Today I wanted to share a couple round off drills that I really like. Turning cartwheels into round offs isn’t always the easiest thing to do and lots can get lost along the way – these two drills are really nice progressions that I like.

This first video actually shows two drills. The first is a plain side cartwheel – and I think that this is a step that gets skipped over a lot. I am definitely guilty of it. But the side cartwheel serves great purpose. It helps isolate things like head and body position in the cartwheel – and is the key to making sure that the cartwheel can go in a straight line before we start changing directions. The second drill in here is a cartwheel step-in which is pretty common, but I very much like the set-up where they are falling backwards after doing it. I think it does a huge amount to build the muscle memory of 1) continued movement after the skill and 2) going back and not up. 3) keeping their hips flat

This second drill I also like for a number of reasons. 1) I like that it starts on the panel mat and goes DOWN. This gives her a little more time to get her feet underneath her and her chest up. 2) Going over the pac man really helps shape the round off and give a good reminder for having the chest in and 3) the fall at the end serves a similar purpose as it did in the drill before – reminding to keep the hips flat and that there will be continued motion (another skill) when the round off is finished.

This is another drill I really like. But if you are just starting out transitioning cartwheeels to round offs I would start with carthweel step-ins and then transition to round offs from a panel mat. One of the great things about this drill is it really helps you AND your gymnast identify if they are pushing through their shoulders – and/or feel any arch that’s in their round off progression.

Train hard!