How to Do Advanced Tumbling in Cheerleading

There is certain skill set needed to be a member of an advanced cheerleading squad. To participate on highly-ranked, competitive teams, you must be able to perform gymnastics. Practice advanced tumbling if you would like to cheer for high school, competitive or college squads.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Perfect a back handspring, sometimes mistaken for a backflip. Jumping from 2 feet, spring backwards to 2 hands and back to your feet.
2. Do a back tuck. This is a backflip without hands, landing on 2 feet again. The arms and legs are tucked close to the body. A back tuck can be done from a standing position or after a round-off.
3. Learn to do a layout. Keep the body straight while flipping back. Once the head is back, bring arms firmly to the body to create the momentum to bring the entire body over. The idea of a layout is to have no bending at the hips or knees.
4. Try a full twist. A full twist is done the same way as a layout. Once the head is back, the tumbler needs to look to one side to turn the body mid-air. The body turns 360 degrees so that the tumbler ends up the same direction in which she started. This is the most challenging of the flips listed, and takes an enormous amount of height in jumps to accomplish.
5. Try a half twist as well. A half twist is done in the same way as the full twist, only there is only a 180 degree twist. The tumbler ends facing the opposite way as he began.