Round Off Tuck

[cheerobsession]

Hi guys!
I posted a few weeks ago about my problems with my standing bhs. Since then it didn´t get any better and I thought about starting round off tucks. Is it a bad idea to skip the backhandspring or should I try it? Thanks

 

[alliebby33]

There's a girl on my team that has the most absolute beautiful roundoff tucks you could ever imagine, but her roundoff handsprings her head hits the floor and she will probably never be able to do anything out of it. I say stick with the handsprings until you get it down perfectly. That way you, when you start tucks, you'll be able to do roundoff tucks OR roundoff handspring tucks (which I think are a lot easier).

 

[MaximumAllStars]

In terms of progression, you really should have solid consecutive handsprings before you move forward to tucks. But I understand that becoming a better tumbler takes confidence, and if you've been at your handsprings for awhile and not feeling progression, it may take a hit to your confidence. Rather than skipping the handspring, try focusing on both. Work on your round off tuck, but also spend the same amount of time on drills for handsprings. And for every RO Tuck you do, throw a standing hs on a surface you feel comfortable with. This way, you are working on a skill that hopefully doesn't frustrate you as much, yet you still spend time working on a skill that is necessary for your progression.

 

[cheerheart4life]

I would work on both. Progression wise its not a good idea, but i do know a girl with perfect tucks, layouts, and fulls and a terrible handspring. She just does everything out of a roundoff. But i would recommend getting that handspring so you can do more passes and have more power!! Goodluck

 

[MissBee]

DO NOT try a round off tuck before you have a solid Round off back handspring tuck. It will KILL your back handspring, and you might never get one. I'm speaking from 13 years as a competitive gymnast, 11 years of cheer (including college and UCA staff), 17 years of gymnastics/tumbling coaching, 15 years of gymnastics and cheer judging.

 

[cheerobsession]

Thanks for all the replies!
I´m gonna stick with the handspring. It´s just so frustrating becauce it doesn´t get better.But practice makes perfect

 

[yourfavoritebackspot]

although when I learned mine I had my standing bhs I actually had to have multiples before progressing into standing tucks, however running tumbling is different for me, I got more confidence buy learning them and throwing myself blind sided , I did power hurdle tucks first, then progresses to standing bhs tuck , bhs layout. if your wanting to make a level 3 team I would just make sure you can throw a round off tuck that is what will get you on that level, your coaches will probably have you work on the ro bhs tuck though out the season and pretty soon you'll be able to add a stepout and more bh. I say go big or go home good luck!!

 

[LittleMiss]

DO NOT try a round off tuck before you have a solid Round off back handspring tuck. It will KILL your back handspring, and you might never get one. I'm speaking from 13 years as a competitive gymnast, 11 years of cheer (including college and UCA staff), 17 years of gymnastics/tumbling coaching, 15 years of gymnastics and cheer judging.

Why should they learn the ROBH Tuck before the RO Tuck? Just curious as I have a child who recently just learned both but she did RO Tuck first on the floor although on the Tumble Track she had her ROBH Tuck.

 

[MissBee]

Why should they learn the ROBH Tuck before the RO Tuck? Just curious as I have a child who recently just learned both but she did RO Tuck first on the floor although on the Tumble Track she had her ROBH Tuck.

The set for a tuck is straight up, while the set for the back handspring is back. The more natural (especially for your brain, which is thinking, "this isn't normal, don't land on me!") is to set up, so that comes more easily. Learning to go against what your brain is telling you to do-for a back handspring is more difficult. Once you have mastered the RO-BHS, it's a much easier, and safer progression to the tuck. Going from a tuck to a BHS is very difficult.

The best analogy I can think of is to think of it as driving a car....driving at slow speed is the BHS, driving at high speed is the tuck. You're going to learn to drive at slower speeds, and then once you're good at that you can give the freeway a try.

 

[yourfavoritebackspot]

The set for a tuck is straight up, while the set for the back handspring is back. The more natural (especially for your brain, which is thinking, "this isn't normal, don't land on me!") is to set up, so that comes more easily. Learning to go against what your brain is telling you to do-for a back handspring is more difficult. Once you have mastered the RO-BHS, it's a much easier, and safer progression to the tuck. Going from a tuck to a BHS is very difficult.

