- Moderator
- #1
Over the last couple seasons, I've found myself putting more and more emphasis on distance and less on height, particularly for front tumbling. For their front saltos, whether from a punch or from FHS, I train them to go long, and only shoot for about shoulder height. The result is that connections (ie front tuck-front tuck, etc) are coming extremely easily to them. My level 5/6s can do forwards connections better than any other group I've ever coached.
So I have two questions for coaches:
1) When do you like to emphasize maintaining momentum (ie distance) and when do you like to emphasize height in front tumbling?
2) What about back tumbling? A long, comparatively low back 1/2 or 3/2 is obviously better for punching another skill out, but worse for 1/1s, 2/1s, and double backs (also, a simple tuck/pike/layout looks much nicer when done high and floaty). So do you differentiate between the two approaches when teaching kids, and if so, when and how?
So I have two questions for coaches:
1) When do you like to emphasize maintaining momentum (ie distance) and when do you like to emphasize height in front tumbling?
2) What about back tumbling? A long, comparatively low back 1/2 or 3/2 is obviously better for punching another skill out, but worse for 1/1s, 2/1s, and double backs (also, a simple tuck/pike/layout looks much nicer when done high and floaty). So do you differentiate between the two approaches when teaching kids, and if so, when and how?