Tag Archives | Tumbling

How to Perform a Wall Spin

By admin on September 4, 2014 in Acrobatics, Parkour, Tumbling

The wall spin is a great flip to start with if you are just getting into parkour and tumbling. Even though it is a basic parkour movement, most people can’t figure out how to perform it on their own.

Here’s a great tutorial by Ryan Ford on how to do it. After you’ve found an appropriate wall with something soft beneath it (like grass, a mat, etc. ), you’ll want to hit it at the right angle – 45 degrees works the best. As you’re running towards the wall, you need to jump off with both feet about 4 ft (or arms length) away from the wall. Make sure to keep your top hand pointing towards the movement, while keeping your other hand pointing towards the ground.

At this point you’ll want to lean forward and once you’re in that upside down position, move your top hand out of the way to avoid falling down. At the same time, keep your bottom hand on the wall and basically use it as a pivot point. The momentum will take care of the rest if you applied enough force in your jump and you should be landing safely on your feet.

At some point all of us wanted to learn how to do backflips, handsprings, aerials, somersaults and other tumbling movements. Why not learn all these awesome movements now? Check out Tumbling and Acrobatics Starter Package and start moving your body in amazing ways.

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Back Handspring Progress

By admin on October 6, 2010 in Tumbling

The back handspring is one of the staple moves of gymnastics. It is a great move in and of itself, but its also used as a move to set up, and gain momentum for even bigger moves.

It is also one of the tougher of the basic tumbling moves. In my opinion it is harder to do then a back tuck. While accomplishing it is not too difficult, get it to work smoothly and correctly is a bit harder.

And, as it is back tumbling, its not something most people can jump into. While many people could easily work up to a front handspring with a little practice, going backwards over your head can be much trickier, mentally.

The basics of the move is to jump up and back. You need to hit the right amount of both or else you can miss your hands entirely (jumping too high) or not give yourself enough room (jumping not high enough).

When you jump your arms are thrown overhead, preferably locked out and in line with the ears. For those less flexible the arms aren’t always kept straight or in line. While the move can be accomplished this way you won’t have as much speed and momentum useful for going into any other move.

You transition through a sort of handstand position (obviously not pausing at all) and then come to your feet, preferably in an upright position. You want to avoid being bent over or in a squat.

You’ll notice I mentioned ‘preferably’ several times. This is the difference in doing the move and doing it well. When you’re starting out its great to just get through the move, but as you progress you tighten up your form, making the move not only better but easier to do.

I’ve been doing the back handsprings for awhile. Always working on improving my form, but my primary goal has been to string these moves together. My weakness thus far has been in doing just that, going from one move to another seamlessly.

For a couple weeks I’ve been practicing doing roundoff back handsprings as well as double back handsprings all on the mats.

I’m happy to report as of last week I’ve been able to do these on the floor. You’ll notice many of the points discussed above are not shown here. 🙂 Not perfect but a big step in the right direction.

There are some who say if you can’t do something perfectly don’t do it. I say first accomplish the move. Then work on making it better. Yes, you can set in bad habits, but if you constantly work towards improvement these won’t stay a problem.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For tons of tumbling fun be sure to get a copy of Tumbling Illustrated.

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Trampolining and Tumbling

By admin on September 23, 2010 in Tumbling

Trampolining and tumbling go together hand in hand. Trampolining involves doing all sorts of acrobatic tricks on a trampoline which provides much more height. Tumbling involves doing the same or similar moves on the floor (and with gymnastic spring floors more height can be had).

I’ve mentioned this before. When I first started doing gymnastics I never really used the trampoline. My idea was that I should be able to do all the moves without artificial apparatus. Basically I wanted to be able to do every move outside.

The problem with this idea is that the trampoline is such a useful tool. Although it easily allows you to get tons of air without needed to generate it yourself (by jumping off the ground for instance) you need to control your body in the air. The same control and acrobatic ability in the air is applicable to being on a trampoline or not. It doesn’t really matter.

So even if you only want to do moves outside like I did, the trampoline is a useful tool for getting there.

Just ask Damien Walters. One of the best out there in free running and all manner of acrobatic stunts. One of his primary training methods and tools is the trampoline even competing in the trampoline world championships along with doing all manner of stunts in the gym and out.

For this reason you should use everything available to you. Set goals for tricks you can do on a trampoline. If you need ideas on getting started check out the Trampoline Handbook. In it you’ll find 48 different moves to work on. These range from basic to intermediate. From there the world of trampolining really opens up. Work on doing more complex tricks as well as stringing several more basic tricks together.

Here’s a video showing some amazing trampolining stunts from Adam Menzies along with some other moves at the end.

Want to do a twisting backflip? Do it on the trampoline first and nail it down, before moving onto the floor. Not to mention a trampoline can just be a lot of fun.

When it comes to tumbling on the floor you should follow the same progressions. Work on what you can and build from there. For a wide range of moves (248 to be exact) check out Tumbling Illustrated. And again, do more complex moves and focus on stringing moves together.

