Twisting...What You Need To Know

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Stretchsportguy

This thread has been created to benefit those who wish to understand the mechanics of twisting. I hope to summarize the different teaching methods and put them here all in one place so no one needs to search aimlessly for answers.

If you have favorable experiences teaching twisting then feel free to post your ideas and teaching methods, tips, and techniques here in this thread. Twisting is taught different ways and people learn twisting by discovering what works for them. By skimming through the various teaching methods a gymnast or coach may choose what they deem fit to try.

If you are confused by all the differing points of view then this is your chance to clarify the confusion by reading different ideas and asking questions. Habits may take root while learning to twist that for many gymnasts hinder their progress. This is a good place to look for answers and perhaps find a post that talks about the very same defect you are looking to correct. Enjoy...
 
Lets begin by stating that when you turn upside down during a twisting salto (flip, somersault, layout, etc.), you are spinning in the opposite direction. Not to the opposite shoulder, rather, yes you are twisting the other way yet remain turned toward the same shoulder. In other words if you started twisting to your left shoulder and are turning counterclockwise then when you get upside down you will now be twisting clockwise. You will remain turning into the same left shoulder, yet, your body will be spinning in the opposite direction clockwise.

To illustrate this please take a pencil with an eraser on the top and spin it counterclockwise. Continue to spin it in the same direction and turn the pencil upside down. The eraser is now spinning clockwise. The same experiment can be done with a doll which is more like a real person.

You may be one of those people who when they get spotted by a coach and he carries you through the full, it feels weird. It may be that you are not catching on that upside down you are twisting the other way. Not to the opposite shoulder but simply if the top was rotating counterclockwise then when you flip upside down the bottom is now rotating clockwise. When you are upside down, you are going the other way. It feels weird.
 
As this thread develops it is paramount that you understand and embrace the concept that upside down you are spinning the other way. ( as mentioned before you remain turned into the same shoulder you started with throughout the twisting). Direction and orientation is crucial for a profound sense, feeling, and cognizance (awareness, knowledge) of what is going on during a twisting flip (salto, somersault, layout, etc.)

I can't stress this enough. Please continue to flip and twist pencils, dolls, or any convenient prop that handles easily so you can visualize that direction reverses during a twisting flip even though you are still turning toward the same shoulder.

While static jump twists back to the feet, or any twisting that involves no flipping may help begin to give a feel for spinning and arm placement, it is not enough. The drills that are used for learning how to twist that involve no flipping are missing key features that change everything. For the sake of simplicity it is enough to understand that stationary twisting drills are one dimensional compared to adding a flip or part of a flip to the twisting.

Once you begin to add flip action to the twisting then everything changes. For one thing your direction of spin changes (even though you are still turning toward the same shoulder) unless you are doing something like a full twisting dive roll which virtually is only a 1/4 flip. Yes technically it is a half flip but not really. In the preflight of a full twisting dive roll you are twisting at approximately 1/4 of a salto or flip before your full twist opens for the dive roll. I hope to discuss this later in the thread...

For now again, if you twist without a flip then lets call this one dimensional. A twist that is also flipping is three dimensional. 3D. The difference is like comparing a flat photograph to the real thing. Everything changes when you are flipping. Its a good analogy. Not perfectly accurate but close enough for the sake of concept.

Another thing that changes when you start adding flip action to twisting is your orientation. In a nutshell for the sake of illustration, your view goes from right side up to upside down. Where your feet used to be now your head is there. And where your head used to be now your feet are there. At the same time you are also facing a different direction and this is dynamic or changing throughout the flip. The key to high caliber multi twisting while flipping that gives you superior control and technicality, is knowing where you are. Learning to know where you are means you need to know where the landmarks are. In other words you need to know where to look or where the ground is at all times. You may lose sight of the ground during a salto but you should know where the ground is and how to reference back to it in the air. Some focal points during twisting flips may be the wall out in front, the floor below, the ceiling, the side wall, the back wall, or even your own body. For some people, they don't actually focus on the landmarks but they do get a visual cue from those directions. Sometimes its a matter of keeping the thought of where the ground is in your mind as you are twisting and flipping. For some that do not rely on visual focal points use instead their sense of memory to judge their awareness in the air. In other words the knowledge of where the ground is or going to be is memorized and anticipated during the flipping and twisting.

The point is that you will benefit from an awareness of where you are in the air and/or knowing where the ground is or where it is going to be.

