HANDSTAND ON THE PARALLEL BARS

The recent rapid growth of the sport of gymnastics may be based, nmong other fact rs, on its versatility. Gymnasts attempt to win roints in each of the various events by combining certain skills into spectucular eye pleasing routines. However, while the sport's governing body gives the athlete considerable freedom to choose or develop the appropriate skills for a particular routine, it also imposes certain restrictions. One of those restrictions is that routines on the floor, rings, and parallel bars should include a press handstand, i.e. a gymnastic skill requiring the slow elevation of an individual's hodv from an initi 1 (usually an "L") stationary position to a handstand' position. Sev.ral variations of press handstands exist depending on body configuration between initial and final positions. One of them, the s raight arms/flexed hips press (SAFHP), is the variation most commonly used by gymnasts, and is depicted in Figure 3 (see results). Obviously, accomplishment of the skill requires a continual change i