Cartwheels

[AndromedaAiken]

Hi guys,

Went to my third class today and because adults in the adult class level is waaay higher than mine, they do alot more complex stuff that I've never done before. However, I have learnt cartwheels although it's like...do it yourself and see how it goes. I've got two questions.

1. How do you cartwheel without feeling giddy?

2. How do you cartwheel in a straight line? As I ultimately want to have a beam routine, I feel learning to cartwheel in a straight line is absolutely essential.

Also, I pulled my right hip flexor muscle whilst doing the cartwheels. My coach recommends resting it for a day and then light massaging it. Does anyone know any stretches to help this? Thankss!!!

 

[LittleLady]

That's a cute question. Feeling "giddy"? It will just take time to get used to being upside down. For cartwheels, you need some experience kicking up to a handstand. Do you do many handstands? A fair amount of hip and leg flexibility is also needed. This may be why you pulled your hip flexor. A cartwheel is going through a handstand position sideways with the legs spread wide apart. Practice some handstands with your back against a wall with your legs spread wide. Once you get used to it, your orientation upside down doing a cartwheel in a line should improve. Keep on trying and don't be impatient. It will come. I hope your hip heals quickly. Rest, ice and slowly do the hip stretch!

 

[AndromedaAiken]

Hey thanks. It's actually alot better today but the rest of the aches are starting to come in . Glutes, triceps (what causes triceps pain?), abs/(maybe core?) lol. It's good pain though!

 

[BlairBob]

Cartwheels will aggravate a lot of the muscles in the leg, if you haven't done them a lot or in awhile. Either the kicking will stretch it out or the landing will put force on it a weird way ( since as a beginner you're most likely landing the CW weird ).

Cartwheeling in a straight line. Things to think about.

-Do not step over your center line ( belly button ) with your front leg over the rear ( crossing your leg over ). This makes cartwheels funky and many gymnasts do this until their optional years. As well the back leg cannot be crossed over the center line.

-Deep Lunge. When I mean deep lunge, I mean get your ribs on your forward leg quad. This means your head should roughly be over your front knee and foot rather than just over your hips. This may be hard to get into if your hip flexibility is poor and may be hard to kick out of if you are weak.

-Body is straight from heel to wrist at a 45 degree angle below vertical/above horizontal. Chin is not tucked in, shoulders are open to 180 ideally, Ears are covered, Head is not leaning back, Eyes are looking towards wrists but again not tilting the head back.

-Initiate the rear kicking as high to vertical as possible. Keep the belly button and hips forward and try not to turn them out to the side early. First hand is placed on the line, DON'T DROP THE SHOULDER TO PUT THE HAND DOWN but keep the shoulder as open as possible.

-First hand should be placed fingers out to side. Second hand should be turned with the fingers facing the direction you came from ( T-hand action ). If you're doing this on floor for round-off, I generally allow and prefer for them to have the 2nd hand placed a shoulder width distance off the line. This allows the hips to come over. Some coaches will disagree with the T-hand or hand off the line.

-Remember to keep the body like a teeter totter. Don't break that line from the heel to the wrist. If one part goes up, the other must come down and vice-versa.

-Don't let the arms drop from those ears.

-Some people also let their hips go offline and sort of twist throwing their arm/hip to center to try to gain some more momentum. This is prevalent in the side cartwheel. It will also drive me crazy. A cartwheel is driven by the momentum of the legs kicking over and the hands pushing off the surface.

-For that tightness, get some deep massage whether it's on a foam roller, a tennis or baseball, your SO or yourself or a masseuse.

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For the hip flexor. Get into a deep lunge on your knee and lean those hips forward until the angle from one knee to the other gets as close to 180 as possible.

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[AndromedaAiken]

Thank you! I will try to remember to do these things in my next class!