I hope to explain how to look for the visual cues and also know where the ground is during your twisting. This goes for half twisting flips as well as fulls and beyond. Both front twisting and back twisting.
 
Confusion seems to occur when a round-off is used to reference the direction of twisting. Many people who use a round-off to judge which way to spin their twists make a grievous error. The reason for this is that a right round-off is actually a left twisting maneuver at the beginning. To place the hands on the floor with the right hand first and the left hand out in front beyond the first hand means you have performed a quarter turn to the left shoulder. It is a left twist to get your hands on the floor for a right round-off.

To put this in another perspective a round-off somewhat simulates a barani. A barani is a front salto or flip with a half turn and subsequently you land facing the way you came same as a round-off. The key aspect to remember about this is that a right twisting person is using a left barani to cut a right round-off. A right sided round-off is simply in effect an interrupted left twisting barani where the hands contact the floor half way through. If the subject wishes to begin learning a right sided full twisting front layout, he/she would not mimic the right round-off to choose twisting direction or technique. Instead, the right barani would be used which spins to the right shoulder from beginning to end. The opposite of a right round-off. You may instead view a correct right sided twisting front salto initiated as a copy of a left round-off in mid air with the hands not making contact with the floor.

Please study this and remember it well. This concept is important when teaching back fulls. A back full is another term for back layout with a full twist. The second half of a right twisting back layout can be described as a left sided round-off with no hands. Or you can call it a right twisting barani. The cue would be wrap to the right and aireal left round-off. Or you could tell the subject to do a wrap to the right shoulder and flip into a right barani. Of course the subject would need to have a proficient right barani before working this method to learn a full twisting back salto.

Here is a summary of the confusion using a round-off to determine twisting direction incorrectly...It is normal that a left twisting maneuver is used to perform a round-off for a right twisting person. If a right sided gymnast is using a right round-off to determine twisting direction then the subject will be twisting the wrong way in a front salto. Or the wrong way in a back salto on the second half of the twist.

You can correctly tell a right twisting person to do an opposite side round-off for the second half of a full twisting salto. In other words you can tell a right twisting person to do a left round-off with no hands for the second half of a full twisting salto. A left round-off is actually a right twisting maneuver.
 
Drag...that's what I like to call certain forces that create twist. Think of drag as resistance. A brake pedal in a car creates drag if you will, and slows down the vehicle when you push on it. If an airplane lowers the landing gear then the wheels and the flaps of the air craft will protrude into the air stream and create drag thereby slowing down the air speed. If you are ice skating or roller skating and let one toe drag on the surface behind you as you are gliding forward then that foot dragging behind you is creating drag and slowing you down. The arms of a human body during a flip (salto) create drag in a similar manner and thereby result in mechanical forces that produce twisting. When a trampolinist is able to tap into these forces it is possible to produce twisting with subtle adjustments of the body that are almost imperceptible. A viewer cannot perceive how the twist was created. It is possible to change the drag of the human body which is flipping in the air without using the arms and using instead subtle head, shoulder, hand, hip, knee, etc. adjustments.

Drag creates twisting.

To understand the mechanical aspects of how the human body creates a twist while flipping in the air it is necessary to understand that spinning means there is an axis. Spinning occurs around an axis. An axis is the center of rotation of the object that is spinning. When a human body flips, there is a center of rotation created in the middle of the flipping. The flipping axis compared to the axis for twisting are opposite of each other. One is in one direction for flipping and the other is in the opposite direction for spinning/twisting.


As you begin to flip over in a salto, the longer you make your body in the air the slower it rotates. This means that if you put your arms over your head and begin to flip over then the drag of having your arms extended overhead will slow down the speed of your flip. The reverse is also true. The shorter you make your body in the air then the faster it can flip. The best way to use this mechanical principle to help give you faster rotation is to make yourself as long as possible and thereafter once you have begun to flip in the air, shorten your length by moving your arms down from above your head. By bringing your arms in from overhead you in effect shorten the length of your body and it speeds up. If you add tucking your legs along with bringing your arms in during the flip then you shorten the length of your body in the air even more. The flip can dramatically speed up by bringing both your arms and your legs into a tuck.

These principles also apply to twisting.

The more your arms are out to the sides at the beginning of a twist the faster you will spin when you bring them in. If you leave your arms out to the sides while spinning lets say like a spinning top saying you jump from the ground straight up with no flip, then you will spin slow. But if you bring your arms into your body after the spin starts, then you will spin much faster.

What happens if while you are flipping, you bring in one arm but not the other?

