How To Twist Safely

I have a very solid frontflip (clean walkout each time) and I believe it is good enough to start twisting. Since I am 6' 1" I have found that I need a great deal more technique in my flips in order to land them. Twisting especially hurts my back and I know it is because I am doing something wrong. What are some progressions I can do to prepare my body for twisting, and once I am prepared for it, how to twist properly and without injuring myself?

Don't twist with the back. Twisting comes from the neck and arms. As you flip, turn the head, the body will follow with no pull on the back, and instead of placing your arms outward during the front layout, pull your arms to your "pocket" to twist. Its a start, try to no engage the back too much with the twisting. It will be engaged, but the twist shouldn't come from there.

A video would be helpful for diagnosis.

Generally speaking, twisting comes from your arms. Thinking about twisting your neck is not required to initiate a twist. It might help you to learn the arm movement, but from a purely physical standpoint, it does not speed up the rotation. So go ahead and try it, but if it doesn't work for you, you don't need to do it. Personally I find it disorienting, and don't do it.

By the way, right now my goal is a webster half. For those who don't know, a webster is a frontflip where you take off with one foot and use the other in a whipping motion. I can layout in a webster.

I will get a video in a couple weeks when I am at open gym again, for now it's time for the State swim meet

iamtylerleonard said:

Don't twist with the back. Twisting comes from the neck and arms. As you flip, turn the head, the body will follow with no pull on the back, and instead of placing your arms outward during the front layout, pull your arms to your "pocket" to twist. Its a start, try to no engage the back too much with the twisting. It will be engaged, but the twist shouldn't come from there.

This is incorrect. Twisting comes from the hips.

If you attempt to twist with the neck and arms; the head will drop back or forward (depending on which direction you are flipping), the back will arch, the legs will pull apart, the twist will be slow and the salto will stall.

All of which will combine to make your evening less than optimal.

If you are working on front salto twisting, a better recommendation is to begin with front pike salto kick out. The earlier and more powerfully you can kick out to a full straight body extension the better.

Once this is mastered, you may progress onward to a front pike kick out with half twist, initiating the twist from the hips just before the body reaches full extension.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

This is incorrect. Twisting comes from the hips.

 

Does this hold true for multiple twisting backwards saltos? When setting for a double or a triple I always try to focus on the set and the arm motion; I've never paid much attention to the hips. 

Joshua Slocum said:

Does this hold true for multiple twisting backwards saltos? 

Absolutely.

The more technically intricate the skill, the more essential it is to use flawless mechanics.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

This is incorrect. Twisting comes from the hips.

...

... initiating the twist from the hips just before the body reaches full extension.

 

What is the nature of the movement at the hips which initiates the twist?  Are the arms involved in increasing twist?

Thanks.

Matthew Hanham said:

What is the nature of the movement at the hips which initiates the twist?  Are the arms involved in increasing twist?

 

Thanks.

It is literally a turn of the hips at impact before the feet have left the ground.  The arms only increase the rate at which the body spins.  They do not generate twisting power.  The subtle turn of the hips at take off generates a large amount of twisting rotation.   

You can twist in the air without using the hips.  You do it by tilting the body and dropping an arm.  It is inefficient though and has no practical value beyond a full twist or a double salto where only one salto is twisting.  Even then, the full twists using this method will be very slow.

Whenever I did triples, I always just thought set and turn with my toes.  And I've always taught to think about twisting with the toes.