Tumbling Practice Drills for Cheerleading

Tumbling Practice Drills for Cheerleading
On behalf of expertvillage.com my name is Hung. I am the tumbling coach and the coach for the Cheer Odyssey Rocket Team. I'm going to be explaining body positions as far as tumbling and cheerleading goes. Alley is on the ground right now, and she is in a nice laid out position. Arms are going to be above her head. In cheerleading, you must have a nice tight line in order to tumble. So this is what I do with some of the kids before I teach them how to do a back tuck up in the air or a lay out or a pull twist. I check there body position, making sure they are nice and tight all the way through from there chest to there hips to there toes. I also lift them up by the toes making sure there body are nice and tight. This is what we call a candle position. In cheerleading, in gymnastics it may be called the same way too. Up a little bit more. Good. So in order to do a back tuck you have to use your hips, keeping your body nice and tight all the way through. So once the cheerleader understand how to do a nice tight line we do a jump back drill. I'm going to count 2 move slowly jump 2 in a diagonal position keeping a nice tight body position. Just jump straight to me kinda tilt your back a little bit. This is called the jump back drill. One two there you go. Good. Once the cheerleader understands that keeping a nice straight body line all the way through from here finger tips all the way down to her toes. We can move on to the candle drill. Same thing what we did on the floor but this time we are actually preforming it in the air with a spotter. Jump. This is called a camel drill she is nice and tight all the way through. Okay that is one of the progression steps in order to get to a back tuck or a back layout. This is what is called a standing back tuck. Once you understand the candle position then you can start bending your knees and steps for the back tuck. For a back tuck you what to keep your arms up nice and tight pretending that the cheerleader is jumping off the ground right now. She is going to pick up her legs and knee she is going to tuck her knees to her chest as hard as she can keeping the legs nice and tight perpendicular to her chest and face. Toes are going to be pointed. Head is going to be looking up at the ceiling or at the wall in front of her. She is going to wrap her arms around grabbing the back of her knees and pushing into her chest.