Mas Watanabe

Currently I am working with a group of girls ranging from Level 8 to Level 10. Their common rebound tumbling pass for the FX routine is the backward to direct forward somersault or series of forward somersaults.

The most common combination used is a round off to back layout one & half twist to front pike or layout somersault. All the girls are making this pass most of the times, but some are better than others.

I would imagine that this trend is similar to most of your teams as well. I found that our girls tend to make a few common technical errors. One of the errors is too much whipping action on the back 11/2 twisting somersault. When they have too much whip on the somersault, the last half of the flip develops too much rotation. That will cause the landing and take off angle for the forward somersault to be very inconsistent.

Some times it will be just right and the forward somersault will fly up in the air, but many times, the gymnast will lean forward so much that she misses the punch and the front goes very low.

If she anticipates fast body rotation and punches early, sometimes she may punch the floor too soon and the front will get stuck and not go up high at all.

The main cause of this whipping action on the back 11/2 comes from two sources: the arms and the head movement. The arms should lift up for the take off at first and from there they go to the twisting position. However, if one or both arms go into the twisting position too early, the head will go back with them. This action causes a whipping action.

Yes, sometimes you will find a gymnast who can isolate the arms and keep the head still resulting in control of the amount of body rotation, but this is very rare.

Instead, a better way to execute the back 11/2 is with the arms lifted upward, then
brought back down toward the body (preferably lower than the chest), but in the direction of the twist. The radius of the body rotation will be shortened when this happens and it helps to lift the lower body (legs) up quickly as in the back layout.

She should not thrust the head backward, but just turn the head in the direction of the twist over the shoulder. Also, twisting the body one and a half should not be completed in the mid-air. Rather, the last half turn needs to be done in the last quarter of the somersault where you can visually see the ground.

During the last half turn she needs to be staring at the ground as long as possible so that she will know the exact timing of the punch before it happens.

I normally tell the gymnasts to open their arms to the side after the full twist and ask the last half turn be done in that arm position. The arms should be lifted upward as she punches the floor, but not before the punch. When arms go up above the head too early for the punch, the front somersault will likely go forward.

Perhaps the most critical part of the technique is first, not whipping the back 11/2, then looking at the ground before the punch.

We have been working on this technique for a long time but we still do not have many girls able to do it consistently.

Edited by Dan Connelly