TUMBLING

Students in our tumbling program have chosen to focus on the most popular of the Olympic events, floor exercise.  For the majority of our tumbling students, the desire is eventually learn to do a back-handspring, or “flip-flop”, and the tumbling classes are therefore focused on that.  Progressing from a simple cartwheel to a back-handspring involves patience, strength and repetitions, and simply cannot be rushed.  Often, several months of training is required to safely learn to complete a back-handspring.  Our specially trained tumbling instructors use a variety of equipment to enhance the tumbling students learning.  Since many of our students take tumbling to prepare for cheerleading, these classes are specifically designed and taught to accomplish that goal.

Static tumbling training involves the use of incline mats and barrels to aide the student’s physical development.  Tumbling movement is taught on our competition gymnastics spring floor, our 2” carpet and foam floor, our 35 ft. Tumble Trak (picture a 6 ft. wide and 35 ft. long trampoline), and our ground level trampolines.  One wall of the gym is mirrored so the student can check their form.

Beginner:
Students at this level typically have had little or no prior gymnastics training.  Progression leading up to back-handspring will include cartwheels, back-bends, back-walkover and round-offs.   Class size is limited to 10 students per instructor to allow multiple repetitions for each student.  Often several tumbling stations are used at the same time to allow the instructor to work hands-on with one student while the other students practice individually on the specialized equipment.

Intermediate/Advanced:
These students have demonstrated proficiency with a round-off flip-flop, and are working on a tumbling series.  Higher-level tumbling skills, like standing backs and front tumbling are introduced at this level.  These classes are taught by our most experienced instructors, and demand a high level of dedication to keep up with the training.