Yes, twisting is created. By removing one arm from the length of one side of the body while you are flipping in the air, you create drag on the opposite side of the body. The body becomes asymmetrical in the air. One side of the body is long due to the extended arm overhead and the other side of the body is shortened due to the arm that is pulling in.

This creates twist.

Again, I can't emphasize this enough, study these principles to gain a profound understanding of how twisting works. If you are not flipping and simply jump straight up and drop one arm leaving the other one up then yes you are creating asymmetry of the body. But you will not twist. In order to twist in the air without torque from the floor, you must be flipping to use these principles.

I say these principles because the twist can also be initiated while you are still in contact with the floor. Yes, it is possible to start the twisting action of a flip by torque gained at the beginning of a flip from twisting slightly from your feet against the floor. But for clarity, I wish to save these alternate principles for a later discussion.

I should also add that any asymmetry of the body can produce twisting in a salto. Asymmetry can be as subtle as lifting one shoulder up or lifting one hip higher than the other. The effect of asymmetry is the shortening of the length of one side of the body. If you do this while flipping then again it creates twisting. These methods are delicate and pertain more to trampolinists who are using great height to rotate as well as momentum gained from the trampoline itself. For example, hip and shoulder asymmetry may be observed on variations of double twisting triple flips and other aireals of great height. It is possible to observe a trampolinist perform a full twisting flip starting with the arms pressed against the sides of the body and remaining with the arms pressed in at the sides of the body. In this example the twist is performed with neck, shoulder, and hip asymmetry. No arms. At this time I wish to save this for a later discussion. For now lets concentrate on drag caused by the asymmetry of leaving one arm extended overhead and the other arm pulls in or drops down if you will.
...to be continued.
 
Drag...that's what I like to call certain forces that create twist. Think of drag as resistance. A brake pedal in a car creates drag if you will, and slows down the vehicle when you push on it. If an airplane lowers the landing gear then the wheels and the flaps of the air craft will protrude into the air stream and create drag thereby slowing down the air speed. If you are ice skating or roller skating and let one toe drag on the surface behind you as you are gliding forward then that foot dragging behind you is creating drag and slowing you down. The arms of a human body during a flip (salto) create drag in a similar manner and thereby result in mechanical forces that produce twisting. When a trampolinist is able to tap into these forces it is possible to produce twisting with subtle adjustments of the body that are almost imperceptible. A viewer cannot perceive how the twist was created. It is possible to change the drag of the human body which is flipping in the air without using the arms and using instead subtle head, shoulder, hand, hip, knee, etc. adjustments.

Drag creates twisting.

Wrong, unless you're skydiving. Gymnastics does not deal with speeds high enough for drag to be a significant factor. Put more simply, the effects of drag in gymnastics are negligible.

What causes the body to twist when one arm is brought up is not drag, but tilt.

By tilting the body very slightly off-axis, a small amount of power is "borrowed" from the flip and transferred to the twist. The advantage of this is that the gymnast can generate a lot of rotation, and yet be able to stop the twisting motion before landing.

A more detailed analysis can be found here.
 
Hi Geoffrey Taucer. Thank you so much for your response. The principles that I am explaining in my own terms are well documented. Much of the technology of twisting I mentioned in my own terms is explained by studies found in the search information that your associate bogwoppit referenced. If you look up the research regarding these principles then you will discover that the technical and esoteric terms are such that a layman may struggle to discern the meanings. For this reason I am translating the big words and technical explanations into common everyday language. I am also using analogies that are easier to understand.

The drag concept is vital to a profound understanding of twisting. It is the only way that twisting while rotating in mid air in a horizontal plane is initiated. These forces are strong and dominate the mechanics of twisting. In effect, they are everything.

A good illustration of this are the videos of astronauts who have a gymnastics or trampoline related background and perform weightless acrobatics while floating inside their capsules. Once the flipping is in motion the astronaut is able use the counter force of drag caused by shortening one side of the body to start twisting.

I want to emphasize that the tilting theory does not work in space. The body simply flips in the tilted angle and stays that way rotating crooked. Unless drag is used properly, then the flip will be sloppy and off center with more of a wobbling action in the air. No twisting.

In the mid 70's when the elite compulsory vault was a front handspring full twist, the universal teaching technique was to remove the right arm from overhead to the left hip if twisting left or lift the left arm to the right hip if twisting right. This is a classic illustration of the dominating principle of drag in a twisting salto.

