Can you do...

[Lucy]

All those of you who are tumblers can you do the same moves on a non sprung floor?

[Dave]

Not too sure about others but i can do some moves on a non sprung floor( Hanspring, front sommies, r/off flicks tuck backs etc ) but its very tough and often not a good idea.....being a tumbler i know how to get the most out of the track and when you go from a sprung floor to a non-sprung floor you still try and get the most out of the surface you are using and if its not sprung you end up putting extra presure on your body......

So my answer is yes but its not a good idea.....

[DJC]

Well if you're not such a good tumbler you may be able to do all your tumbles on a hard floor! However, I doubt higher level tumblers will be performing doubles, triples, twists, or whip combination tumbles on a hard floor. 1) It's dangerous, 2) It's near impossible without the bounce you get from the floor.

[Rosh]

im not a tumbler but our floor at gym isn't sprung - which is really annoyin but hey! some of us can twist on it , n whip flick tuck- but then when we go to comps its really good cos u dont have to put much effort in! so it has got its benefits!! but it really kills my legs n feet sometimes! cos our mats r like judo mats!

[Dave]

Your mad Rosh, at my old club they dont have a sprung floor and i wouldnt of even attempted twisting on it.... In the end i didn't do any type of tumbling on it other than a simple handspring and i didnt want to risk injury...

[peter edge]

http://www.british-gymnastics.org/memberforum/images/icons/icon10.gifI just had to jump in at this point as somebody mentioned madness, well although I class myself as a trampolinist I also have a background of doing floor and vault and back in the mid 70`s there were very few sprung floors. We had to make do with those mats that had velcro along the edges with a long canvas covered mat the sort you roll up, on the top. On this I managed to do fulls and double fulls and occasionaly just manage to scrape round a double back although attempt at a rudi didn`t go off too well.http://www.british-gymnastics.org/memberforum/images/icons/icon9.gif
Still reckon I could manage a couple of flicks followed by a full given a decent floor[getting to be a bit of a softie now!]http://www.british-gymnastics.org/memberforum/images/icons/icon6.gif

[Lucy]

Sprung floors still weren't the norm into the early 80s my gym club had an assortment of mats that just got pushed together to make up the floor.
I'm pretty sure Huntingdon didn't have a sprung floor then either(maybe someone there can correct me if I'm wrong?).

[pink_heffalump]

If i tried to do the same moves i can do on a carbon fibre track on a non sprung floor i almost guarantee i would break something!! lol possibly me or.... possibly the floor!! lol not quite the same surface! would make life very difficult! thankgoodness i will always have a tumble track! :P good old team gym! :D

[Dave]

Think i talk for all the tumblers here Im glad we now have tumble tracks to prevent injuries !!!

Has anyone ever been on the blow up tracks ??? They are great fun u can do pretty much anything on them with out hurting yourself....

[Anita]

Our club has an air track they use for training but they can't replace the tumble track as they can make you "lazy". My daughters reckon it's easier to tumble on them and you don't need so much power to do things but that doesn't help you when you go back to the tumble track: it's very good, though, for getting the technique right.

[Dave]

Have to agree with you anita although these air tracks are great they do tend to make you lazy as you dont need as much power to throw yourself around, The one thing that i had a problem was with changing tracks i went from an air track to a proper track ( Not sure what it is, Carbon fibre rods i think ) and it caused me a few injuries as i wasnt used to the surface but now im slowly getting used to it....

[KayJ]

Is a tumble track that you use for "proper" tumbling bouncier than tumble tracks like we have at gym (which feels similar to a sprung floor)?

I'm pretty sure nobody would be able to manage a triple back on our tumble track, our floor area isn't sprung so it's bouncier than that, but I'm sure it's not bouncy enough for triples and really hard tumbles (we call ours a ski run, but the gym a couple of miles up the road call theirs a tumble track, they're both about the same though).

I still have trouble with my round-off flic, I can do it on our ski run (tumble track) 'cos it's sprung, but I won't do it on the normal floor 'cos it hurts my wrists, I'll only do it on a non sprung floor if I'm in a comp!

[Anita]

We call ours a ski run also KayJ - it's wooden boards that slot together (rather like a sprung floor I guess) and is quite old. It's not a springy as the carbon fibre tumble tracks though.

