Photo: Snapped! by Becca Clark
If you’re learning to connect a back handspring to another skill or are learning multiples, this post is for you!
To have a smooth connection between a round off and a back handspring, or a back handspring and another back handspring, you need 3 things:
- To land with your feet in front of you
- Maintenance of tension throughout the pass
- A good first skill
In order to land with your feet in front of you, your snap down at the end of the previous round off or handspring has to be more of a snap “up.” This means that instead of focusing on bringing your feet back down to the ground, you focus on lifting your chest up and remaining in a hollow body position. Avoid going into a pike position as you finish the first skill, as that will make it extremely hard to connect anything to it.
As I’ve mentioned a million times in my Instagram posts, you need to hold tension in your body to allow power to build, or even just maintain. This is done by lengthening and squeezing your body. You want to reach your arms and legs in opposite directions, especially on the round off entrance or the jump into a handspring.
Having a lack of tension in the first skill will set you up for a slow, difficult connected skill. If you already have good tension in the first skill, make sure you’re maintaining it as you connect the handspring. You’ll need that especially when you begin to add more skills to the end, like back tucks.
Lastly, good technique on the first skill of the pass, whether that be a round off or a back handspring, is crucial to have a good second skill. If your technique is not 100% there yet, clean it up before adding connective skills.
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