My pleasure.

Thank you, 14:05!

If your son has experience, I would look into private lessons at a reputable gym because if you put your child in a class, they will work on a wide range of skills and not necessarily focus on a back handspring. However, if he is a beginner, I agree with several of the others that a solid foundation of strength and flexibility is key. I also agree that a TNT program will be more likely to introduce back handsprings than an Artistic program, but it will depend on the level of other children in the class as most instructors lack the class management skills to teach cartwheels to other kids while your son learns a flip flop.

Bottom line is that your child needs to learn proper technique in a gym with the proper equipment to learn the progressions. I have taught a back handspring in 3 hours (to an extraordinary 5 year old who is now an elite trampolinist), while other children will take much longer. It depends on his shoulder flexibility, strength, ability to learn, and translate corrections into actions. I am not sure where you live, but there are plenty of gyms in the area with good instructors.

Thanks for the detailed reply, 23:42.

Gymnastics camp is also a good idea. Thanks everyone!

Anonymous wrote:My 6 year old son just got his back handspring last fall. However, he is a competitive gymnast and practices 8-10 hours each week. It was a process that was a couple years long, starting with building strength and flexibility, lots of bridges, then learning a strong and consistent cartwheel, followed by learning a strong roundoff with a rebound...from the roundoff it took about a 9 months to get a consistently good backhandspring.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Start him in a gymnastics class. If he progresses well, he could be doing back handsprings in a year or two.

I agree that you should look for a gym with a power tumbling program you might be able to find a class that focuses more on just learning a back handspring, if your son doesn't care to learn the rest of the skills.

I would definitely avoid cheerleading programs. They often don't teach a back handspring in the proper progression and just have a focus on getting over as quickly as possible, which can be a recipe for disaster. I have seen way too many people land on their face or head which can cause serious injuries. Good Luck!

I do think there is merit to this statement DEPENDING on the instructor and their backgrounds/philosophies...if you are near Merrifield, VA, I would be happy to suggest a place!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 6 year old son just got his back handspring last fall. However, he is a competitive gymnast and practices 8-10 hours each week. It was a process that was a couple years long, starting with building strength and flexibility, lots of bridges, then learning a strong and consistent cartwheel, followed by learning a strong roundoff with a rebound...from the roundoff it took about a 9 months to get a consistently good backhandspring.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Start him in a gymnastics class. If he progresses well, he could be doing back handsprings in a year or two.

I agree that you should look for a gym with a power tumbling program you might be able to find a class that focuses more on just learning a back handspring, if your son doesn't care to learn the rest of the skills.

I would definitely avoid cheerleading programs. They often don't teach a back handspring in the proper progression and just have a focus on getting over as quickly as possible, which can be a recipe for disaster. I have seen way too many people land on their face or head which can cause serious injuries.

Good Luck!

I agree with this 100%. (actually the entire post, but the bolded part is very important) And congrats to your son! I can't imagine practicing 8-10 hours a week at age 6!

One more idea - there are gyms around that have gymnastics camps over the summer. Sure, they aren't doing gymnastics the entire day, but since they'd be practicing something every day, I bet it would be a good way to get in a lot of practice on the beginning skills, and build up good strength and flexibility.

Thanks!
I know it sounds crazy, but there is nowhere he'd rather be.

And for the op, I agree that a gymnastics camp at a reputable gym might be a great start.

Anonymous wrote:My 6 year old son just got his back handspring last fall. However, he is a competitive gymnast and practices 8-10 hours each week. It was a process that was a couple years long, starting with building strength and flexibility, lots of bridges, then learning a strong and consistent cartwheel, followed by learning a strong roundoff with a rebound...from the roundoff it took about a 9 months to get a consistently good backhandspring.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Start him in a gymnastics class. If he progresses well, he could be doing back handsprings in a year or two.

I agree that you should look for a gym with a power tumbling program you might be able to find a class that focuses more on just learning a back handspring, if your son doesn't care to learn the rest of the skills.

I would definitely avoid cheerleading programs. They often don't teach a back handspring in the proper progression and just have a focus on getting over as quickly as possible, which can be a recipe for disaster. I have seen way too many people land on their face or head which can cause serious injuries.

Good Luck!

I agree with this 100%. (actually the entire post, but the bolded part is very important) And congrats to your son! I can't imagine practicing 8-10 hours a week at age 6!

One more idea - there are gyms around that have gymnastics camps over the summer. Sure, they aren't doing gymnastics the entire day, but since they'd be practicing something every day, I bet it would be a good way to get in a lot of practice on the beginning skills, and build up good strength and flexibility.

My 6 year old son just got his back handspring last fall. However, he is a competitive gymnast and practices 8-10 hours each week. It was a process that was a couple years long, starting with building strength and flexibility, lots of bridges, then learning a strong and consistent cartwheel, followed by learning a strong roundoff with a rebound...from the roundoff it took about a 9 months to get a consistently good backhandspring.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Start him in a gymnastics class. If he progresses well, he could be doing back handsprings in a year or two.

I agree that you should look for a gym with a power tumbling program you might be able to find a class that focuses more on just learning a back handspring, if your son doesn't care to learn the rest of the skills.

I would definitely avoid cheerleading programs. They often don't teach a back handspring in the proper progression and just have a focus on getting over as quickly as possible, which can be a recipe for disaster. I have seen way too many people land on their face or head which can cause serious injuries.

Good Luck!

1:14 and 6:46, thank you both for your input!

Maybe try a gym that offers cheerleading as well as tumbling. The tumbling classes seem to be more focused on learning the basic tumbling moves quickly.

It really depends on the individual. However most of the time this won't be taught in the beginner level at any gym, nor the level after that really. So assuming that the child is talented enough to pass each class level each session, it would probably be at least 6-8 months. That would be unusual. Some kids will never progress far enough to learn a back handspring. Average, maybe 2-3 years.

Generally the tumbling progression will be: first level - forward roll, backward roll, cartwheel, but they probably also have to pass some bars skills, these are hardest. Second level, better cartwheel, roundoff, bridges and kickovers, better handstand, more advanced variations of rolls. Third level, probably will start working on back handsprings.

So the bar skills could hold back the progression, but on the other hand they are key for strength. A tumbling class might be better if he only wants to progress in tumbling, but if he would also be interested in competing in gymnastics, it would be important to learn all the events.

Thank you both for the replies!

DD is 6 and has done weekly gymnastics classes for two years. She's still working on a basic cartwheel. FWIW, we go to Chantilly Academy and they do offer boys' classes.

He'll make a lot more progress with more than one class per week, but if he's a beginner, it's going to take a while to get up to the back handspring stage - he'll need to master the basics before he gets up to back handsprings.

If he's only interested in tumbling, I'd recommend finding a dedicated tumbling and trampoline class, and he'll probably make progress faster there than if he's doing all the events.

My six-year-old boy wants to take gymnastics classes, with the ultimate goal of learning to do a back handspring. Would one class per week of group lessons suffice? If not, how many classes per week would be helpful?

Thanks!