Starting to teach back handsprings without arm swings may help the gymnasts to get used to keeping the arms closer to the head in the early learning stages plus it can save the coach a couple of face slaps. Place the gymnast on a position as if they were coming from a round off or another back handspring.
When spotting new gymnasts on backhandsprings we must keep our head further back away from them to avoid getting hit if they open the arms too much.
Once we are relatively sure that the gymnast is not going to throw the arms out too open we can add the arms swing to their spotted back handsprings. This gymnast is trying to master a hollow turn over second flying phase instead of just piking it down. Coaches may use every training opportunity to help establish good posture habits like standing up with stomach area in and buttocks tucked in too.
Swinging both arms tilted to one side and twisting the body on that direction as if the gymnasts were trying to look over their shoulder to see where their body is going instead of keeping it square is another common back handspring mistake. Barrel back handsprings may help the gymnasts to work out the problem emphasizing to feel their backs landing on the barrell square and without turning the head sideways.
Once the gymnast has a fair snap down from folding mats, they can begin practicing back handsprings with a spot. This is a good introduction to connecting a handspring from the hands-to-feet flying phase and is very helpful as initial preparation for roundoff back handsprings.
The snap down back handspring is a very helpful progressive step toward the round off back handspring. Advanced gymnasts may practice this combination to refine some back tumbling technical details such as turning over from hands to feet on a hollow single body unit and rebounding with a tight arch first flying phase while the shoulder area is open.
Piking down with knees bent and no arm repulsion at all is a very common novice mistake. There is not a flying phase and the feet touch the floor with the hands still down.
Here are several snap down examples some better than others. Back handsprings have two flying phases one from feet to hands and the second turning from hands to feet. Snap downs help gymnast to understand the second flying phase.
Snap down drills are closely related to the hands-to-feet motion on back handsprings required to add power and turn over to the rebound connecting a handspring to another handspring or to a somersault. The goal is to open the shoulder area and then pushing from shoulders and wrists snap the whole body into a deep hollow while turning on one unit from hands to feet.