Airsense

Hello,

I have absolutely no 'air sense' or aerial awareness, and I know that lots of ways lead to Rome. 

To those who can duck, dive, dip, dodge, tumble and twist: what sport/practise did you do, that allowed you to develop you current sensory sensitivity? Would you recommend the same path to me, to whom all of this is some unexplainable flying magic - especially the things gymnasts do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRj0gImqYVY

Also, will airsense from tumbling carry over to, say: vault, flight elements on bars or trampoline and vice versa? I assume there is apparatus/sport-specific air sense - skills at a certain level..
Honestly, I am just looking for general basic awareness.

Here are some impressive clips I found from different disciplines:
 

http://youtu.be/48DzO6pAKrM

http://youtu.be/KUc5ZNNMI-M

This doesn't doesn't really belong in this forum but yes air sense carries over. One of the best ways of getting this is to do flips on trampoline or into the foam pit. As you get not comfortable you will find yourself knowing exactly where you are in air. You will also figure out how to manipulate yourself.

For this you need to first learn front and back flip. Then you can start to add on. A coach is very useful here. Then you can just do 10-15 min whenever to play around. Just make sure that you are always concentrating and don't allow your play to become dangerous.

Air sense absolutely carries over between activities. I find that a trampoline is an excellent place to learn air sense. You get a good amount of height to play with, and it's much more forgiving of mistakes than a spring floor. Dan's recommendation of 10-15 minutes of play with supervision/input of a coach is pretty much exactly what you want. 

I think these things are best developed as a child, since it will later come pretty naturally. However that doesn't mean you can't do it as an adult, it's certainly more than possible.

 

Flipping on a trampoline and into the pit as suggested are good ways to develop correct patterns to move around in the air. Apart from that, playing around with whatever movements come to your head, difficult or easy doesn't matter, helps develop a certain body awareness as well I guess. Filming yourself there and trying to remember how movements feel and then look like on video is a valuable tool, too.

 

Just messing around with others is also nice. As kids we used to wrestle or challenge eachother with different moves or combinations of moves in the gym before our coach arrived and in retrospect, I think this also greatly helped developing body awareness.

 

There is some carryover, but I think only to a certain extent. I never had regular access to a big trampoline and we developed this stuff completeley without one as kids. And while I would say that I'm quite proficient on the "normal" gymnastics events, I'm still quite insecure on these trampolines since I'm not really used to flying that high which is quite intimidating in comparison to the other apparatuses. That means I don't get lost in the air or something when flipping on these, but I'm nowhere near being good at trampoline kind of stuff simply because I'm scared of it.

Thank you for your replies.

@Daniel and Joshua: Sounds good, I'm definitely going to sign up for trampoline classes. There was a time before Foundation when I signed up for tumbling class, but back then I did not work on mobility at all.. Oh the ignorance. That fact and the fact that I am double jointed, set me up for major injuries. Foundation really helped tackle the lack in mobility though. I assume the trampoline will also be softer on the joints and connective tissue

@Andreas You make some very good points, I think we have some innate resistance to flipping and tumbling. Our brain just wants us to survive, and a backflip is not really contributing to that. Kind of a huge mental barrier. Also good to know it has some carryover.

Edit: the following thread really opened up my eyes. A good read for anyone interested. https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/13466-front-and-back-walkoverslimbers/

Basketball. When you get to a certain height and can make that jump multiple times you feel like you can change directions in mid air. First time you dunk a basketball is an experience that's hard to describe.

I did play on trampolines for fun tho. Not sure if that had any real carryover, buy I could do double back flips, double front flips and side flips in either direction. McTwists. Never did flips in basketball tho xD

If you want to start using the trampoline, especially to gain some air sense here is some basics I would suggest learning-

 

Firstly

-seat drop

-back drop

-front drop

-tuck, straddle and pike jumps

- What I know as 'Cat pat', landing on hands and knees

 

Then after having being more comfortable with those, you can start adding some extra stuff in, building up the movements more and sequencing a little but

-1/2 turn back drop

-1/2 turn front drop

-3/4 front salt (begin from feet perform a front salt and land on the back)

-Backward pullover (straight jump to back, from the back, pull the feet over the head, can either arrive on stomach or on the feet)

-from back to stomach

-seat drop to stomach

-cat twist (jumping on the back perform a twist with the body in horizontal and return to the back)

 

Also develop the ability to jump on the back continuously as well as to do all those movements and then return to your feet. That's not a comprehensive list and then you can start taking it further as well (i.e, 1/1, 3/2, 2/1 turn back drop, pullovers to back in sequence)