Coach Wayne,

My 14 year old daughter has been  tumbling since she was 7. She saw a boy tumble in someone's yard and got  hurt and now is scared. She is a good tumbler and I thought when  cheerleading started back it would encourage her
to want to do it, but she  still has the fear. Is there anyway of helping her to over come this fear  or should I just not say anything about it and let her handle it on her  on?

Tina

Answer:

Lately I've received a BUNDLE of email questions from tumblers who are AFRAID of back-handsprings.
Please NOTE: it is PEFECTLY NORMAL AND HEALTHY to feel a  MOMENT of fear when a person springs backwards onto her hands!

Think about it. You're going BACKWARDS... so you can't see where  you're going, so you're JUMPING BLINDLY!... As if That's not enough.. you're  goal is to LAND on your hands... (not your head!) Literally, you're diving very quickly INTO THE FLOOR!!! Yikes!! Ok. Now, for the REAL  clincher...to perform the skill safely, you'll need to KEEP MOVING QUICKLY so  you land on your feet again.

Then... you must perform ALL that... elegantly, beautifully & in such a way as to allow you to KEEP moving into additional tumbling skills like another  back-handspring, or back-tuck. Anyway you look at it, the back-handspring  requires VERY careful preparation and LOTS of practice. 

Now, to compound  all that... if you make a mistake, it's quite possible to severely injure  yourself.

So all you tumblers out there that are feeling FEAR...  congratulate yourself. It means your brain is alert and your instincts are  working correctly.

HOWEVER... your fear should not STOP you from  tumbling. It should GUIDE you to SEEK more knowledge and experience.   Let the fear INSPIRE you to BE WISE and use COMMON SENSE. Fear should  ALERT you to the OBSERVE risks you are incurring and to discern effective ways  to PROTECT YOURSELF.

With enough knowledge about HOW TO DO a safe, strong and beautiful back-handspring you should easily FACE your fear with COURAGE. If you are armed with sufficient UNDERSTANDING about proper habits of motion,  positions,  timing, coordination and abundant muscular STRENGTH, you'll move PAST your  fears into confidence.

It is a scary thing to see some  one badly hurt, whether in the gym, or outside. Any athletic activity  has the potential for severe injury. As fun as gymnastics:tumbling can  be.. .it comes with REAL risks that must be RECOGNIZED and HONORED by  participants. The human body DOES have physical limitations. An  important part of growing up is learning to recognize those limits with as  little damage as possible. Because of its rich diversity of motions &  dynamics gymnastics:tumbling CAN be an excellent choice of activities  for SAFELY learning those limits.

Gymnastic:tumbling is an  integral part of human culture. Kids have always... and will always to  perform acrobatic activities in the gym, in the house, in the yard, on  grass, on concrete... everywhere. With  all the cheerleaders on football fields, acrobats on stage, martial artist in the studio and untold millions of us playing in the yard & the house...only  a small fraction of us have received proper instructions for safe skill  execution.

And, unfortunately, to an unaware  tumbler, what SEEMS like an "improvement" can actually be a disastrous  error. For example, running FASTER is NOT the way to improve a round-off,  except for specific rare instances with highly experienced  tumblers. Because it feels more dynamic & thrilling, it may  feel NATURAL to do many things like RUNNING FASTER into tumbling  skills. With each increase in SPEED and POWER, all aspects of a  skill become exaggerated... which means minor errors become MAJOR errors.   So, unless the body is well prepared, coordinated, attuned, & the skill  is truly WELL FORMED such seemingly natural changes like "running
faster" can  DRAMATICALLY INCREASE the risk of severe injury. 

One of my primary motivations for making  the "BETTER  BACK-HANDSPRINGS" video was to insure that the fundamental elements  of WELL-FORMED tumbling activities are available to ANYONE who can watch  TV. Simple lessons... (that are NOT, however, generally known) can GREATLY  enhance safety and provide tumblers with a STRONG CONFIDENCE in their  abilities.. 

For example, here is one of those  SECRETS: Encourage tumblers to HABITUALLY EXTEND their arms narrowly,  straight up above the head ...before, during AND after EVERY handstand, cartwheel, walkover and
handspring.

Holding the arms close together  (NARROW) reduces the chance of injuries to the wrists when supporting the  body. arms held straight OVER HEAD (rather than  down by the sides or straight out in front) provides MAXIMUM protection to the head and neck. by CREATING the HABIT of these positions...  the body will MOST LIKELY react to a chaotic situation (such as a mat slipping  or some outside interference) by returning to that position... thus protecting  the head/neck and allowing for avoidance of injury. and importantly... these positions provides  for the most beautiful and most powerful tumbling skills. It is an  element of WELL-FORMED tumbling.

There are MANY other "secrets" for  WELL-FORMED gymnastics:tumbling. The MORE of these that a tumbler  practices, the more courageous (i.e.:overcoming fears) s/he will FEEL because  they LEAD and BUILD to reliably
safe, beautiful and powerful skill  execution.

As always, I  welcome your comments and concerns. Please send your email questions to  Coach@CoachWayne.com. YES, I really do answer ALL the questions I can personally and I may use your  answer in an upcoming article!

Until next  time...
Have fun, be safe... and PUSH  HARD!!!!
~Coach  Wayne

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