Blocking

From looking around the forum here, I understand now that "blocking" is how gymnasts create their crazy leaps. I also understand that with your legs/feet you turn the foreward momentum into upward momentum. My question is this: How does one safetly go about learning this technique? The last thing I want at this point is an injury. I haven't seen anything about learning this, only what it is. However if it has been covered can someone please point me to the thread, (or affirm that it exists). Thanks in advance!

-Steven

Your terminology is slightly off, but you've got the idea.

Generally, "Blocking" refers to a bounce off your hands, while a bounce from your feet is more commonly known as "punching" (which, now that I think about it, makes no sense whatsoever, but oh well).

There isn't much of a trick beyond staying tight and bouncing off the balls of your feet. It's not a jump; you don't bend your legs and push off. It's a punch; your legs stay (more or less) straight and the bulk of the work is done with the calves. The idea is to get off the floor as quickly as possible. In the transition between, for example, a backhandspring and a back tuck (or double back, or whatever), the feet should spend as little time on the floor as possible; rather than taking the time to bend and jump, you simply push off your toes the instant they come in contact with the floor.

One exercise that's great for this is simply jumping rope.

Thanks for your response! I had accepted this thread as dead long ago. Time to go out and jump some rope.

I'm having a hard time with my blocking and punching too.... wait a minute, are we talking about fighting or gymnastics? :? jk

When I try to do a round-off to backtuck I can't do it much higher than my standing one... It sucks, I want to fly thrue the air. :cry:

Also I don't know how to put a round-off back handspring together.

There should be a little lag phase in a block/punch.

Basically relax the muscles of your lower body at impact so they stretch -- the stretch-shorten cycle will kick in -- and then activate the muscles to get a powerful jump/block/punch.

If you've ever had the reflex test done on your patellar tendon where the doctor hits it while your leg is relaxed and then your foot jerks forward in a kick... same thing. Stay loose and let the muscles stretch and then contract and explode out of it. It does take some practice to do if you're not naturally explosive though so keep at it. Once you can do it you'll feel it right away.

braindx said:

There should be a little lag phase in a block/punch.

Basically relax the muscles of your lower body at impact so they stretch -- the stretch-shorten cycle will kick in -- and then activate the muscles to get a powerful jump/block/punch.

If you've ever had the reflex test done on your patellar tendon where the doctor hits it while your leg is relaxed and then your foot jerks forward in a kick... same thing. Stay loose and let the muscles stretch and then contract and explode out of it. It does take some practice to do if you're not naturally explosive though so keep at it. Once you can do it you'll feel it right away.

So when your legs first hit the ground they are straight and relaxed, and then you explode off the ground using just your calfs?

@ sasquatch

A lot of difference is made in the angle you hit(punch/block) onto the ground. For the roundoff back tuck you should end the roundoff leaning slightly forward, not too much. This angle should help you get more upward momentum. As for the RO-BHS you should land leaning slightly backwards with your feet just slightly in front of you. This will help you to go more backwards than up.

I found out quickly that you don't really want to block upwards into a RO-BHS. Otherwise you miss the ground with your hands and look like you are trying to do a really terrible back layout. :shock: and it hurts. lol.

Hope that helped.

matthew.percussion said:

@ sasquatch

A lot of difference is made in the angle you hit(punch/block) onto the ground. For the roundoff back tuck you should end the roundoff leaning slightly forward, not too much. This angle should help you get more upward momentum. As for the RO-BHS you should land leaning slightly backwards with your feet just slightly in front of you. This will help you to go more backwards than up.

I found out quickly that you don't really want to block upwards into a RO-BHS. Otherwise you miss the ground with your hands and look like you are trying to do a really terrible back layout. :shock: and it hurts. lol.

Hope that helped.

sasquatch said:

So when your legs first hit the ground they are straight and relaxed, and then you explode off the ground using just your calfs?

I wouldn't really say that they are relaxed. I normally try to keep my whole body tight while tumbling. You would punch/block with the balls of your feet and push off through the balls of your feet and your toes. The legs should be straight but, not locked(don't quote me on this).

I'll keep these thing in mind next try I tumble, these tips work if you tumble on regular ground too, right?

I can only go to a gym once or twice a month, so I learn all my stuff at home... I broke my foot trying to do a standing fulltwist right after I learned a backflip... next time I try that move, it will be at agym.

On normal ground I suspect you mean grassy right?

If so the height that you would gain from blocking is significantly lower but, it will still get you higher than standing tricks/skills. When working on a harder surface be sure to land on the balls of your feet more than the heels or flat footed. First off this can help prevent an injury to the knees and the ankles, this will also help you to get more height.

Hope this helps. How's the foot BTW?

By regular ground I mean plywood with rugs over it lol.

My foot is pretty good, the cast has been off for two months already.

Plywood eh? The laws of physics still apply to plywood. lol. However, like with grass you will not get as high with blocking on plywood, it might be higher than blocking on a soft grassy area though...

Anyway, yes, it will still work. But since the surface is harder I want to stress the landing on the balls of your feet. Tumbling on your heels is a great way to get shin splints. Also, when landing on the balls of your feet you remove a lot of the stress to the knees, as I said before.

matthew.percussion said:

Plywood eh? The laws of physics still apply to plywood. lol. However, like with grass you will not get as high with blocking on plywood, it might be higher than blocking on a soft grassy area though...

Anyway, yes, it will still work. But since the surface is harder I want to stress the landing on the balls of your feet. Tumbling on your heels is a great way to get shin splints. Also, when landing on the balls of your feet you remove a lot of the stress to the knees, as I said before.

Thanks for the help, I haven't tried it yet (Sore shoulder and popping hip.) but I think your tips will help a lot.

Some people can still get pretty high on regular ground too.

Even on sprung surfaces, joints bend but it happens so fast you won't see it unless you watch it on video. It's a reflex action.

The harder the surface you tumble on, the more the joints will need to bend to absorb and then extend to push off. It will vary dependent on strength of the athlete, but it's still gonna happen.

Blairbob said:

Even on sprung surfaces, joints bend but it happens so fast you won't see it unless you watch it on video. It's a reflex action.

Thanks for clarifying this Blairbob. I wasn't certain about this aspect myself. =]

If you can find some floor level footage of tumbling on vhs or dvd you can go slow-mo. Online video may not have enough key frames processed to allow this but maybe it does. If you process youtube video into another format maybe that would show you.