Front Handspring Vs Flyspring

Today, after months of failing at front handsprings, I accidently did a flyspring. And landed it. Over and over again. So for the tumblers and coaches on here, do you have a preference of which one you like or don't like and why is that?

I teach flyspring on a tumbl-trak first. Flyspring on floor from a run or power hurdle is tougher to do than a front handspring from a lunge or power hurdle.

Some coaches train headspring before flyspring which is basically a bent arm flyspring but also differs since it tends to pike at the hips in the entry and arch out in the second half.

blairbob said:

Some coaches train headspring before flyspring which is basically a bent arm flyspring but also differs since it tends to pike at the hips in the entry and arch out in the second half.

All front handspring variations should begin with a pike at the hips during the entry and then an explosive arch during second half; not only the headspring.

This is why many coaches, myself among them, prefer the following progression: standing headspring, standing flyspring, hop headspring, run hop flyspring, front handspring. The issue with introducing the front handspring prematurely is that the athlete will tend to neglect the initial hip pike and attempt to kick to an arch right away.

In order to have powerful front tumbling, the chest and hips must be the primary generators of force with the kick of the heels being secondary.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thank you both Blairbob and Coach. That makes a lot of sense now. For some reason, during handsprings, I don't seem to be able to go from piked to arch unlike in a flyspring.

For some reason, during handsprings, I don't seem to be able to go from piked to arch unlike in a flyspring.

This is a common issue which is why the flysprings are taught first.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

For some reason, during handsprings, I don't seem to be able to go from piked to arch unlike in a flyspring.

This is a common issue which is why the flysprings are taught first.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I wish I had read this about 3 months ago...

I wish I had read this about 3 months ago..

My door is always open 8)

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

I wish I had read this about 3 months ago..

My door is always open 8)

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thank you Coach! I will be trying to make it down to Arizona soon for a seminar. But for now, I'm super relieved that my inability to get a front handspring wasn't because I was super slow.

This is really interesting because I have never been taught this way. We always go pretty much straight to trying to learn how to handspring, and mine are shit by the way. Maybe it has to do with not being taught an essential step. Next time we do front tumbling I'm going to get someone to go over headsprings with me.

Maybe I got lucky and found a good place to learn acrobatics from. They also start from headspring, and even that has a couple of progressions. Starting with putting the head on a waist high gymnastics block which gives more time and room to get the feet down. Then headspring on a low block, then to flyspring putting hands on a thigh level gymnastics block.

Just getting the first progression took me a while, but with this stuff I'm really starting from zero.

I had a question. The coach I had before taught me straight from front handsprings which helps explain why I never got down the correct form. I am getting a new one now since he left. They are supposed to start me on front headsprings, correct?

I also have removed all front handspring work from my training sessions and replaced it with front and back limber progressions which are wall walks and elevated bridge pulls. I believe this is going to help me more in the long run because my back was typically which was also an issue with handsprings. This is also the correct thing to do?

Shoulders are generally more of an issue than your back when it comes to handsprings; especially a lack of shoulder flexibility.

Work on headsprings and flysprings on a -tumbletrak. I might still allow front handsprings into a pit but it wouldn't be the focus.

Okay I will start with these until I am ready to progress. Thanks Blairbob!

Coach Sommer said:

In order to have powerful front tumbling, the chest and hips must be the primary generators of force with the kick of the heels being secondary.

How do you create power using chest and hips? I always thought its the floor punch that creates initial lift. Thanks.

It's the turnover of the body from a hollow position to an arched position (via the hips and shoulders primarily).

I did my proper front handspring two weeks ago. The biggest thing that helped is pushing my bodyweight off the floor with my front leg. In the last few years of the learning the handspring, the reason why I find it so difficult to execute the front handspring is NOT PUSHING UP WITH MY FRONT LEG.

In my adult beginners' gymnastics program our first skill in this category was the handspring, and we were given a few lead-up movements towards it.

But only attempting each one about twice, which is obviously absurd. There hasn't been much progress in the group, I must say. I think the coaches expect that we'll get bored if we actually work on something until we can do it alright, and that we'd rather mess around doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and never the same thing two weeks in a row.

This seems to be common in many adult gymnastics classes and it's a real shame. I feel if anything I need to spend more time with a few basics not less. And sincerely hope as adult recreational gymnastics continues to grow in popularity that coaches begin to realise we want to learn and not just do random stuff.

I have gone all the way back to front limbers. When I can do this, I will move onto headsprings. Is this correct?

No. Do both.

To be honest, I work them all with my developmental gymnasts. We do limbers or some form of them from day 1.

We might do flyspring drills, not an actual flyspring but handstand flat back from a flyspring entry. And I'll spot a lot of headsprings or they will do them over a barrel. Kind of depends where they are with each skill.

Cole Dano said:

This seems to be common in many adult gymnastics classes and it's a real shame. I feel if anything I need to spend more time with a few basics not less. And sincerely hope as adult recreational gymnastics continues to grow in popularity that coaches begin to realise we want to learn and not just do random stuff.

Aye. If there's a suitable opportunity to give feedback, I will. I guess it's difficult for them when they only have an hour (ignoring warm-up time etc.) once per week, and a group of ~15 people all with very different abilities. We're roughly half male, half female, and sometimes they split the group accordingly (but sometimes a few girls want to do our stuff with us), or sometimes we all work together.

To their credit, I've had a few really good tips, simple ideas that immediately revolutionised a skill I was attempting. But there does need to be some consistency. They should pick a handful of basics at the start and work on them consistently through the course (14 weeks in my case).

Also, they've tried to let us have a go on all the apparatus, which again takes up a lot of time. Each week we might do two main activities in the hour of work, something from:

floor (various possibilities)

vault

other tumbling

high and uneven bars

rings

p-bars

horse

beam (mostly the women, but men too - very good fun actually)

I'm glad we had a go on everything but you can't progress on them all with only 1hr per week, no way.

There are usually opportunities to do your own thing, though - say if everyone's on the tumble track then the floor is fairly clear and you can just wander off and play around if you want to, they don't mind.

It's good fun, still worth going - but always very frustrating. In the summer when the grass isn't all muddy perhaps I can practice more things outside on other days, which will help. Maybe I'll buy an old crash mat as well.

Thanks Blairbob!