My next post to come deals with how drag works and why it is such a powerful force in twisting. In a nutshell...as the body rotates in a salto (flip) and one side of the body is shortened by pulling one arm down from overhead, the long side of the body creates drag because that side wants to rotate slower than the side that is shortened. This asymmetrical imbalance of inertia causes the shortened side of the body to speed up immediately. The long side continues to try to rotate at the same speed it was going which is now slower than the side that was shortened. Hence you twist into the side that was shortened. The side that has the most drag lags behind immediately and the side that shortened speeds up. Its a bio mechanical principle that cannot be disputed. It is everything.

Once this asymmetrical position causes the flip to begin twisting then what remains is to bring in the two arms at the most efficient moment that will speed the twist up the most. If any force is negligible, it is the amount if any, of momentum that is transferred from the flip into the twist. Again, once an astronaut is twisting and flipping, the flipping does not slow down just because he started twisting. The momentum transfer from flip to twist is non existent or negligible. What is really going on is the change in inertia of the two sides of the body causing one side to speed up and the other side to slow down or stay at the same speed it was going.

You must grasp these concepts before we continue.

The direction of the twist depends on which side was shortened and which direction the flip is facing. Forward flips turn into the extended arm. Backward flips turn away from the extended arm. These concepts are crucial to a profound understanding of twisting mechanics.

I suggest anyone who has not studied biomechanics of twisting to please not make resolute judgements. Things are often not as they seem when twisting during flips. As already illustrated, the round-off can be a great example of misconstrued assumptions when used to judge twisting direction.
 
can someone help in how to drag this thread to the trash bin? and geoff, in laymans terms, your response was sufficient and correct.
 
Again dunno, this information is documented and bogwoppit himself referenced us to look up this technical documentation. Study the swinging ring videos you posted links to. Or study the trampoline links I posted in other threads. Watch any video of twisting and see if anything I have said is not evident. Watch which arm drops and which way the flip is facing (forward or backward). Yes it can be subtle but the principles are indeed in play.
 
Stretchsportguy wrote "bogwoppit himself referenced us to look up this technical documentation."

A few things to clear up. One Bogwoppit is not a him, and never has been!:p

I didn't reference anything, I merely gave a link to the huge list of twisting threads that are on the CB. So please don't "drag" my good name into the twisitng discussion.:cool:

The only twisting I am good at is that of lime into my beer.:D
 
"In the mid 70's when the elite compulsory vault was a front handspring full twist, the universal teaching technique was to remove the right arm from overhead to the left hip if twisting left or lift the left arm to the right hip if twisting right. This is a classic illustration of the dominating principle of drag in a twisting salto."

well, no. my recollection is that the compulsory vault was a yami then yami 1/2 and i can't remember right now due to my brain matter getting borrowed, tilted, and dragged. but, if you twisted right...you would 'drop' a 'straight' left arm to the left hip and thigh towards center. going past center causes you to borrow to much weight from the left causing too many deleterious consequences in technique and space i'm now certain you can't comprende.

coaches...please don't try the above at home...

next...

"A good illustration of this are the videos of astronauts who have a gymnastics or trampoline related background and perform weightless acrobatics while floating inside their capsules. Once the flipping is in motion the astronaut is able use the counter force of drag caused by shortening one side of the body to start twisting."

you know what? time for this thread to go before someone gets killed...or dragged. hope the above is obvious even to those that are "lay" people. what someone does in a NO gravity environment can't be compared to what someone does when gravity is present. OMG...my head hurts. i'm outta here.
 
The following is a post that was answered by Geoffrey Taucer...Geoffery refers to the very article that confirms much of what I am explaining.

How is twisting initiated?
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I am desperatly trying to learn how to do full twisting layouts and if I want to compete the level I would like to I have like 4 weeks to do it in. I used to be able to do them as a child but now I can't. I am trying the front first and I can do a half twist fine but when I go for the full I start twisting one way then twist back the other direction and I really do not understand why or have any idea how to correct it. My coaches are a little baffled by it too. Also on to my other question I have heard 3 different things from 3 different sources about how the actual twist should be intiated one coach told me you start the layout and then pull your head to the side towards your shoulder and look over it and that that should make you twist. I have another coach telling me that is all wrong and it should be done with your feet kind of by driving your heels upwards and then twisting and I saw a youtube video of a coach showing how it should be done starting with both arms up then dropping the one on the side you want to twist to then dropping the other to finish the twist. Right now I am so confused and frustrated! Please someone give me some ideas on how a twist should start and also some drills I can do. If it matters this is for trampoline not artistic gymnastics.
Thanks!

