Photo: Front Row Cheer Photos
Much like standing up from a front walkover, kicking over in a back walkover is the hardest part of the skill for most people. It requires a certain degree of shoulder mobility + the right technique to transfer your weight.
The most common reason for not being able to kick over is because you haven’t mastered weight transferring yet. In order to kick all the way over, you need 100% of your weight on top of your hands. If any of your weight remains behind your balance point, you’re going to fall in that direction.
Let’s start with the first half of the walkover. As you reach backward and down to the floor, you need to “open” the hip of the supporting leg by pushing it forward. This counterbalances the upper half of your body that’s falling in the opposite direction. This will ensure your weight stays in your feet as you descend so you can lower with more control and not crash down to the floor.
If you ever see someone fall really fast onto their hands in a bridge or back walkover, it’s because they’ve let their weight go behind their balance point. On the other hand, if someone is reaching back into their bridge/back walkover very slowly and they end up falling forward onto their knees, it means their hips opened too much and their weight went too far in front of their balance point.
Once your hands touch the floor and you’re ready to kick over, your weight needs to transfer from your lower body to your upper body. Instead of opening your hips like before, you’re going to push your weight through your shoulders and open them as much as you can (for those with limited shoulder mobility this might not be possible – so work on that if needed!). In combination with the kick, all your weight will easily move overtop of your hands and you’ll end up in the split handstand position, which is easy to stand up from.
As you pass through the split handstand, make sure your knees are fully straight and squeezed. You should aim for your legs to be in a perfect split. They need to be reaching in opposite directions to create tension. This will make your walkover look pretty and feel easier.
Keep in mind that no matter how hard you kick or how straight your leg is when you kick, if there’s no opening of the shoulders, you will not be able to get over.
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