The truth is just about anyone can build up decent acrobatic skills if they work on it with persistence. You may not be trying out for Cirque du Soleil anytime soon but you’ll master moves few people can do.

Trampolining and tumbling skills are well worth going after. Working on one will help the other and vice versa. Use the combination and get better starting today.

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5 Backflip Video

By admin on September 10, 2010 in Tumbling

Progress has been real good in my gymnastics class recently.

Here I wanted to show a backflip video of not one but five backflips in a series.

They’re not the prettiest back tucks but they are getting increasingly easier to do. A week or two ago was the first time I could ‘see’ the ground as I flipped. I don’t think it was that I closed my eyes before, just that the ground moved to fast.

In this series I was jumping too far back with each one. It was near the end of the night and I was fatigued. Plus it gets hard doing backflips repeatedly as I begin to get dizzy and jumping straight up becomes even harder. But for the most part my take off, my tuck and everything is better than ever.

With the progress here I’ve even started doing these backflips again outside at the beach, on grass and dirt.

It’s funny. Back flips are one of the easier basics of tumbling (much easier than a standing front flip!) yet they can be one of the scariest moves to do. Once you get over that fear and progress to being able to safely doing this skill you may find it can be easy. For more details on getting started check out the article How to do a Backflip.

My current goal is to do ten in a row like this. After that I’ll move on to more difficult variations like those found in Tumbling Illustrated.

I hope you liked the Backflip Video that I made.

Good Luck and Good Flipping,
Logan Christopher

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30 Day Challenge – Done

By admin on August 21, 2010 in Uncategorized

The 30 day challenge is over.

Just to recap, or for those of you that aren’t aware, this involved two parts.

The first was to practice my hand balancing in one form or another every single day.

To be honest, in this regard I failed. I missed a couple days at the end. This was a result of getting busy, putting off the practice and forgetting to do it later.

But I don’t think of this as a failure. What I did accomplish was to practice my hand balancing almost everyday. I’m back into it with renewed vigor.

Progress at gymnastics is coming fast. Back to tumbling with a fury. Gained back my old skills fast and moving onto the new. In addition I’ve begun working on the other apparatus like the parallel bars, pommel horse and more.

And I did see improvement in my one hand handstand and one arm half planche (my two big hand balancing goals right now) over the month. They’re still a long way off but no one said you could master these moves overnight.

In fact, most people say it’ll take years if you even ever accomplish the one armer.

The second part of the 30 day challenge was to post on the site every single day. While it was difficult at times I did accomplish this one! Lots of pictures, a wide range of videos and short helpful tips are all there to see.

Not to mention holding a sale and releasing a new training tool during this time. I would say it was a great success.

So what happens now?

I’m going to go back to writing to you once or maybe twice every week. And the good part is this will be a more in depth piece then what I’ve been putting up lately.

I will continue to practice my hand balancing regularly and report on my progress here.

If you did the 30 day challenge with me, I’d love to hear about how it went for you down below.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Back to Gymnastics

By admin on July 22, 2010 in Tumbling

A few years back I regularly attended a gymnastics class. This wasn’t back when I was a kid, as is the case for 99% of gymnasts, but because I wanted to master gymnastic skills as an adult. I wanted to strength and skill that comes with it.

This fell away as I went to work on other training. But there is nothing quite like being in that class. Let me tell you why.

1. It’s a Dedicated Chunk of Time.

If you go to a class you’re going to be there for an hour and a half to two hours (at least that’s how long my classes run). That’s a lot of practice time. At it’s very much in contrast to the typical 15 minutes, maybe half hour, I’d likely spend on my own.

This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it’s a long time and the more you practice the better you’ll get. Of course it can be too long to the point where you get tired, run down, and then you can’t get any better at the skills at hand.

But if you go into class full of energy and know how to rotate from one skill to another you can minimize this effect.

gym rings 2. The Equipment.

If you want to get good at something you need to have the proper tools to do so. A gymnastics facility has the following: trampoline, tumble-trak, spring floor, rings, bars, pommel horse, balance beams various mats and pads, a foam pit, and much more. Depending on your goals you may need different tools.

For example if you take some one of the street who wants to learn how to do a back flip you’re much better set if you have these tools. It is possible to teach someone to do it just standing with the proper instruction and spotting. Better to have all that and tools so you can learn the skill on a trampoline first, then off or raised mats with padding and finally on the ground.

This makes it more step-by-step and of course much safer. Safety, or rather the feeling of safety, is a big deal when you first attempt many acrobatic skills.

3. The Coaching.

If you practice be yourself, often times its hard to know what you’re really doing. A video camera can help you to SEE what you’re doing. But a coach can do that plus tell you what you need to do.

Even a half-way decent gymnastics coach is going to be able to help you get to skills much beyond what the average person would be able to do.

And as was mentioned before having a spotter the first time you try a move is very helpful.

Hand balancing skills can easily be worked at home. (Some equipment can be useful as well as coaching which is obvious.) But for acrobatic skills at least getting your start in the proper facility can be a huge help. It can be the difference between mediocre skills and really going far.

For that reason I’m going back. I’ll have the story of my first day back for you tomorrow.

