Tuck and pike position for tumbling

Hey guys,

I'm very fan of gymnastics sport and I watch a lot of competitions, so when I'm doing tumble I try to keep the same form the elite athletes show during their performance. What I see often in girls gymnastics is that their tuck position is very little, nothing like my coach that says me to pull my chest towards my knees during front tucks. This is what I do:

And for pike, the same, I try to pike the hips with just a bit past 90 degrees.

I once heard coach Mary Lee Tracey say that you shouldn't tuck or pike too much because that way you break the body line, and of course the landing is more difficult. What do you think guys?

The form of elite gymnastics is a long time work that is modified in order to have the most beneficial execution in term of efficiency. I mean the easiest way to perform an exercise. so you should practice like them, you should know their history...why they this like this way...

In complex skills the more you tuck to perform transversal plane twist the higher the speed, the execution should be done with a "at least" piked position or tucked position in order of having the movement recognized but after that many motivations raise.

It depends entirely upon the difficulty of the skill and the level of the athlete performing the skill.

For example, the tuck of a double back will be much tighter than that of a back tuck.

And further, the tuck of a triple back will of necessity be much tighter than the tuck of a double back.

Of course a very advanced athlete will be almost relaxed in the air during a simple (for them) double back tuck, but will be working much harder during a double twisting double back in tuck position.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer