Tumbling at older age

I hope this helps people to not feel defeated at learning to tumble at older age because there are at least 200 people who are in the same boat .

Allstar cheerleading is getting bigger every year in the Uk it’s in a lot of schools and spreading like wild fire. As the sport is spreading, judges are expecting better technique and skills to be perform, properly. No longer can a squad before a lib that wobbles then fall or have one person perform all the tumble skills.  Now everyone is expected to do a group tumble and when they say that they mean walkover or a backhand spring. Gone are the days of the cartwheel or round off. I found out about cheerleading when I went to university and when I perform my round of they were impressed.

We never really pushed our tumble skills as a squad because at the time, everyone at competition, tumble skills were at the same level, cartwheels and round offs and the occasional person would perform, round off back handspring or a tuck and the crowd would go crazy.   Being on a university squad and  competing at university comp your tumbles in general are lacking  at least when I went to university .   Finally you decided to join no university squad your Cartwheel and Round off are basic skills that everyone has perfected. Then you start doing drills that you never done before and you can’t do them . You get frustrated because you want to keep up with your squad but you don’t have the  good foundation.

So you attend your local tumble classes and realise how far you have to go. The basic tumble skills you think you have perfected are in correct and your flexibility is not what it should be.  They have to teach you from scratch like their peewees.  But none of this matters you have your goal and although it may be further away then you though once you get this foundation I bet everything will improve and these are just the skills that are needed so we can moan about it or suck it up and bear the storm because once we get our tumble foundation we will be unstoppable in the cheer world and that’s what we all want to spread the cheer name so it get the respect it deserves.

I hope this helps people to not feel defeated about learning to tumble at an older age because there are many people who are learning to tumble  and so many in the cheer community who are will to help

Basic tumble skills I think you should master to improve your all around tumble skills.

Forward roll: most people, over look forward roll which leads to bad technique. It also helps you to learn momentum and engaging all your muscles.

Bridge: make sure you have good flexibility and strength in your shoulder and back

Handstand: is an essential skill because it is used in so many more advanced tumbles

Love from cheer from head to toe