Dominant foot while tumbling

Hi guys/girls,

I am quite new to tumbling, but over the last fews months I have learned (through great coaching) to perform both front/back handsprings and flips as well as round-offs, and I am now at the point where I am starting to link these skills together.

I have a problem though: my right foot is dominant while doing front handsprings (ie. my right foot is the last foot to push off the ground during this element) but my left foot is dominant while doing round-offs (ie. here my left foot is last to push off the ground and my body rotates counter-clockwise).

This difference in preferred foot has only recently become a problem though, now that I am now attacking my tumbling with more speed (instead of a single-step push off) and linking the skills. Essentially, I have difficulty timing my run to the mats when I switch between sequences that begin with a front handspring vs. beginning with a round-off. Since the last foot to touch down affects where I need to start running and how many strides I need to take to hit the mat (and of course which knee I need to bring up at the last minute), my pacing and rhythm gets thrown off way. Have I explained this clearly enough?

I would ask my coach for advice but the communication barrier makes it very difficult (he speaks Korean and I speak English)! Can you offer me any help?!?!

Thanks a bunch!

A.J.

Ahhhhh you poor bastard haha this is not uncommon and primarily evident when twisting. Ummm this is gonna be a little difficult, also I suck ass at trying to both understand and explain twisting, but I'll do my best to help you.

Which foot do you step forward with when you do a cartwheel. That is USUALLY the most natural way for your body to turn. I step forwards with my left foot (the last one to leave the ground) and I twist to the left. Do you know what a hurdle step is? Your problem may be that, when you attempt one of the skills (whichever skill is beginning with the foot that is not your most natural) you are attempting to hurdle step with the "wrong" leg and that is gonna screw you up. The best thing I can advise you to do is to relearn whichever skill is causing you to use the wrong leg. If you don't want to do that then you need to learn how to do a consistent hurdle step with both feet, i.e. essentially attempt to teach your legs to be ambidextrous. But be careful because you may have problems with other things in the future such as twisting.

I have a girl who has learnt to jump full turn (360) the wrong way and as a result, when trying to connect a basic RO with a full turn in the rebound, simply cannot do the skill.

I THINK that this might be what your problem is. If anyone else can give advice feel free to help the OP out. I reiterate, I suck ass at trying to both understand and explain twisting haha

Good luck mate, let me know if can help you any more or if you have any questions about what I've said

Rev

Reveridian said:

Ahhhhh you poor bastard haha this is not uncommon and primarily evident when twisting. Ummm this is gonna be a little difficult, also I suck ass at trying to both understand and explain twisting, but I'll do my best to help you.

Which foot do you step forward with when you do a cartwheel. That is USUALLY the most natural way for your body to turn. I step forwards with my left foot (the last one to leave the ground) and I twist to the left. Do you know what a hurdle step is? Your problem may be that, when you attempt one of the skills (whichever skill is beginning with the foot that is not your most natural) you are attempting to hurdle step with the "wrong" leg and that is gonna screw you up. The best thing I can advise you to do is to relearn whichever skill is causing you to use the wrong leg. If you don't want to do that then you need to learn how to do a consistent hurdle step with both feet, i.e. essentially attempt to teach your legs to be ambidextrous. But be careful because you may have problems with other things in the future such as twisting.

I have a girl who has learnt to jump full turn (360) the wrong way and as a result, when trying to connect a basic RO with a full turn in the rebound, simply cannot do the skill.

I THINK that this might be what your problem is. If anyone else can give advice feel free to help the OP out. I reiterate, I suck ass at trying to both understand and explain twisting haha

Good luck mate, let me know if can help you any more or if you have any questions about what I've said

Rev

Hi Rev,

Just as you, I lunge forward with my left foot and twist to the left during my round-offs. I really prefer twisting this way, especially during front flips with half-twists, etc. When a run-up is involved though, it feels VERY strange to take off of with this left foot. During handstand, front handsprings, front flips, my right foot is always the one to initiate the push. And thus my dilemma!!

So at this stage, would you suggest that it's best to relearn the spinning techniques to match my preferred running foot (ie. lunge with my right foot [easy] and twist to the right [hard]), OR relearn my running technique to match my preferred twisting direction (ie. lunge with my left foot [hard] and twist to the right [easy])??

