Tumbling Help!!

Hey, so I'm a freshman in college and a cheerleader. I've been tumbling for almost two years, and I've gotten ALOT better than when I started, but unfortunally, I've hit a roadblock. I need to be able to tumble in shoes on non-spring floors. Ideally I want a full by tryouts in April but that's looking more and more unlikey. I'm having alot of Issues with my back handspring. I have a standing tuck, it could be better but I still have it, and I've been able to do a round off handspring tuck for about a year and a half, yet I cannot get a layout at all on hard floor. I feel it has something to do with the fact I do not get a good backward pull out of my handsprings. As in, I get good powerful rebounds, but I can't get the momentum to rotate my layouts fast enough. I'll let you see for yourself through videos.

Keep this in mind. I don't have a video of it, but I can do near perfect round off layouts and round off fulls on a spring floor. The spring floor at my college is very springy, but I do have good technique with these moves. The thing to remember is, I can do these out of just a roundoff fine. But When I add the back handspring, I cant even do a layout and rotate all the way. This is a sure sign that my handspring is screwing me over. I think it's cause I'm able to spot and set back better out of a round off. I DO get more power out of round off handsprings, It just isn't controlled.

In this, please ignore my 2nd handspring, I tried something different with my head placement and it just made the whole thing bad. The first one is a usual standing handspring for me. Mostly, I have a BIG issue with blocking. No matter how hard I try my elbows ALWAYS bend, and I'm forced pushing through my elbows out of the handspring causing them to be on the ground long and probobally the main issue I'm having. I actually dont know how to block well at all and that may be mostly what I need to learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0CbVco31Qo

For the hell of it I'll put in my standing tuck. It's not amazing, but I can do it and its not like I need it too much better except if I ever wanna do standing fulls. Mostly I always land low and fall a little forward out of the tuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bJrP1OSg2Q

Now onto my main issue which is running. I posted my back handspring cause thats what screws up my running tumbling. This is a rounoff handspring tuck, It've very sloppy I'm sorry, I just got off the tumble track working fulls and went straight to dead matt (the matt im on doesnt have springs) so it's not my best but shows you my form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAxHNZ07XwE

Now finally ths is my video of my first attempt at a layout on dead mat. This roundoff handspring is actually better than usual. I tucked and piked the layout because i got freaked out, I do know how to do one. Setting would probobally be the biggest issue but I'ts not setting normally, its coming out of the back handspring that it's odd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ_y1MLiJ2Y

Altogether, does anyone have tips on improving my tumbling. Anything at all will be appreciated =)

from what I remember, guys pretty much automatically made the college cheerleading squad. I was basically the only guy who could tumble, the rest were fat ex-football players who could barely cartwheel.

Eventually we had two other dudes learn roundoff-tuck

anyway

your standing bhs is fine, try to make it faster and get a more powerful snapdown, maybe even opening your shoulders up a bit more

in your standing tuck, you don't use your arms enough and your tuck is too slow. swing your arms to their full ROM above your head and when you tuck, do it with speed and power. You will need his if you want to learn it with heavy shoes on.

your roundoff is where the real problem lies. you make quite a few mistakes in it. I will comment on two huge ones that greatly affect your bhs.

First, you dive in to it. there is a moment you are in the air from your feet to your hands. This takes away a lot of power and sets you up to hit the ground at a wrong angle for bhs,

which leads to your next mistake. for RO-BHS you want to finish the RO with your center of gravity slightly behind your feet(assuming you're facing backwards). This means you need to snap your feet in. What this does is put you in a better position to go into BHS from. You will be going straight backwards with a lot of power, so the effort required to do a long and low bhs from a correct roundoff is pretty minimal. This will also set you up better to do a layout afterwards.

For tuck/layout, you need to land with your COG a little in front of your feet to go up, so getting a long, stretched RO-BHS will help a lot in learning it

standing BHS: head is out, shoulder slightly flexes. maybe this is a flexibility or technique thing

standing back tuck: not using a good tuck position. if you freeze frame, you can see angles of more than 90 degrees in the hips besides the heel not being tight to the butt

round-off: diving and going to the side. round-off is step-hand-hand-leg-leg-block off hands and snap down. basically a round-off is one hand at a time. your round-off needs more work than your handspring. diving into your round-off also kills power. you are not turning over your round-off enough for your back handspring.

take the round-off back to formula. as in cartwheel on a line sideways, then forward. I would reccomend first hand forward, second hand sideways so you don't kick around the side.

handstand snapdown is easy. get strong in the middle and upper body. this generally helps out things a lot.

layout: learn a back pike first. too many people learn tucks and then try to skip ahead to layouts

okay, so actually those running tumbling videos are a few weeks old and have since been working on my round off. It has gotten alot better, especially with the idea of pulling my center of gravity behind my feet. Thank you all for your amazing feedback!! =). With the round off, were you saying to have both hands on the ground before either foot leaves? It seems odd to have all fours down.. Secondly, the back handspring still needs alot of work and thats what's screwing me up now. I get a great rebound out of roundoff back handspring, but the rebound is either pulled forward or straight up. I've tried pulling my legs under me more, but I just dont think there's enough power or backward force. Is me pulling my head back and bending my arms a big power killer? If so how do I fix them? Also, could it be that my elbows are bending because I'm not jumping high enough in the handspring?

Okay so I worked alot on my round off and handspring. The roundoff I'm reaching further and snapping my legs down harder, same with the handspring. It may not look like it but it's a 100% difference I feel. I'm starting to try layouts again and they're also coming along alot better. Not quite there yet. Here's another video of my recent progress. Please give me any more tips you guys have for getting more power. I understand my layout isn't in proper form. I dont set all the way and pike a little but its getting there. Any other tips for the layout too will be appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmTRUReI2yY

Sorry, I still dont know how to put the video in the post =P

I'm with Yuri on this one, your roundoff looks like an attempted aerial. What I found helped me was visualizing keeping one foot on the ground until after both of my hands were on the ground, then swinging over like the air baby > HS ido does in his balance video. I think this is a really nice example of a roundoff, even though his 2nd hand gets to the ground just after his foot leaves

.

BHS and back you don't seem to have the setup because of leaning forwards (torwards your toes) due to under rotation, which may all be down to the roundoff. Having a read of drills and skills might help you aswell

Scotty, you totally dive on to your hands with the fingers of the hands pointing the direction you came from. This kills a lot of power of the blocking off the ground of the round-off.

A CW and RO go one hand at a time. There is an infinitesimal pause between when each hand is placed.

For your sake, I would plant the first hand either with fingers forward or to the side directly in front of you. The second hand will be turned 90 degrees in relation to the first hand to either side depending on which hand plants first.

Just a little comment on your straight back. Coming out of your flick you dont reach with your arms so your killing the height on the straight back and your not pushing with your hips through so you end up piking. Try reaching more to the ceiling and focusing on pushing your hips to the ceiling.

Hope that helps somehow, but keep it up

I just watched your second video and they are a lot better. You are now just piking toward the top of your straight back, just drive it more and a bit more confidence and you will nail it soon enough.

have you through about some plyometrics to build more explosive power in your legs? Im currently doing, tuck jumps, squat jumps with a barbell +20kg, squats with kettle bells and a tonne of calf raises to build a touch more power. This I hope will help me get a few inches on my vertical and a bit more hangtime, may help you too?