The best analogy I can think of is to think of it as driving a car....driving at slow speed is the BHS, driving at high speed is the tuck. You're going to learn to drive at slower speeds, and then once you're good at that you can give the freeway a try.

I think in most cases yes, but not everyone learns the same way, I had an arabian at one point before I ever threw a full so I disagree with the utmost respect not everyone can do back handsprings but many can go on to do passes with out them and even make progression in levels, I think a big part of this answer should be the gym the girl belongs to and how her gym fields each level, if all her gym needs is a round off tuck to make level 3 with a standing toe touch bhs then she should go for it but if the gym is a bigger name with incredible full team tumbling then she should wait and hit the ro bhs tuck so she wouldnt be a small fish in a big sea, always better to be able to swim with the whole team , imo of coarse

 

[MissBee]

I think in most cases yes, but not everyone learns the same way, I had an arabian at one point before I ever threw a full so I disagree with the utmost respect not everyone can do back handsprings but many can go on to do passes with out them and even make progression in levels, I think a big part of this answer should be the gym the girl belongs to and how her gym fields each level, if all her gym needs is a round off tuck to make level 3 with a standing toe touch bhs then she should go for it but if the gym is a bigger name with incredible full team tumbling then she should wait and hit the ro bhs tuck so she wouldnt be a small fish in a big sea, always better to be able to swim with the whole team , imo of coarse

There will obviously be anomalies out there. Anyone worth their salt will teach a Ro-BHS before teaching a RO-tuck.

 

[yourfavoritebackspot]

There will obviously be anomalies out there. Anyone worth their salt will teach a Ro-BHS before teaching a RO-tuck.

not sure what salt means

 

[LittleMiss]

The set for a tuck is straight up, while the set for the back handspring is back. The more natural (especially for your brain, which is thinking, "this isn't normal, don't land on me!") is to set up, so that comes more easily. Learning to go against what your brain is telling you to do-for a back handspring is more difficult. Once you have mastered the RO-BHS, it's a much easier, and safer progression to the tuck. Going from a tuck to a BHS is very difficult.

The best analogy I can think of is to think of it as driving a car....driving at slow speed is the BHS, driving at high speed is the tuck. You're going to learn to drive at slower speeds, and then once you're good at that you can give the freeway a try.

Thanks for clarifying!

 

[CoachFrank203]

I've heard coaches say time and again 'if you learn tucks before handsprings it'll ruin your handspring' but thats like saying 'there is no way for you to learn more than one skill in tumbling'... if you can learn more than one skill you can learn/ unlearn good or bad technique for a skill as well.

Will you most likely tuck your handsprings at first? Yes. Is it possible you can learn not to tuck a handspring eventually? Yes. If your choreographer had you doing handsprings into splits in your routine would that forever ruin your handsprings and you'll always split when doing them? Nope. People are more adaptable than that.

Theres plenty of parkour kids that teach themselves how to flip, that start with what would be considered discusting form in gymnastics, eventually clean their skills up. I've taught plenty of cheerleaders tucks when they couldnt get handsprings and, with time, got good back handsprings from them.

Do what feels right for you, if you get the roundoff tuck that might be a huge motivation boost and you'll really want to work some other skills, if you beat yourself up working and failing at handsprings you might loose motivation and degress instead of progressing at tumbling. Hope that helps.

 

[xxcheer77xx]

-I know a girl who got her round-off tuck and standing tuck before her back handspring.
Her R-O tucks are ABOVE my head (im 5'7) and so are her round off layouts...
But she cannot do a round off BHS tuck to save her life, and her standing tuck has become inconsistent.
Her standing tucks used to be above my head too.
I think working on tucks before you have a BHS makes you have high tucks, because you don't take them back you just take them up. But, you will always then have a weak BHS and be stuck throwing every tumbling pass there-after out of a round off and you wont be able to attempt multiples.

You might think thats a fair trade off but thing of this- what if you have team RO-BHS- tuck in your routine? Or what if you have to do team BHS back tucks? You might have completely insane tucks, but thats not going to help what you have choreographed.