As for a "hurdle step," I'm not too sure what that is. Can you elaborate on this?

Thank you!

A.J.

The "skip" is what we call the hurdle.

KNPA7Y_GOvc

I have seen some recreational gymnasts who will tumble off their right foot for cartwheel/roundoff and an opposite leg for front handspring. I don't get it, but it happens sometimes.

You might also want to check out this article regarding twisting. http://gymnasticscoaching.com/i-needtoknow/gymnastics/technique/barani_confusion.html

Preferably I would set the hurdle to be done off one leg. We have doing this on vault to set them up for later yurchenko vaulting based on the hurdle leg of the RO. We have them start and hurdle off that same leg which helps when counting steps to the vault (13 steps, 6 on one leg, 7 on the other, I can't remember whether dominant or recessive leg has one more step off hand).

For instance, I round off on my right side with my right leg lunging. This means I actually take off my left leg. However, I learned this during pole vault as I vaulted with the pole on my right side. This means my last step on vault or doing something like run, punch front salto/twist is off my left foot.

I prefer to allow gymnasts to only twist the direction of their CW/RO. Thus I do not like a back full that twists toward the left shoulder ( which means in actuality it twists toward the right - see Barani confusion ) when the hurdle/lunge is off the right leg.

You can change twist direction but changing round-off leg can be tough unless of course the round-off is in an infant stage and has yet to be mastered. Generally this is solved by dominant leg drills which involve pushing the gymnast from a standing position and seeing which leg shoots out first forward. There are a pleuthora of drills like these for twisting.

http://gymnasticscoaching.com/i-needtoknow/gymnastics/pdf/Tramp%20-%20%20Barani%20Confusion.pdf

Interesting points Blairbob. I would have to agree that due to muscle memory and our body remembering the technicality of a RO it is probably easier to try and change twisting direction. This is assuming that you already have a good RO taking off of your right foot. Pushing a gymnast to see which leg they put out to stop themselves is a good idea but I just have this image of me randomly pushing little girls... Hahaha probably not a good thing for the parents to see

Anyways try and see if you can fix that up and if you can't let us know. Sorry I couldn't help that much but if you have anymore questions feel free to let us know.

Rev

This is interesting to me. I recently began trampoline lessons and was surprised to learn that one should always twist to the same direction.

Can some one explain why in gymnastics that skills are only developed to one side or direction?

I used to do allot of skating and snowboarding, which can also be very uni-directional, riding with the same foot forward. And though i did learn to ride both ways there is a huge difference between sides, i'm much more natural regular than goofy.

However i noticed after many years that i developed an imbalance which was causing me hip pain. It lead me to take a couple years off the board.

Nowadays, most of skating and snowboarding put a high value on being able to do skills from either direction, is there any thought of this in gymnastics? Or is it just not worth the effort?

Thanks again for the help guys!

Blairbob, thanks a bunch for clarifying the hurdle step for me - I think that this is indeed what's giving me the problems. During front handsprings where I hop and lunge with my dominant foot forward (my right foot, as reconfirmed with the tests mentioned in your awesome link), I have no problems and the hurdle step feels very natural.

I run into major body 'confusion' when trying to hurdle step with my non-dominant foot though, as I find is necessary during round-offs. I played around with my round-offs and barani flips at the gym today and confirmed that I am indeed much more comfortable twisting left on these elements (left shoulder rotating backwards). So what does one do when the dominant foot is opposite to the preferred twisting direction? Is it easier to re-learn my running hurdle step to my non-dominant leg or would it be best to relearn the direction of the twisting elements? Or rather, which would have the best long-term impact?

The link you attached suggested that inverted twisting elements should be opposite to one's round-offs direction. I find this very strange to understand or imagine doing! If I understood correctly, you suggest that twisting elements and round-offs should be done with the same rotation direction though?

As an aside: like Mr. Brady, I skateboarded/snowboarded when I was younger and had a 'goofy stance' here (my dominant right leg was forward) and I would prefer twisting counter-clockwise (left). This translates exactly to my strange preference in tumbling now as well. When I learned boxing, I had similar problems in that my dominant right hand suggested that my stance should be opposite! I am equally strange in golf and hockey in that I shoot left-handed here but swing right-handed in baseball. I guess I'm an all together pseudo-ambidextrous mess! I had no idea that issue would be so confusing to dissect!

