FAD Blog: 10 Tips for Improving Your Back Handsprings!

Wed, 24 Jul 2013

FAD blog

10 tips on how to improve your back handspring!

Hi All,

I hope you are all enjoying my blog and are having a fabulous time in your FAD Dance and Cheer Classes for Term 3!! :-) This week we are going to be focusing on our Cheer and Hip Hop classes!! I am going to give you 10 Tips to improve your Back Handspring!! :-)

Back Handsprings are a great trick/skill to have in your Cheer or Hip Hop Routines! They are also great for a transitional move... So next time you are practicing your back handspring be sure to keep these tips in mind to try and aim for a Perfect Back Handspring!!

10 Tips to Improve Your Back Handspring:

The Starting Position: You need to make sure you are starting your Back Handspring neatly, or otherwise you could lose the entire effect. You need to start standing on the balls of your feet with your body completely straight. Your arms should be stretched straight over your head, with your arms locked into your ears and head looking straight forward!
You need to back sure you have a powerful arm swing in your Back Handspring to have enough momentum necessary to successfully complete your Back Handspring.
You need to make sure are jumping backwards into your handspring not upwards. Your aim is to jump backwards so that your back is in the bridge position.
Don’t Look Back: While jumping back into the back handspring, make sure you are keeping your head straight forward the entire time. It is natural for you to want to look back so that you can see where you are going, but this will throw off the alignment of your jump.
Your arms need to stay straight and keep your body tight at all times.
Make sure when your hands touch the floor, your palms are flat on the ground with your fingers facing your feet... If you do not put your hands down flat there is a chance you could break a finger.... OUCHIE!! :-( We don’t want that... so remember flat hands! :-)
As your feet are coming down to the ground you need to push off your hands, releasing contact with the ground, and bringing your chest up.
The Landing! This is just as important as any part of the Handspring – you don’t want to do a beautiful back handspring and land in a bit yucky heap on the floor... :-) You should land in the same position as you started in... Body straight with arms above your head or with hands by your side.
Practice, Practice, Practice!! :-) And have some fun!
Once you have your Back Handspring try doing a few in a row!! Check out the video below!! :-)