Learning; Basic Tumbling?

I'm working on my handstand work just now (slowly but surely) and some basic static movements, but was wondering how to get started on tumbling. I can do a cartwheel, round off and a poor attempt at a hand spring (not the most aesthetically pleasing, but I can land it). I was wondering what the next step would be? Would love to be able to do front and back flips, but I don't have any access to a gymnastic hall or anything like that.

Appreciate any help!

Your best bet is to leave flipping skills to the gymnastics gyms/halls

A trampoline can be of some use but there is a high degree of danger, especially if you bounce off it. Bad news. Even one with a net isn't much better.

However, if you have access to a pool and a spring board, there you go. You can safely practice handsprings while immersed fully or partially in the water. Super slow motion. You can also do Front Handsprings off the edge or spring board. I wouldn't recommend this for back handspring because it's dangerous.

Back tucks and front tucks start with them immersed or partially immersed and progress to spring board.

Look for a volleyball field filled with sand or similar places. Here you can savely train all kinds of flipping and twisting skills with a minimal risk of injury.

Look for a volleyball field filled with sand or similar places. Here you can savely train all kinds of flipping and twisting skills with a minimal risk of injury.

Unless you land on your head. As well, sand is pretty easy to twist an ankle or knee.

Try to find a local club/group of like minded in your area. There may not be a gymnastics group, but you might try looking for groups of cheerleaders, trickers, free runners, or circus performers - those are all groups that are likely to have tumbling know-how and possibly equipment.

P5yx said:

Look for a volleyball field filled with sand or similar places. Here you can savely train all kinds of flipping and twisting skills with a minimal risk of injury.

Don't fool yourself - sand is only marginally safer than dirt.

Yeah, find some local trickers or parkour people. They are very good at finding little niches to train at and are very kind people willing to teach beginners.

acrobatlegend said:

Yeah, find some local trickers or parkour people. They are very good at finding little niches to train at and are very kind people willing to teach beginners.

Most trickers or parkour people are willing to teach beginners but have very little knowledge of correct technique and progressions for beginners. I am making a large generalization but most people in that group train by "chucking" skills and see what happens. Now when I was 18 and didn't care this method worked fine for me. Now that I am a little older and more experienced I train a lot smarter than this.

yuri said:

Most trickers or parkour people are willing to teach beginners but have very little knowledge of correct technique and progressions for beginners. I am making a large generalization but most people in that group train by "chucking" skills and see what happens. Now when I was 18 and didn't care this method worked fine for me. Now that I am a little older and more experienced I train a lot smarter than this.

You are certainly right about that. I was hoping though that some of those trickers/parkour people might know some gym where they get open mat time. Or maybe they have some deal worked out with a gym.

So definitely get proper coaching from an established gymnasium if you can!

yuri said:

Most trickers or parkour people are willing to teach beginners but have very little knowledge of correct technique and progressions for beginners.

These guys don't have to follow the traditional, correct techniques. As long they can do the flip, they're happy. I believe the two sports belong in a category called freestyle gymnastics to separate themselves from the traditional.

You can learn cartwheels and round-offs on your own with help from the forum and many youtube videos.

Sailor Venus said:

These guys don't have to follow the traditional, correct techniques. As long they can do the flip, they're happy. I believe the two sports belong in a category called freestyle gymnastics to separate themselves from the traditional.

You can learn cartwheels and round-offs on your own with help from the forum and many youtube videos.

Don't get me wrong, I was making a generalization. I have been a member of the tricking community for a very long time and there are lots of trickers and freerunners with good technique that make it work well. However a large number of the community is self taught, as am I when I started many years ago.

Now that I know what I am doing I am still trying to fix some bad habits I've developed.

Roundoff is one of the most important skills to get a teacher for if you ever want to progress in your back tumbling.

