RUNNING Tumbling
I had a revelation tonight at Michigan State University All-Girl Cheer practice: If you want to have success with your running tumbling, RUN. Don’t just take STEPS. RUN. You have to use those two or three steps to get POWER, so the harder you run the more power you’ll have, more power means more SPEED … Continue reading
Back Handspring: The Pop
The shoulder pop in a back handspring is something that I have been struggling with since the beginning of the summer after taking two months off cheer. But, I seem to have found the solution to put the pop back in my spring. At my first summer practice I struggled to do a back handspring … Continue reading
Tumbling and Cheer Practice
Yesterday was my last gymnastics class at Cassel for the summer and I’m really sad it’s over. I didn’t quite get all the skills I wanted but I did make a lot of progress towards those skills. (At my old age, things don’t happen overnight.) This is what I accomplished: I almost have my standing … Continue reading
Back Handsprings: Landing on Your Feet
I’ve seen some pretty interesting back handspring landings, from landing on knees to landing in a push up position. Both these awkward landings stem from the same issue; lack of ab muscle, don’t worry it is fixable. Handstand snap downs will help a lot. Kick up to a handstand, absorb with your shoulders and arch your … Continue reading
Got Stress? Wrist Stress That Is…
Truely, our bodies are not made for the things we do in cheerleading. In some ways cheerleading is a competition about who can push their body the farthest before it breaks. For example, do your wrists hurt during stunting and tumbling? If you’re a base they probably do, I know mine do. Yesterday was the … Continue reading
Tumbling Progress
I feel like every year tumbling is more and more a part of cheerleading, we’re constantly pushing to the next level and adding more tumbling to routines. My personal opinion is that when we cut out some stunts to have more tumbling we’re taking away from the cheerleading-ness of the routine because stunting IS cheerleading and … Continue reading
Going Backwards
Yesterday someone found my blog by searching “how to get comfortable going backwards in tumbling” (or something to that effect). Here’s what I have to say about that: First I want to acknowledge that whoever asked is probably a good front tumbler and in my opinion that’s WAY harder and it looks really cool. So … Continue reading
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. … Continue reading
Back Handspring Drills/Tips
Standing back handsprings are very important to MHSAA cheerleading teams in round 2. It is also very difficult for some people because it requires a lot of technique and strength. Its also not a skill that you can just do, there are stepping stones that should be adhered to. Main Stone: Hand Stand I don’t … Continue reading
More Back Walkover Tips
My previous post about back walkovers (BWOs) really only talked about how to improve flexibility for them, obviously there are other factors involved in a successful BWO. BWOs require an certain amount of flexibility AND a certain amount of strength. Not to mention an understanding of technique. Let’s go through the skill. So when you start a … Continue reading
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