7 Things to Focus on as a Beginner Tumbler

by | Dec 12, 2023 | Blog, Tumbling

Photo: Front Row Cheer Photos

As a beginner tumbler, you want to make sure to develop very strong foundations so all the more advanced skills you learn in the future will come easily and safely. Higher level cheerleaders can also benefit from these as well, but level 1 and level 2 athletes definitely need to make these a focus!

FULL-BODY STRENGTH

You can never be too strong for tumbling! Strength in every area of the body is required for safe, controlled and powerful tumbling.

SHOULDER MOBILITY

This is important for beginner skills like handstands, bridges, walkovers, and even back handsprings, once you get there.

KEY BODY POSITIONS

Three of the most important positions to master include the straight body, hollow body and superman/arch. These are used in all tumbling skills, so they must be learned on their own prior to applying them to more intricate movements. It’s also important to learn how to hold tension in your body in any position. This means knowing how to squeeze, lengthen and reach everything in the right way.

HANDSTANDS

This is also one of the most important positions/skills to master, but it deserves its own point since it’s so complex! Variations of handstands and handstand components are used in many tumbling skills, like walkovers, cartwheels, round offs, back handsprings, front handsprings, etc.

ROLLS

All the variations of rolls (regular back & front rolls, dive rolls, back rolls to front support, back extension rolls, etc.) are necessary for developing body awareness and spatial awareness while inverting both forward and backward. What you learn from practicing rolls is applied to harder skills in the future, such as back tucks.

CARTWHEELS

Your cartwheel builds the foundation for your round off. Without a good cartwheel, you will not have a good round off, and without a good round off, you will have difficulty forming tumbling passes.

COORDINATION EXERCISES

Tumbling requires lots of coordination and body control. Some exercises to improve coordination include skipping/jumping rope, crab walks, bear crawls, etc.