[KayJ]

Yes ours is big wooden boards (heavy!!!) that slot together too, we put white polystyrene bits on top of the boards and then roll out 2 long mats over the top.

So is the carbon fibre track that the proper tumbling is done on much bouncier than our wooden ones then? When I've seen tumbling on telly it almost looks like they're tumbling on a long trampoline!

[Dave]

Not entirely too sure there Kayj but i believe the carbon fibre tracks are more robust and providing you know how to get the most outta the track you can get some serious power from them....trust me when i say that carbon fibre tracks are brilliant.... I believe there is also something called " a Fast track " which is what they using in international competitions i think ( dont quote me on it as i was told second hand by someone so it may not be true )....

[Gingerbop]

I dont know what kind of tracks they had at gymnaestrada, but we were all doing stuff down them at the closing ceremony, with loadsa people watching. I went for a punchfront walkout, but it was so bouncy I did a one and a half, landed on my head, and rolled into some swiss people's legs, and dissapeared;mortified!

I like nice, normal tumble run.

[KayJ]

I'll have to try that track out Gingerbop, I might be able to land on my feet then on a punch front instead of falling back on my bum!

[Dave]

Sorry to hear that gingerbop.... although i bet its quite funny looking back at it.....


Kayj im sure you could easily do a punch front just put in a little bit more power, obviously not too much or do what gingerbop did :p

[Gingerheid]

Lovely story:D ! Is it about time we started a new "What's the most embarrassing thing..." thread?! (Actually - thankfully I'd have nothing new for it, but that's probably only comparative lack of recent bouncing as opposed to greater skill acquired!)

(PS - Super to see the original 'Ginger' properly back on the forum!:) )

[KayJ]

Yeah - welcome back Gingerbop! :)

[Lucy]

I think fastrak is like an endless trampoline with adjustable tension so you can set it as springy as you want it. I would love a go on a tumble run of any sort again.KayJ is the wrist problem down to your problem with getting over the 1st half of the flic if you're jumping up too much instead of going backwards it would explain the heavy landings.
If you get the chance do back flips on the trampoline, it's great fun and might help your take off.

[Jaye]

Hi Lucy - I'll reply for KayJ at the moment 'cos she's at school (no doubt she'll reply herself when she gets home!)

I would say you're absolutely right about her flic, I went to pick her up from the gym early at weekend to have a nosy at what she was up to (difficult with my twin tearaway toddlers running riot round the gym!). She was doing round-off flics as I got there and the first thing I noticed was she wasn't leaning back after her round-off, she was just going straight up in the air and rotating in a sort of complete circle resulting in her hands nearly landing where her feet had taken off! So I decided to march up to the ski run put my penneth in and told her to lean back at the end of her round-off so she was off balance for the flic to make it travel a bit more. She did it on the next go and hey presto, instant success! They're still not perfect (scruffy feet and knees) but they're tons better. I asked her if they felt easier too (because they certainly looked easier) and she agreed they did.

She's done flics on trampoline (and on the bouncy castle at a local pub to us!), also on her mattress in her bedroom which frequents the floor more often than her bed! She gets flics brilliant on anything that's bouncy, but as soon as she gets on a normal mat a standing flic just starts to collapse into a heap again! I think she'd love to try a fastrak out :)

[Dave]

Reading your post about her round off flic, it seems to me her problem is in the round off, if she has a harder snap down from the Round off she will be in the correct postion to fall into a back flic, however if she only has the problems doing standing flics she should try the technic " Sit, Fall, throw " its how i was taught all them years ago when i was young...... Anyways it sounds like you may have finally cracked it so keep up the good work....

Suppose i better do some work now as im at work, although im bored outta my head:(

[Jaye]

You are absolutely right Dave, she has a problem round-off that many coaches have tried to correct over the years (myself included in that!) She lands her round-offs very deep, with bent arms(!) and leaning forwards! As I have told her many times, if she doesn't get the round-off right she'll never get the flic right 'cos she's in the wrong position going into it. We've had her doing them off a springboard and she lands them great, but put her back on the ski run again and ........