Anyways thanks again for all of your advice everyone, I greatly appreciate it

A.J.

A.J. said:

Thanks again for the help guys!

Blairbob, thanks a bunch for clarifying the hurdle step for me - I think that this is indeed what's giving me the problems. During front handsprings where I hop and lunge with my dominant foot forward (my right foot, as reconfirmed with the tests mentioned in your awesome link), I have no problems and the hurdle step feels very natural.

I run into major body 'confusion' when trying to hurdle step with my non-dominant foot though, as I find is necessary during round-offs. I played around with my round-offs and barani flips at the gym today and confirmed that I am indeed much more comfortable twisting left on these elements (left shoulder rotating backwards). So what does one do when the dominant foot is opposite to the preferred twisting direction? Is it easier to re-learn my running hurdle step to my non-dominant leg or would it be best to relearn the direction of the twisting elements? Or rather, which would have the best long-term impact?

The link you attached suggested that inverted twisting elements should be opposite to one's round-offs direction. I find this very strange to understand or imagine doing! If I understood correctly, you suggest that twisting elements and round-offs should be done with the same rotation direction though?

As an aside: like Mr. Brady, I skateboarded/snowboarded when I was younger and had a 'goofy stance' here (my dominant right leg was forward) and I would prefer twisting counter-clockwise (left). This translates exactly to my strange preference in tumbling now as well. When I learned boxing, I had similar problems in that my dominant right hand suggested that my stance should be opposite! I am equally strange in golf and hockey in that I shoot left-handed here but swing right-handed in baseball. I guess I'm an all together pseudo-ambidextrous mess! I had no idea that issue would be so confusing to dissect!

Anyways thanks again for all of your advice everyone, I greatly appreciate it

A.J.

I think that re-learning to twist is probably going to be better in the long run then to try and re-learn all the other stuff. If we are talking about long-long-term then you may need to fix your RO so it starts with your dominant foot. This is going to be important mainly for your safety (as stated in the linked document) but could also cause confusion when linking certain moves together. Your twisting preferences are indeed strange... But I wish you all the best in any case haha

Mr Brady said:

This is interesting to me. I recently began trampoline lessons and was surprised to learn that one should always twist to the same direction.

Can some one explain why in gymnastics that skills are only developed to one side or direction?

I used to do allot of skating and snowboarding, which can also be very uni-directional, riding with the same foot forward. And though i did learn to ride both ways there is a huge difference between sides, i'm much more natural regular than goofy.

However i noticed after many years that i developed an imbalance which was causing me hip pain. It lead me to take a couple years off the board.

Nowadays, most of skating and snowboarding put a high value on being able to do skills from either direction, is there any thought of this in gymnastics? Or is it just not worth the effort?

Skills are only developed to one side mainly for safety but also because when joining, for example, a RO and twisting saulto: It is really hard to try and twist back the other way after completing the RO. I think that it is also not worth the effort; if you have a layout double twist that twists to the left why would that be scored any differently then a layout double twist that twists to the right? Check out that document that was linked if you want more specific info it's pretty good

Rev

Hi guys,

I thought I'd update you all on my progress after 2 weeks of fooling around with my take-off foot and twisting direction. It has not been easy to say the least!

I found that changing my round-off and twisting direction was nearly impossible, even though I currently preform these elements off of my non-dominant foot. Given this, I decided to change my run up, hurdle step, and front handspring to be powered off of this non-dominant foot. The change has been very difficult and many of the elements still feel strange, though this change was 'easier' than altering my round-offs! It will likely take a lot of time to perfect these skills off of my weak foot, but I think the pay off will be there in the end.

I had no idea that I was 'wired' so criss-crossed, until I tried playing around with foot take off and twisting direction. Long story short: learn to tumble from ONE foot right from the get go - you will save yourself a lot of grief in the end!

A big thanks for all your help guys!

A.J.

Some people manage to round off and twist in opposite directions fairly well, one guy in particular I know of can do triple fulls with the wrong round off haha