Try to get Arms at horizontal, feet in front of hips. If you can’t do round off with chest up at vertical when feet hit the ground, really, there’s no use trying to go for ROBH. Unless you would like to eat the mat for lunch. If you end up doing a backward roll (or safety roll/candlestick)after your feet hit land on the ground from the rebound, YOU Did it Right!.
- For RO Backhandspring, Backhandspring: Do Round off BACKHANDSPRING TO REBOUND with backwards trajectory of 2 to 5 feet after the first backhandspring. When successful, spot the second one.
- For RO Backhandspring Back Tuck: Do Round off Backhandspring to a VERTICAL REBOUND and maybe go back a foot or two with open chest, arms up. For the coach, catch the hips with your hands and guide the rebound upwards and bring down slowly. Open chest and vertical is important with arms up. If you can’t rebound vertically at least 8 inches off the ground, then you shouldn’t be doing ROBH tuck just yet; unless you want your coach to have shoulder surgery in 3 months.
Topics: All Blog Posts, Cheer Tumbling (and Floor Exercise), Back Handspring, BH BH, Back-tuck, Bh B-tuck, Running Tumbling, Hurdle and Round-off, Round-Off BackHandspring, RO Back-tuck, Advanced Running tumbling Combinations, Drills and Progressions Guide, Coaching Cheer Tumblers |
August 4th, 2006 at 10:06 am
You have a point man and it’s really interesting about mind body patterns nice
August 4th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Yeah. Coaches need to get into the minds of their athletes and stop blaming them so much. Really, you really have to ask yourself as a coach:
*What would it feel like if I were her and I talked this way to her?
*How accurate is my communication to her? How could it be misunderstood?
*How can I make it clearer and easier to understand these gymnastics concepts?
*What anatomical differences/Physiological deviances do these athletes have that can affect their technique? How can I work around it?
*What are these kids used to doing? What new concepts are they willing to accept? What are they currently rejecting now so that I can maneuver in these new concepts later?
*How strong are these kids? how much is strength affecting their gymnastics and tumbling?
*Are they aware of their bodies moving in all these planes of motion? How aware are they? How can we increase awareness?
*Where is the fear coming from? Is it rational or irrational? Is it right to force her to doing these things? how much of the fear comes from technique dysfunction? how much comes from emoting habits? Is intimidation the only way to go, or are there some progressions and drills that are missing from the development of these skills?
Coach Mack