aerialriver 12-15-2009, 10:42 AM
Geoffrey Taucer
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There are several different ways to initiate a twist. The extent to which each should be used is something that coaches do not always agree on.
Here's my take on it:
There are two that you need to know about: asymmetrical arm movement and contact twisting.
Contact twisting. This essentially means getting your twist from the floor. For this to occur the shoulderst must begin twisting before the feet leave the floor. Many coaches say that this technique is incorrect, but in my opinion this isn't inherently true; it's just MUCH more difficult to use this technique without causing other problems, which is why most coaches don't teach twisting this way (at least not right off the bat).
The second method of twisting uses asymmetrical arm motion. The specifics of why this works are a bit more complicated (though there's a great article about it here CoachesInfo.com- sports science information for coaches - Learning How to Twist Fast ), but the basic idea is that by dropping one arm to the side faster/earlier than the other, the balance of the flip is offset slightly in such a way that some of your flip rotation turns into twist rotation. It's hard to get into the specifics of how to do this without being able to work with you in person.
Because this technique has less tendency to mess up the takeoff for the flip, this is generally the method preferred by most coaches. Using this technique, it is possible to generate twist rotation after your feet have left the floor.
So which would I teach? Well, I would focus primarily on using asymmetrical arm movement to generate the rotation after leaving the floor; however, I would keep in mind that it is almost certain that you will end up doing at least a little bit of a contact twist, and as long as you're not compromising your set technique to do so, that's ok.
 
My question then Geoffery Taucer: did you not understand the article that you recommended? If not, then I have explained the principles in everyday language using analogies that are easy to understand.
 
Now, now Stretch. I think GT understands twisting perfectly and you are being rude.

Thread locked.

GT can answer for himself when he logs on. Nobody else will be able to though!
 
Wow, looks like I missed a lot!

To set the record straight: drag refers to air resistance. This is not a matter of opinion; it's the definition of the word "drag." (Actually, drag can also refer to liquid resistance, but that's irrelevant to this discussion).

The effects of air resistance are negligible in the context of gymnastics. They'll come into play if you're skydiving, but gymnasts simply don't ever reach high enough speeds for drag to become relevent.

I think the term you were searching for was "moment of inertia." This and "drag" are two entirely different concepts.

Again, this is not a matter of opinion, this is what the terms actually mean and how the skills actually work.

EDIT: Lest I be accused of abusing moderatorship to make an argument without allowing a response, I'm reopening this thread. I have no objections to intelligent and respectful debate over technique; in fact, that's one of the main reasons I come to this forum in the first place.
 
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Using bogwoppit's suggestion that I search previous twisting threads, here is where I found and used a research article to back up and verify some of the information I am posting...There are several different ways to initiate a twist. The extent to which each should be used is something that coaches do not always agree on.

Here's my take on it:

There are two that you need to know about: asymmetrical arm movement and contact twisting.

Contact twisting. This essentially means getting your twist from the floor. For this to occur the shoulderst must begin twisting before the feet leave the floor. Many coaches say that this technique is incorrect, but in my opinion this isn't inherently true; it's just MUCH more difficult to use this technique without causing other problems, which is why most coaches don't teach twisting this way (at least not right off the bat).

The second method of twisting uses asymmetrical arm motion. The specifics of why this works are a bit more complicated (though there's a great article about it here... CoachesInfo.com- sports science information for coaches - Learning How to Twist Fast ), but the basic idea is that by dropping one arm to the side faster/earlier than the other, the balance of the flip is offset slightly in such a way that some of your flip rotation turns into twist rotation. It's hard to get into the specifics of how to do this without being able to work with you in person.
Because this technique has less tendency to mess up the takeoff for the flip, this is generally the method preferred by most coaches. Using this technique, it is possible to generate twist rotation after your feet have left the floor.

So which would I teach? Well, I would focus primarily on using asymmetrical arm movement to generate the rotation after leaving the floor; however, I would keep in mind that it is almost certain that you will end up doing at least a little bit of a contact twist, and as long as you're not compromising your set technique to do so, that's ok.

EDIT: Sorry, I should have read your posts better: this is mainly for back twisting. There are a couple tricks that may help you on front twisting; I'll expand on those later tonight when I have a bit more time
 
I assume you had a purpose in mind in copypasting my post?

EDIT: And I assume that this purpose somehow could not be accomplished by linking to the post, nor by copying only the text rather than including the formatting (as you did when you copypasted that exact same post earlier)?
 
