Roundoff

This is one of the skills I am most interested in fixing right now. If I need to get back to basics more before working on the actual skill I am fine with that. Here's where I'm at right now except they aren't quite full speed because my left ankle isn't quite 100% and I didn't want to crunch it.

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I'm aware of that my shoulders close slightly when I reach for the ground (might be hard to see from the side), and that I pike down quite a bit. I'd like to know what else I need to fix and if you have suggestions on how to do that.

Push hands off ground harder.

Close legs later.

Lunge more. A good distance I use is to go down on one knee (like a knee lunge) and measure the length of one of your feet from the knee on the ground to the heel of the first foot. This is "ok" distance.

Honestly, it's promising. Doing a RO on even grass or hard surfaces uses different technique than on a sprung surface.

Thank you very much.

I have rather long shins. That would be such a deep lunge for me that I'm not sure I have the flexibility to make it there, but I will see how much I can lengthen it.

So that gives me at least 5 things to work on. (Shoulder angle, stopping that piking at the end, pushing with the hands, closing legs later, and lunging more) I don't think I'll be able to fix them all at once, so is there an order you'd recommend, or will easiest to hardest work ok?

Also, I assumed technique would be the same on every surface and that you would just get less rebound without plyo. I actually want to optimize my technique for bare feet on a basketball court type surface. If you would care to elaborate on the differences or give me any adjustments I would be interested in that as well.

On the harder surfaces, you will bend more at the knees and elbows to absorb a bit and push off the ground more. This protects the joints and also gives more push since a hard spring doesn't bounce you any.

1. Lunge. Of course, if you can't get into the lunge because of flexibility, you won't be able to get out of it. And you also need to have the strength to move through it.

2. Close Legs later.

3. Push off the hands more. This one is tough to understand and get. It's just hard to verbalize.

Alright, I've worked on these a little bit more now. I'm going to post a video, but it unfortunately does not really show where I'm at because I'm scared to lunge deeper or use my arms on grass because it puts a lot of pressure on my ankles, and I re-tweaked one of them recently.

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The thing I'm having the most trouble with is bringing the feet together early. I can't seem to break the habit of slowing down that lead leg to let the other catch up. It's very hard for me to feel that I'm doing it. Any suggestions with that or other parts?

I will try to get a video of them on the spring floor later this week so you can see my attempt at adding in the arms and better lunge. (I believe using the hands fixes the piking down, at least to some degree.)

You're getting a little more turnover, but I'd like to see more.

And you're bending your legs as your legs are in the air. I'm having a heckuva time figuring out if it's as you start snapping them down or as they are in the middle phase (cartwheel phase of RO).

And you're flexing your heels.

Work the lunge cartwheel step-thru into run back.

From a lunge, do a cartwheel. Instead of landing in a lunge, have the back leg swing by the first leg in front. This causes you to over-rotate and have to take steps so you don't land on your butt. As well, block off your hands (push away the ground).

Yay, more stuff to work on!

Will definitely try that drill and see if I can add some more turnover.

With bending the legs I think the main thing is that I bend the lead leg in order to slow it down and let the second leg catch up. Very bad, I know. This is the thing I'm finding it hardest to work on.

If flexing the heels is a problem I take it that means I should point the toes?

Here's a roundoff from tonight on spring floor. I apologize for the terrible footage.

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As usual, go ahead and point out whatever you see wrong. You can see I don't pike down quite as badly as on grass, but I think I want to be a little straighter right? I also tried to get a little more turnover like you said, but I notice I tend to enter sideways when I do that. So is it better or worse that way? Do I just need to work on making the turnover really snappy so I can enter straight and still get complete turnover before the second flying phase?

P.S.

I got one tonight that felt really smooth and powerful. Not on tape, but an encouraging feeling. Hopefully I'm getting closer.

1.You are turning to quickly with torso so you can't do good whip (with upper torso and hands-also hands must be always behind "ears").

2. Keep hands closer and in line (look how you put your hands on floor).

Yeah, I'm definitely reaching for the ground a bit which is why the arms aren't over the ears.

I've asked about hand placement before and I believe I was told that having the second hand come off the line is fine for me since I will never compete or do balance beam. If that doesn't sound right to you please let me know. I can see that they look too far apart though.

Something that helped me get more power from my round off is treating it like a turned front handspring... at least in the sense of technique. I think someone suggested that once... Either way, what helped me is I would put my hands down ever so slightly after both of my feet leave the ground, and I would reach forward for a sort of very small block. Of course, with that you would need to push off the ground more forward than over with the foot you lunge with.

I was going to put up a video of my roundoff (which is terrible in terms of gymnastics, but is good for generating power (the most powerful i've done at least) but I forgot my camera's memory card at my friend's house.

I talked about entering the round off like a front handspring as it is something Neil Resnick talks abouts as well.

Basically we want to enter the round off with square hips and shoulders, not turning one side out.

Yeah, I figured.

When I focus on entering like that I don't seem to get enough turnover, as you noted earlier. I guess I'll try some more over rotated cartwheels and see if that helps me be able to do both.

Getting more turnover is a function of physical preparation and technique efficiency.

So work on flexibility and strength. If flexibility or strength is an issue, work on more of it be it straddle or hips.

Stretch shoulders.

Work on lower body strength and power plyometrics.

Develop shoulder strength such as HS holds, shrugs, pushups. This is a delicate combination when trying to also become more flexible in the shoulder girdle.

Work on things such as straight body stabilization. Body levers, hollow holds, ab wheel work besides leg lifts/v-ups/RLL.

This exercise sounds interesting but what an odd name. It's just a moving plank. I've heard the RKC (Pavel's Kettlebell course) uses them. Maybe dynamic plank or roaming plank. I'm sure you could work back and forth as well doing it in an elliptical ROM.

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