Good Luck and Good Gymnastics,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For moves you can do at home and at the gymnast facility be sure to check out Tumbling Illustrated.

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Damien Walters 2010

By admin on July 5, 2010 in Parkour

In case you haven’t seen this video, check out one of the greatest athletes out there, Damien Walters.

One thing I think you can take away from this video is that much practice is done in a gymnastics center as well as outside in ‘regular’ terrain. Build up your skills in the safer environment before going outside.

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New Portals to Help Navigate the Site

By admin on June 5, 2008 in Uncategorized

Here’s a few of the new pages I was talking about. These will be especially helpful for new people entering the site but if you’re looking for something in a certain category you’ll be able to find it here.

These pages act as a portal to other parts of the site that can be helpful. Right now there are three, but that’s likely to increase in the future.

The Handstand Basics page for people just starting out on the hand balancing path.

The Advanced Handbalancing page really is for anything above and beyond a handstand. All intermediate and advanced hand balancing products, articles, blog posts, etc. can be found here.

Then there’s the Acrobatics page. This covers all manner of acrobatic, tumbling and gymnastic moves outside of hand balancing itself.

The last two especially will be expanded in the coming months. More articles, video and the like. If you have suggestions for specific articles or videos you’d like to see you can use the questions form.

Right now you can find links to these portals on the bottom of every page on the first line of the footer.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Remember the Prof. Orlick books are now available in electronic form. Get them for $5 off.

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Handstand, Tumbling and Athleticism

By admin on May 1, 2008 in Tumbling

Wanted to start off today’s message with a powerful comment from a subscriber.

Logan,

Your website is absolutely fantastic and it has helped me learn a whole new approach to physical-culture training. Over the last few months, I have incorporated handstand push-ups and some elementary handstand training into my weightlifting routine, and the results have been nothing short of incredible.

A while back you received a comment from somebody who was upset that you are putting acrobatic videos on the Internet for all to view. He was apparently concerned that some people may develop bad form or bad training habits without direct supervision from a qualified trainer. While I’m sure this gentleman meant well, I must say that I have benefited enormously from watching the videos you have posted. I suspect that many other people have too.

Viewing your videos and reading your articles helped me to refine my views of what is possible with physical culture training. Before I made a visit to your site, I paid virtually no attention to the athletic side of physical training, and I new very little about the many benefits which can be derived from doing handstands and related movements. I have no desire to become a professional gymnast or acrobat, but I find that the type of training which you promote on your site improves my athleticism and strength tremendously.

Thanks for running a great and innovative site.

Rob Drucker

Thank you, Rob. Comments like these really make my day. It brings a smile to my face to read about the success of people like you.

Handstands have been proven over and over to strengthen the body. If you have to start against the wall, you’ll still get many of the benefits. The truth is going from handstands against the wall to free standing is the transition many people make, myself included.

As far as athleticism though, that is just the beginning. Can you imagine where you’ll be at if you add just a few of the following into the mix?

Forward Rolls, Backward Rolls, Diving, Head and Hand Balancing, Hand Balancing, Forearm Balancing, Cartwheels, Roundoffs, Head and Hand Springs, Hand Springs, Backward Hand Springs, Back Bends, Upstarts (Kips), Somersaults (Flips), Combination Rolls, Combination Hand Springs, Combination Hand Springs and Somersaults, Combination Hand Springs and Rolls, Combination Balancing and Rolls, Miscellaneous Combinations, and Novelties.

Those are the 21 chapters found in the soon to be released Tumbling Illustrated. As of writing this it’ll be available in 4 days, 23 hours, 57 minutes, 34 seconds. To find the updated time go to https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/tumbling.html

I wish it was ready now, especially since a few people have inquired about buying it already. But I’m still waiting on the printers for the main book. Plus I want to be able to ship it out the day you order it.

You don’t have to be a professional gymnast or acrobat to get the benefits of this training. (If you are though, more power to you.) Even if you work on just a few of the 248 different moves you’ll learn how to control your body to a extraordinary degree.

Tomorrow I’m going to reveal a few details on the companion workbook to Tumbling Illustrated and how you can use this workbook will increase your skills even faster.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I’ll try to get another video up showing some acrobatic conditioning in action before the launch. Maybe even a sneak peak of the workbook.

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Handstand Rolls

By admin on April 29, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

How does tumbling and hand balancing go together?

Here’s your answer in the simplest form. Combining the normal handstand with basic forward and backward rolls.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6msSyaXU_J4]

Of course, there are many other ways to combine them. Here’s just two examples. Back Handspring to Hand Balance and Dive to Hand Balance, Chest Roll Down. There are tons of ways to get into and out of a handstand. Use your imagination.

These are great because it will really work your balance coming into the handstand from all these moves. Especially since you’re going to have to stop your momentum most of the time.

One more caveat. As much as possible don’t do hand balancing in sand. It’s a lot harder and throws off your balance. Much better to find a surface that won’t give.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you missed it, the new countdown page to the Tumbling Course is up. The date and time have been set. It’s only a matter of time now.

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