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Sorry about the repeat post...I am trying to regroup after this thread was closed yesterday. I thought that some of my posts had not gone through. After I refreshed the page is when I realized what was contained in the complete thread. I am presently working on my next compositions and wish to post them as I finish them. I had no idea that coaches today do not comprehend the centrifugal forces at work in a flip. For some reason you guys seem to think that twisting is initiated by tilt alone and nothing else. Yes, tilt occurs. But tilt is a byproduct of lowering or raising one side of the body. It just happens. It is a consequence of moving one side of the body down or up, forward or back. The body tilts when you drop a shoulder or arm or tilt your head or lift one hip. But the dominant forces are centrifugal during a flip. Any discussion that omits centrifugal forces during a flip that twists is simply incomplete.
Coupled with shortening one side of the body by dropping an arm, or tilting your head, or dropping a shoulder, or lifting a hip at the beginning of a flip, tilt can be capitalized upon by using the tilt to snap out of it at the end either to land or to continue twisting and flipping.
Here is a note I was composing before I learned this thread was still open...

Concerning what I mean by drag...I explained this clearly. I gave several parallels in order to describe what I meant by it. It is a term I chose myself for the sake of clarity and illustration. I certainly did not mean airplane drag of the wind in and of itself. I am choosing this word to replace more technical terms. I chose the word drag but I could have chosen governer, or pivot point, or stop sign, or parachute, or anything that hints at holding something back on one side of an axis such as an extended arm when someone is flipping and the other arm is removed.

The reason that I explained about the astronauts doing this in outer space is because wind is not a factor. This has nothing to do with wind. To infer that I meant wind I say, duh.

If this bio-mechanical action is possible in weightlessness with no wind, then obviously there must be something to it. If it causes twisting in weightlessness, then it certainly will work with gravity. In weightlessness there is no force there to create twisting. Changing a body angle only serves to put you in a sideways or shy of a sideways position and you start flipping at angles straight around without twisting. You need a change of inertia to start twisting. That change can occur or come from playing with the centrifugal forces that occur when you are flipping. One way to influence the centrifugal forces when you are flipping is by using what holds you back on one side that causes you to spin to the other side. If one arm is overhead for a moment when you drop the other arm, shoulder, head, hip, etc., then that side with the arm up acts as an anchor. The other shoulder jets forward on the side that the arm lowered and circles around the shoulder with the arm up. The forces that make this happen are related to centrifugal forces. Centrifugal forces work even in outer space. And they also work in the presence of gravity.

The arm that remains overhead in a twisting flip acts in a fashion like a break pad of a car. Or its like grabbing the pole of a playground swing set overhead with one hand as you use it to swing from one arm around it. This is another possible analogy that some people may or may not be able to relate to. I gave several. Including mentioning the drag of the flaps and wheels of an air plane. The arm that remains overhead holds the body steady on that side. The dropped arm pitches the shoulder on that side forward if flipping forward. And pitches it backward if you are flipping backward. By shortening the radius of the body on one side, the centrifugal forces speed up that side of the body. The other shoulder with the arm overhead wants to stay where it is. Centrifugal forces are at work. While flipping, the short side of the body tries to speed up around the longer axis of the extended arm. Its a bio-mechanical principle which can be used to initiate twisting.

There are many ways to affect the efficiency of this phenomenon. Such as how fast and when and at what angle to you bring down the arm. You can also physically twist or tilt the upper torso and turn the head. If you guys would have let me continue earlier I would have explained about the figure 8 patterns created by these maneuvers. As you flip and twist and return to the place you started, a figure 8 is performed in the air with many parts of the body including the head if it turns and tilts. This is the effect of having a tilt in the first place. The finish is in the middle of the figure 8.

Watch videos that show twisting in slow motion. When a drop or pull down of an arm is used see if I am wrong. The side that the arm pulls down first is the shoulder that heads out first like a horse race trying to beat the other shoulder to the finish line. Forward flips mean the rotation is into the extended arm. Backward flips mean the rotation or spin is away from the extended arm.
Also, keep in mind that the principles of centrifugal forces and tilt of the body are used in conjunction with each other and can be generated with subtle adjustments at more advanced levels of skill. Also, in mid air the legs and hips can be used instead of or in addition to the upper body to affect centrifugal forces. Yes, you can initiate twisting just as easily with the lower body once you are airborne. This is another aspect of twisting that needs to be discussed.
To be continued...
 

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