Running Tumbling: Keys to a Powerful Round-Off
I know it’s super exciting to think about doing running tumbling, but like other skills that I’ve talked about, running tumbling has some stepping stones; before you can do a round-off back handspring full, or even a round-off back handspring tuck, you have to have a powerful round-off.
A powerful round-off starts with a powerful run and hurdle. I like to take three steps before my hurdle, but that’s really up to you, I will say that I used to take two steps into my hurdle and when I changed to three it made a huge difference in the speed and ease of my tumbling passes. So take as many steps as you need, then hurdle. A hurdle is kind of like skipping, but instead of skipping for height we’re skipping for distance. The key is to keep yourself as low to the ground as possible and reach for the floor with your hands. Push off the floor as hard as you can with your hurdle leg while whipping your back leg up as fast as you can.
The next part of the round-off is hand placement. The first important thing to note is that your hands will not hit the ground at the same time. If you hurdle with your right leg your right hand will hit the floor first. The fingers of the first hand should be the same as if you were doing a cartwheel. The fingers of your second hand should point back to where you started. (Your hands will make a T shape). This hand placement helps turn your body so that when you land you are facing your starting point and can procede with backward tumbling.
As soon as both hands are on the floor you use your shoulders to pop yourself up. At this point neither your hands or your feet should be touching the floor. NOTE: Both hands come up at about the same time.
Now back up a smidge to where you just hurdled: At the same time that you are placing your hands on the floor you also have to be whipping your feet together at the top of your round-off. You should slide through a handstand position. Once you hit that, that’s when you use your shoulders to pop off the floor.
From here you’ll land WITH YOUR FEET TOGETHER (you lose power if they are apart) with your hands still up at your ears. It is important to practice landing with your hands above your head so you don’t have to retrain yourself when you add skills after the round-off. You should also practice rebounding after the round-off (that means jump straight up keeping your body controlled in a hollowed out position), so that you don’t get used to stopping right after it. (When practicing you should always rebound at the end of every pass, you may want to add to it later.)
I hope this is helpful!
Leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
michigancheerleader 
I love your help! I have been a coach for over 25 years, the only thing I do differently is the hand positions for the roundoff. I teach to place the first hand in the direction like a cartwheel and the second hand facing the direction you just came from. Minor difference, but still… interesting for me to finally see someone doing things the same way. Great!
sylvia
I’m glad to help! And I actually think that part about hand placement in this article might be an error because now that you say that and I tried it, that’s the way I do it. Thanks for pointing that out!