Gymnastics - can I help DD learn to cartwheel?

[Smithagain]

Anyone out there who knows about gymnastics?

DD1 has been doing recreational gymnastics for just over a year. She has loved it from the beginning and has learned most of the moves they do pretty easily. She's skinny and bendy in a way I never was!

She's reached a point where, in order to get her next badge - and progress from the beginners to intermediate class - she needs to be able to cartwheel. She's getting v frustrated cos she can't do it and they aren't spending much (if any) time learning in class. And there isn't space to do it in the house!

So I'm wondering if there are any exercises etc she can do that will help strenghten the right muscles and keep her motivated! Or any tips to help her get those legs up in the air. I have never cartwheeled in my life, so I feel a bit inept!

Dd learnt over the summer - just by practising and practising and practising - she just spent the whole summer cartwheeling! She can do a pretty good one now, though landing is a bit hit and miss. She's 6, and has very nearly completed BAGA 3, but has done half of BAGA 2 as well, as they are not totally rigid about when they 'get their ticks' at her club.

Thanks! I guess I need to keep her motivated till the summer and then send her out in the garden as often as humanly possible!

Your club sounds more enlightened than ours. She has to pass two more moves on Level 3, but can't progress at all until she's done them. They just keep repeating the same badge - but because there are lots of real beginners in the class, they don't spend much time on the moves for her level. So she's not getting much help, really.

My kids go to a lovely club - it caters for all levels - toddlers to Olympic! And they are really good. The way they work it is they do some warm-ups as a whole class, and then split into groups of 5 or 6, and rotate round the apparatus - bars, beam, trampoline etc, and one of the groups does badge work. So each child has a piece of paper that shows where they are, and they will work on a skill specifically for them. So they're not waiting for others in the group to catch up, or waiting for their 'skill' to come up.

Routine moves like cartwheels are done outside of the badge group as well - on the trampoline etc. But to get the 'tick' they do it in the badge group.

That sounds so sensible - I wish ours worked like that. It just seems so random whether they can get their badge on "badge day" without having spent much time on the right skills leading up to it.

And this is also a club that caters for toddlers to Olympians! But I think they are more interested in the Olympic end of the scale, to be honest.

That does seem random - we don't have 'badge day', it's just continuous.

How is her handstand ? I have read that you need a really strong handstand to do a good cartwheel ,so that might be good to focus on.

I had a similar problem with my DD1 who is 7 nnow and after 2 terms of gymnastics has only just learned how to do a good cartwheel.It really held her back a lot as all the other girls can do round offs and front and back handsprings.It became a problem when her sister started doing it and did a perfect cartwheel after about 3 goes!
Also found that taking a good run up gives them lots of speed to get their legs over.there are lots of tip and drills on the web to help

Dd just had a test in school (she got a b+) in the end for her cartwheel. She practised at home and she also watched some youtube videos. If you search for how to do a cartwheel there are some good tips!

I good tip that my club does is to get them doing a bunny hop over a bench sideways and then it's only a matter of legs up a bit more and straighter if you see what I mean. The bench helps with getting the arms in the right position and the sideways movement of the cartwheel.

i hope it helps, this is how my Ds learnt.

Practice practice practice