How to do a Sit Drill for Back Handsprings

"Hi! I'm Mandy Butler on behalf of Expert Village. I'm going to be taking you through some back handspring drills and techniques to help you on your way to mastering the back handspring. Now as you notice in the back handspring, the very first thing you're going to do is the sit. It's very important that you get the correct body position before you move forward. A drill I like to do to get my athlete in the correct position, get their body's used to doing what they're supposed to be doing, is a sit drill against the wedge mat. I take this wedge at, put it up against the wall, and I'm going to sit against it. I'll show you what I mean in just a second. I really want to make sure that you keep your chest nice and straight and you don't bend too far forward. That's going to defeat the purpose of the drill. The purpose of the drill is to teach your athlete where they need to be when they start. I'll show you the position I want your athlete in. I'm going to sit against the mat. When I do that, notice I didn't just fall into the mat. That is because the athlete needs to know the speed at which they're going to be sitting before they jump backwards into their back handspring. Notice my feet are slightly in front of the mat, my knees are bent, and I'm sitting as if I were going to be sitting in a chair. When you sit in a chair, you don't lean forward. Your back is nice and straight. This is a sit position. I'm going to show you the drill one more time. I'm going to stand, bring my arms backward, and sit against the wedge mat. This is a sit drill."