Leading leg while tumbling

[juststartingout]

I'm clueless when it comes to gymnastics so I was wondering if it matters what leg a child uses to lead in gymnastics. More specifically my 5yo learned her roundoff, cartwheel, and backwalkover a year ago from watching her older sister who is an all star cheerleader. She leads in her cartwheel with her right foot and when she does her backwalkover her right foot is out in front. She just joined gymnastics about 2 months ago and they are not working on backwalkovers in her class yet but I'm sure they will soon. In cheer you can't lead both on the same foot because when you do a combination pass you end your cartwheel with your left foot out so you need to go back into the walkover with the left foot out or learn to cartwheel on the opposite foot. Is this how it is in gymnastics, will she need that for combination passes? Should she start working on learning the cartwheel or walkover on the left leg. If so which one do you think is easier to learn to do on the opposite foot?

 

[gymgurl]

Well, I do everything left foot first and am a level 6 gymnast and I have never had issues with it. For cartwheel backwalkover, you can just swing your leg through from behind its not a huge problem in fact its normal to do it all on the same leg

 

[Kiwi]

It sounds normal to me. My DD leads with her left leg into cartwheels and handstands, and she lifts her left leg up to go into BWO. Her new floor routine has cartwheel connected to BWO and they just swing their leg through like gymgurl described (although she can't actually do it properly yet!) It makes sense to do it this way, as when you start to do FWO and tic-toc you'll still be leading with your preferred leg.

 

[Brandon]

Some gymnasts use their left leg, some use their right. It doesn't matter which you use, the result is all the same. But all gymnasts have a preference. She'll have to figure out which one it's more comfortable for her to lead with on her own. After that, it's usually a good idea to stick to using that leg.

 

[juststartingout]

Thanks gymnastics tumbling is so different then my other daughters cheer tumbling.

 

[Deanna]

I would imagine it's the same across the board...not positive though. But here, it doesn't matter what leg they lead with..as long as they ALWAYS lead with that leg. No switching back and forth.