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How to do the Headspring

By admin on April 21, 2008 in Tumbling

First off a big thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your questions and comments are extremely helpful.

The Acrobatic Conditioning report is shaping up nicely. I expect it’ll be done later this week.

In the mean time one question that came up more than once went something along these lines. I can do forward rolls no problem, but how to you do a front handspring?

I may be risking starting to sound like a broken record but the answer is to work on a few stunts that’ll lead-up to it. In this case work on the HEADspring first.

And the video will show you how.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

As you progress forward in tumbling you will realize that almost all the moves are a variation of some basic movement. In this case that is a spring generated from the back through the legs.

This is the foundational movement of too many stunts to name but here are a few, front handspring, kips, headsprings, snap-downs, roundoffs, etc.

If you can do a good headspring the handspring is not far off. Just lock out your arms and do the same movement.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Acrobatic Conditioning Report is coming…

By admin on April 19, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

I’m hard at work finishing up a Special Report I’ll be releasing next week. I was almost done but then your questions from the survey came in and I realized there was a lot more ground to cover.

So if you want your questions answered head on over to the survey.

It’s real short. And I know it asks for two questions but if you only got one that’s good enough.

This report is on what I call Acrobatic Conditioning. Its going to cover ways to train to improve your tumbling skills even if you’ve never worked on them before. How you can get started and where to train.

I’m about to go write more but I just want to take the time to answer at least one question here.

“Which skills should I attempt to learn first? and Should one master the handstand before attempting skills like cartwheel, round-off, and handsprings?”

Hand Balancing and Tumbling skills are related but definitely separate skill groups. You don’t really need to be good in one to do the other. That being said many tumbling moves move through the handstand position.

It can help to work both hand balancing and tumbling at the same time though you certainly don‘t need to be a master the handstand first.

As for which skills to work on that is easy. Start with what you can do and move on from there. If this is just basic rolls than start with that. Any moves where some part of you stays in contact with the ground would be next on the chain like cartwheels, roundoffs, and handsprings.

Of course the aerial moves like flips take a bit more work and are something you have to be careful with. More on that later.

But the idea is like with any other training. You work tumbling progressively.

Alright back to the report. Oh, and there’ll be new videos soon too.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Seriously hit up the survey if you haven’t already.

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Foundational Rolling Skills

By admin on April 17, 2008 in Tumbling

How we got on the subject I can’t tell you at this point. I was at a birthday party and one of my friends told me they couldn’t do a somersault. Really!?! Maybe I was naïve but I thought EVERYONE could do this basic move.

But the truth is not everyone can. I’m sure you have no problem with this skill but the reason I am teaching it here in this video is to set up the idea of using and actually working on your tumbling skills. Everyone should be able to do the somersault. Not everyone necessarily has to do handsprings or front flips.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSUUFXhf5XU]

But if you want to it begs the question; how to you move up to the more difficult skills?

The easiest method is by taking the basics and adding twists to them. This will build your control and make you a better tumbler.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. But it should give you something to play with and start sparking your own creativity.

More on this subject later but if you haven’t already, be sure to take this really small survey. Only three questions total. Won’t take much time but it’ll really help me out. Take the Survey here. Thanks!

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Gymnastic Bridge Turn-Over

By admin on April 15, 2008 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion, Tumbling

Going to step away from hand balancing today and a bit more in the coming weeks to focus on related acrobatics and various tumbling moves. And I’ll be sharing many of them in video form like today!
First up is a bridging movement that I’ve been throwing in my routine the past few weeks.

This move involves going from a back bend or gymnastic bridge than turning face down. In order to do this you support yourself on one arm and turn to come on all fours. From here you continue the movement turning back into the bridge.

I’m calling it the Gymnastic Bridge Turn-over.

Just doing a single one of these moves is great. It requires great shoulder flexibility and strength. Can you say stability? In addition it will engage just about every other muscle in your body especially your abs, back and legs.

If one is no problem for you then do as I do in the video, stringing a bunch together to complete an entire circle. If you want a real challenge try to do five full circles each way.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t do this one. If this is a hard move for you it means one thing…you need to work on your gymnastic bridge. By improving your shoulder flexibility in this movement you can work up to doing the move shown here with ease.

So get on your back, press up, straighten the arms, and try to extend your chest over your hands.

You may also find that you can flip one way but not the other. Keep working at it until you can move seamlessly in and out of position in every way.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Got another video next time that covers the very basics and why they’re so important regardless of who you are. In this and all things the fundamentals are of highest importance.

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Break-thru your Plateau

By admin on March 20, 2008 in Tumbling

What do you do when you hit a plateau?

Sometimes you just can’t seem to make anymore progress. You know, things were going great and you were progressing quickly then all of a sudden you’re stuck.

There are a couple of ways around this.

First you can just keep going. Many times if you continue to work hard, in time you will bust through it and continue to progress.

But most of the time you need to shake things up.

The beauty of this is that there are so many ways to approach your training.

You can change when you train, how long you train, and of course how you train.

The how you train can be broken into further groups ready for change. The skills you are working on. The sets, rep, or time on the exercises. Focusing on similar but different exercises and more.

If you training is feeling stale (not to be confused with boredom, but that’s another problem all together) you should implement one or more of these changes.

Even if your training is going good, a change for the better can supercharge your gains.

Which one exactly and what to do is going to depend on you and your goals. And in every case what you should do will be different.

You may be the kind of person you loves to figure out your own program. Or you may want someone to hand you a template for you to work from. Either way what’s coming soon will help.

How would you like new things to focus on every single month? A few tricks to work on to build your abilities?

This monthly program will be ready sometime next week. Before then I still have another video or two to share with you. If you missed the last couple you can check them out below.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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How to do a Front Walkover

By admin on February 12, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion, Tumbling

Many gymnastics moves go through the handstand position. And in this post we will discuss how to do a front walkover as shown below. This is a composite picture of Diane Robinson performing the move with ease.

Diane Gymnastic Walkover

These are the instructions that come from Acro-Chat. The correct way to do a two arm walkover. Notice the arms are straight all the way through, the legs are extended and split as much as possible, the back is arched tightly with the head and arms trailing as she stands upright.

I will caution that this move takes a large amount of flexibility in both the back and legs. Though its not dangerous, you may end up falling on your butt if you can’t do it as well as Diane.

You can also perform a back walkover which is done moving backwards. Just follow the pictures from right to left and you’ll get the idea.

These moves are not to be confused with the handspring or back handspring. Though the motion is much the same, except for going off of two legs instead of one, there is another big difference.

Your hands will touch the ground before both your feet leave it in a walkover. Handsprings involve leaving the feet to get up in the air before your hands touch down.

While not strictly a hand balance, the walkover and handspring do move through the handstand position. At any rate they are excellent skills that you may want to master.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Current Attempt at a Backflip

By admin on September 19, 2007 in Tumbling

Just thought I would put up a short video for fun.

Anyway, this is a backflip I did last night at my gymnastics class. I am doing it on level ground and getting to my feet so it is not too bad. But it still has a couple spots for improvement. And of course consistency is a big key.

Being able to do backflips has been a goal of mine since I was a young kid. Seeing as previously I couldn’t even go backwards on a trampoline, it has been a long journey.

I’d tell you how you could get there but you really need proper instructions and equipment to get started. So I must say do not try this at home.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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