As a self taught tumbler who eventually got coached I'd have to say its definitely not impossible to learn on your own, even developing decent technique is possible. However, I have to say the road without a coach is harder, longer and has a significant amount more injuries along the way. Also if you develop bad habits along the way (like Yuri mentioned) they become near impossible to fix later.

If you just want to learn how to do a punch front and a standing back tuck, I'd say those are some of the easiest skills to learn on your own. There are a ton of tutorials online with fairly easy progressions. Anything with running tumbling though is a lot more technical and once again like Yuri said a proper round off will go a long way.

I find it hard to believe that you have NO access to a tumbling place/coach. Are there no cheer/gymnastics gyms around you? Yeah they might not have a program for above 18 year olds (I am assuming you are older) but one of the coaches might be willing to do private lessons, bring a few friends and the price will be reduced.

I love it how this describes me perfectly, not to hijack the thread, but I dont know any parkour guys, never seen em, have access to a pool but have bad memories regarding the fact that water can be as painful as concrete, i have access to a beach but this is worse than asphalt, believe me, i played rugby there, and i dont have a gym with gymnastics stuff near me, so im a bit screwed. I know the idea of how to learn a front flip, but i never get around doing it because of my environment and because i dont progress.

How have you searched for gyms? Just curious. Odds are there is one SOMEWHERE in your general vicinity. Or some kind of rec center with mats. I learned most of my flips with one mat. If you can find a place with a squishy mat and something to jump off of, you are fine. Doesn't have to be a gymnastics gym, many places have mats, you would be surprised. 

Just adding onto what Yuri said. In my experience, that is generally the idea. It is meant for first learning skills. "Just throw it" is for overcoming fear, once the skill is learned, then fine tuning begins. It may not be the best approach, however it works for many. Oftentimes the issue is that once a flip is learned the person just moves on, content with their new flip and "ready" for the next one. 

yuri said:

Most trickers or parkour people are willing to teach beginners but have very little knowledge of correct technique and progressions for beginners. I am making a large generalization but most people in that group train by "chucking" skills and see what happens. Now when I was 18 and didn't care this method worked fine for me. Now that I am a little older and more experienced I train a lot smarter than this.

This is very true - I could never learn much from some "tricking" friends and it was frustrating them as much as me. I couldn't "just do it" and they didn't know any other way to teach it, or objected to other approaches as a matter of principle. I have made more progress in tumbling in a few months at a gym with slow progressions than I did in years of trying it the DIY way.

I think it takes a certain kind of person to get anywhere with that. I'm just too slow, scared and unathletic.

I'm not interested in advanced tumbling, but I was considering returning to the adult gym here and getting basic tumbling sorted.  I was  wondering what everyone here would consider basic tumbling?  I was thinking something along the lines of:

Round off

Back handspring

Front handspring

Back tuck

Front tuck

Aerial

Kip up (not really tumbling but a nice skill to have)

I think those are all reasonable goals for someone in good shape. 

Those are common goals and quite reasonable. As with all things, you'll never get them really good until you try to move beyond them, though, so bear that in mind. You'll see what I mean if you think about any existing skills you hold. Basics are vital for more advanced skills, but also the advanced skills really firm up your basics. Or, to put it another way, if those skills are at the limits of your tumbling ability, they won't be very good at that time.

People should start with rolling before flipping, no?

I'd like to see a list of basic rolls.

Forward roll:

tuck

straddle

pike

HS forward roll

dive roll

Backward roll:

bent arm: tuck, pike, HS

straight arm: tuck, pike, straight body to pushup position, back extension roll

Of course you don't need all this for tumbling progressions but is extremely helpful.  General proficiency in basic forward/back rolling is essential.  Dive roll is also very useful

Yuri - by pike and straddle rolls do you mean those from which you stand back up in that position as well? We've been trying those at the gym and no one can do them (except the coaches). They seem utterly impossible, everyone just slams into the ground hard and can't push up at all. At least without bending their legs a great deal.

It looks to be a case of getting your weight really far forward as you come out of the roll and timing the push back up off the ground with your hands, right?