Tumbling at Home

Hey guys,

I would really like to start basic tumbling but I have no idea where to start. I can do basic front and back rolls, diving rolls, lunge to lunge cartwheels, and side cartwheels. I want to do this to increase my spatial awareness and tendon strength/elasticity (for jumping) as well as it looks like so much fun.

My only real goals right now are a back roll to handstand, roundoff, and front hamdspring. I don't know much about basic tumbling and would like to work on that and slowly toward my goals.

Please give me advice on where to get started, because i dont have the time or money for classes or going to a gym. Thanks!

Drillsandskills.com has a few articles on basic tumbling. There are probably countless sites on youtube as well.

Thanks Blairbob!

I checked all of it out and determined that I will do four sessions a weeks of 20-30min tumbling and I'll gradually move up the progressions for FW rolls, BW rolls, and cartwheels.

If you guys have any more advice, it would be greatly appreciated!

Master side cartwheel first, besides candlestick roll, working on handstand stuff.

Side cartwheel should have arms and hands roughly diagonal-vertical with hands slightly turned in.

Do you want to progress toward actually tumbling like connected handsprings?

For front handspring, you need a good handstand first. Next learn how to go from a handstand to bridge and stand up. Wall walks are a supplemental exercise to work that. Building up to a front walkover is a great idea, if possible. Another is called a needle scale. It's something like a standing front split on one leg. Stand in downward dog and raise one leg behind while hands are on floor. Do not turn leg out toward side by keep heel pointed up.

When you do tackle forward moving cartwheels aka cartwheels from a lunge, I would use this hand placement. First hand fingers forward, second hand turned 90 degrees to the side. It's weird, but it's good for beginners because often if they turn the first hand to the side, the chest goes to the side, the legs kick around the side a bit and it's horrible habit. Doing a cartwheel with the first hand turned out isn't bad by any means, but there is that problem so it helps to curb problems from the beginning.

For backyard tumbling your best best is trick channels on youtube - type trickstutorials in youtube and there is a bunch of tutorials by jujimufu or type the name of the move and tutorial, there is plenty good ones. Watch a few different ones for every move as one explanation might make sense to you and the other one not.

The prerequisites for all moves are a round-off, cartwheel and handsprings and tucks standing and from a roundoff. Those should be mastered before moving on to anything else, this can take you a very long time depending on athletic ability. Grass is your best friend and getting a training partner especially one that can spot is golden (most of the time this won't happen). It's not unrealistic to become a good tumbler by teaching yourself but it does take much longer and proper/clean technique will take longer to develop. I was a backyard tumbler before I joined a place with a coach which really helped with my backhandsprings but even after joining I mostly worked on different moves myself with a few technique points here and there from coaches, the point is that it's possible to get pretty good on your own. Oh and be ready to fall, a lot. No big deal but you might develop some fantastic bruises at first.

Finding a place to tumble even when you do have the money can be pretty hard, I've been practicing at home/grass lately only because no gyms around me offer anything for people my age.

Here is video of a guy that never got any coaching:

Jujumufu is from TricksTutorials.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Like you recommended, I'll drill the basics relentlessly the first few months, like cartwheels, handstands, bridges and rolls. I really don't care how long it takes me to reach these goals though, I'm still pretty young. When I move onto more advanced stuff and it warms up outside, I've got a friend who is a gymnast and can spot so I'll ask her on the more advanced stuff.

I'm not too scared of falling at this point, I'll get some bruises but nothing serious with simple stuff like this. I also have a couple neighbors that I could get, not as spotters to move me through the motion, but to catch me when I mess up on harder things.

Thanks a lot again!