But we're still working on the round-off (the 'snap'), if she can learn to 'stand it up' then she'll be on her way to a great flic, but in the meantime all I can do with her is to get her to transfer the position she's landing in from leaning forwards to backwards in an attempt to get a half decent flic out of it that actually travels instead of landing back on the spot!!!

As for the standing flic, last week 4 coaches and a gymnast were all trying to work out what she was doing wrong! The general opinion seems to be back down to her feet again ... she can do great standing flics on anything bouncy but when she's on a normal mat she's taking off flat footed. She's been given 'bouncing' exercises to try and get her ankles working! Hopefully between that and the orthotics we may see an improvement over the next couple of months.

We'll get there, I refuse to give up on her, she loves the sport and she works too hard to not give her my best as well (I've often said if her natural ability matched up to her enthusiasm, she'd be an Olympic gymnast!!)

[Dave]

I'm sure you will get there Jaye and KayJ :D

[Kelly Jordan]

I used to be a gymnast, and we used the tumble track to practise before we put things on the floor.
I trained at two places - Wrekin College and Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
I don't know how many of you have been there, but they have a brill tumble track and i wondered if that was like what they use for proper tumbling?!?!
Plus in the pit side, they had a fast track which was SO much fun!!!
Aaaah the memories!!!
Luv Kel!!!
-x-X-x-

[Lucy]

back to the flick...when KayJ is on the trampoline does she use her ankles at all (I hope this makes sense). Just thought it might help her on the floor if she gets used to pushing through her toes on the tramp.

[Jaye]

Hi Kelly ... KayJ did a session at Lilleshall a couple of years ago before a NW comp ... the really bouncy track (like a long black trampoline) which near the proper trampoline, is that what you call the fastrak then? KayJ was gutted because after a 3 hour session at Lilleshall she never got a chance to go on it!

And Lucy, I do know what you mean! That is one of the things we're ('we' being me and about 4 coaches!!) trying to make her do now is use her toes ... her coach is making her do lots of 'bounces' without bending her knees in an effort to make her think what her toes and ankles are doing - I really think now that once she gets her orthotics fitted (we're still waiting) to help her ankle and foot position, and if she keeps up the bouncing exercises she should make an improvement to her flics and even her leaps.

She's improved her flics over the last week or so even, I'll mention to her about trying them on the tramp bed and pushing through her toes ... we'll try anything to help. Honestly she has a brilliant floor routine - until she flics and then it all goes pear shaped and that's where her deductions are coming from!

[Kelly Jordan]

Yeah the 'long black trampoline' is the fast track!!!
It's really fun - such a pitty KayJ never got a go on it :(
Did they not use the pit side or something?!?!
I remember we once had a fun day at Lilleshall when i was six, and one of my coaches - a Russian gymnast, who left the Russian squad just to come and coach at our club - decided to pick me up by my ankles and throw me really high into the air!!!
The only thing he said to me, before i was catapulted and given a bird's eye view of the gym, was to squeeze my body tight!!!
It was SO scary and all i wanted to do was look down to see how far off the pits i was!!!
I will NEVER forget that!!!
Luv Kel!!!
-x-X-x-

[Jaye]

Hi Kel - that sounded scary!!!

When she went to Lilleshall she spent ages on beam, floor and vault, and when she went to the pit side she did loads of bar work and had a go on the trampolines, but she never got to the fastrak :( As you've probably gathered by now she has problems with her round-off flic and one of her team-mates who also was struggling with flics at the time was doing them brilliantly on the fastrak (although a couple of times she ended up doing round-off whip-back as her hands totally missed the track because of the bounce!!) They have one at Wigan too, but when I did my coaching course there KayJ was only about 5 or 6 and couldn't round-off flic then, so she missed out on that one too!

[Kelly Jordan]

That's a real shame :(
Lets just hope she gets to go to Lilleshall again sometime!!!
It's a kewl gym, but scary when you have to go there twice a week and to Wrekin College twice a week, with the beady eyes of Chris Still watching everyone!!!
Luv Kel!!!
-x-X-x-

[Lucy]

How are the flicks going? I used to have to do round off flat back onto a crash mat when I was learning round off flick, it was quite useful in learning to finish the round off before trying to flick off it (it was a long time ago so it doesn't always come back to me that quickly;) ).