Acrobatics and Tumbling for Speed-Strength Sports

Gymnastic skills such as tumbling are an important part of athletic skills in many sports. In track and field top pole vaulters practice tumbling as a part of their workouts, for example, Yelena Isinbaeva and Svetlana Feofanova. Well-trained combat sports athletes can do somersaults and handsprings too. A fine sense of one's position in space and not being afraid to turn in the air comes handy in defeating opponent's grappling throws and armlocks. In striking martial arts, like kung-fu, fighters show spectacular evasions based on gymnastic or acrobatic skills.

Would you like to learn tumbling skills such as flips (somersaults) and flic flacs (back handsprings) and more? Would you like to know how to learn and teach those skills safely and fast? Then order our instructional DVD Acrobatic Tumbling: From Rolls to Handsprings and Somersaults!

Would you like to see an actual workout for the general public (not for acrobats)? We have a DVD (titled Acrobatics for Everybody) with such a workout, run by coach Obrebski and his assistant coach Pawel Grzybczyk—expert instructors of acrobatics. We released this workout on DVD because it shows average young people, not especially talented, from late teens to twenties or thirties, learning tumbling skills. You can see how those people learn front and back somersaults, back handsprings, flying cartwheels, etc., quickly and with no fear—thanks to teaching methods of coaches Obrebski and Grzybczyk.

Below you can see sample teaching sequences from that workout, featured on the DVD Acrobatics for Everybody.

Keep in mind that these clips are only excerpts from a typical workout, so do not expect them to show all the learning steps for the presented skills. To see all the learning steps, view the DVD Acrobatic Tumbling: From Rolls to Handsprings and Somersaults.

No broadband? You can download these clips in WMV format (Windows Media Player):

Aerial cartwheel (aerialcartwheel.wmv, 2.98MB), Butterfly (butterfly.wmv, 3.01MB),

Back handspring (backhandspring.wmv, 3.68MB), Front somersault (frontsomersault.wmv, 1.50MB)

Click the file name to save/download and play. In case of difficulties right click on the link and choose “Save Target As” and after saving open the file in Windows Media Player or in any player that opens WMV files.

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I (Thomas Kurz, president of Stadion Publishing Company) had observed workouts run by various acrobatic and gymnastic instructors. After observing a couple of workouts run by coach Obrebski I decided to produce our video on acrobatic tumbling with him. I  had seen how well he teaches, and what's more important, I had seen who he teaches—some of his students were in their 50s. He teaches fast: I have seen a 20-year-old with no gymnastic background learn basic tumbling, from front handspring to back somersault, in three months (two-three 90 min workouts per week). Coach Obrebski teaches at the acrobatic club DKS Targówek in Warsaw, Poland. This club has won national championships 24 times, and its members bring medals from European and World Championships. The club has about 150 members who compete but it also offers classes for the general public, both youth and adults. (The 20-year-old I mentioned earlier attends such classes for the general public.) 

Here is what coach Obrebski and coach Grzybczyk say themselves about the pace of learning such crucial techniques as back somersault or back handspring (flic flac):

“Active people, who participate in some systematic physical training, can perform those techniques without assistance after a few dozen assisted repetitions. People less fit may need a few hundred assisted repetitions before doing these techniques alone.

“Acrobatics are a sport for everybody. Both youth and adults can do it. From our experience we know that everyone can learn such techniques as somersaults and handsprings. The time required varies depending on an individual but 95% of our students learn those skills well under one year. Rarely someone needs more than one year of training to accomplish this.

“When learning acrobatics students are afraid of bad falls. Well-conducted workouts, with correctly selected exercises and competent instruction and spotting dispels those fears and lets students learn quickly. Special apparatus installed in the gym further contributes to safety and effectiveness of learning.”

To learn (or to teach) flips, flic flacs, and more—safely and quickly—order Acrobatic Tumbling: From Rolls to Handsprings and Somersaults.

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