Expert: Jessica Bugg - 11/30/2006

Question
Hey I'm Getting So Frustrated With My Tumbling Last Year I Got My Round Off tuck And Rundoff Backhandspring Tuck Really Quick! But Then Out Of Nowhere I Lost It. Now Sometimes I Can Do Them Really Good And Sometimes I Cant So Them at All. I'm Better At My Roundoff Tuck But Its Still Not Pretty. I Have So Much Trouble Having My Tuck Get Alot Of Height! It Seems To Come So Easy To Others But I Don't Know What I'm Doing Wrong! And In My Round Off Hand Spring Tuck I Don't Get Enough Power From My Handspring. I Also Have Trouble Doing Multiple Handsprings Sometimes. It Just Depends On The Days. We Have Cheerleading Tryouts In March And i Have To Have This Stuff Perfected! I'm Not Scared To Throw My Tumbling It Just Isn't Powerful... Its Really Slow! I'm Also Trying To Get My standing Tuck But I Have Problems With Throwing My Head Back And Not Staying Hollow! But If You Can Just Please Write Back And Help Me Out I Would Really Appreciate It! Thanks <3 Nichole

Answer
Hi Nichole,

From what you are saying your tumbling is good it just isn't as powerful as you would like.  An easy way to get more power for your tumbling is in your "run" before the roundoff.  Really gain some speed and momentum while you approach the roundoff.  Also, you should not be thinking about your tuck when you are in the middle of your backhandspring.  Another example is in a roundoff backhandspring your should first concentrate on the round off and then the backhandspring.

Let me know if this helps and if you have further questions.

Jessica Bugg