Hey guys! I'm a 16 year old tumbler!

I got my backhandsprings about a year ago and I started working on front/back tucks. Now... I don't know why, but I just cannot do them! I get soo scared! I don't know... it must be like a mental block or something!

But the weird part about all this is that I can do a whip on trampoline pretty well, but not back tucks. Is that normal? I always thought that you should learn back tucks before whips, but whips are easier to me than tucks.

Help?

Liv

Hmmm... Let me guess...

Did you teach yourself to do whips on a backyard trampoline??

Well, yes most people find whip outs easier than back tucks. However, whips are always taught after tucks because if you don't have a solid tuck already, the whip will mess up your tuck technique. Tucks ARE more scary, basically because you have to keep your head straight, and therefore can't look for the ground behind you until you're already upside down. Especially if you started doing whips already and are used to being able to see where you are going.

My advice: Ditch the whips, for now at least. Get a spot and relearn your tuck technique, really concentrating on getting a good set. You can do it, trust your spotter until you learn to trust yourself again.

And don't do whips on a trampoline anymore. Tramps are great for learning tucks, but will only cause problems if you start trying to do whips on it.

I learned whips by extremely under cutting my back handspring. At first my hands would bairly skim the floor, and it got worse. But I've fixed that problem now. I think tucks are all mental. Pull up, tuck, rotate, and stand up. Its all mental. Mind over matter.

Hmmm... Let me guess...

Did you teach yourself to do whips on a backyard trampoline??

Actually, no. And I'm not lying. My tumbling teacher taught them to me. She was like, "You can't do tucks yet... so you probably can't do whips either, right?" and I was like "I've never tried them" and she showed me, and then I tried them. I mean, they are not *perfect* but I get over.

But, wouldn't it be a little bit rude to tell my teacher I want to do back tucks first? I don't know.

Thanks for the advice, but I couldn't help but sense a tad bit of sarcasm... oh well, what do I know? I'm not good at tumbling anyway.

*Liv

I can beleive that you got your whips first. When I was learning back handspring a few times I accidently did a whip because I forpot about my hands. Whips can be a little less scary because you arch back and look at the ground.

But Back tucks are not that difficult. Remember that when you do a back tuck and don't make it all the way around you will usually still land on your feet and fall forward. Tucking your legs will give you enough momentum to tuck safely.

Just think about jumping as high as you can before your tuck.

I agree ditch the whips for a while and work on backtucks. The two probably shouldn't be taught at the same time. A whip is a pretty useless skill to have unless you can do something after it. Being able to just get over isn't enough.

Anyways like with most mental blocks its just something you're gona have to make yourself do to get over it. Trust your coach because she wouldn't be teaching you something you're not ready for. Also work on alot of drills where you practice setting after your backhandspring like sets onto mats that are shoulder high, youre gona have to break your habbit of going backwards instead of up now.

youre gona have to break your habbit of going backwards instead of up now.

Won't doing that mess up my bhs? Like, do ya think I'll get too used to going up that my bhs will be like way too high?

*Liv

I agree with what's been posted already as far as ditching the whips for awhile, but I wouldn't worry about loosing the backhandspring either. First of all, the starts on backhandsprings and backtucks are completley different. The only way you will learn is by doing correct backtucks over and over again. Plus,if you are ready to learn backtucks, the sit on your backhandsprings should be so simple and consistent for you that you don't change them. At my gym, we always taught backtucks out of a ro. ff. instead of just a ro.. It's easier to learn the difference in the jumps that way.

as loong as you think a back tuck can only mess up to be a high backhandspring, it will e fine. If you think about his you won't get scared