She's able to do it on the floor now w/o him spotting her but she's got some serious arm issues. Other than push ups, what other things are helpful for her to:
A - stop them from being too wide
B - not bend when she lands on them
Any ideas on how to make her keep her legs straighter too? Would love some stuff she can do at home..
CP has spent the better part of 3 years perfecting that BHS. Here is what her coach told her about arm issues:
"If you can execute a blocking handstand and hold a handstand for 3 seconds, your arm issues are not actually in your arms at all. They are either in your shoulders, your hips, or both."
Shoulders- lack of shoulder flexibility means its difficult to impossible to keep your arms by your ears when executing the BHS, they are wider apart. You don't transfer weight into your shoulders effectively like that, so they bend.
Hips- (this was the big one holding CP's technique back, and causing bent arms) hHips are not lifting aggressively enough, so you are not in a good handstand position when hands make contact with the ground. You are bearing too much weight on your wrists and elbows, so you buckle. He told her to think of the beginning of a handspring as jumping into a handstand position, and the end as the snap down out of that handstand. If you never hit the handstand, you cannot snap down. If at any point in the handspring you break the "rainbow arch" and you rear sticks out, you are guilty of this.
the straight legs is often a strength in the hip flexors issue. According to CP's coach, it is less of an issue for actually getting the skill, and more something that needs to be cleaned up once they have it.
things she can do at home (these are what CP's coach recommended for these issues):
Shoulder stretches
Handstand snap downs (holding the handstand first)
blocking handstands
Core conditioning, focusing on the hip lift
Clean sit, swing, jump drills onto a raised surface, focusing on proper athletic stance, keeping arms by the ears, reaching up, arms quickly reaching the top.