Front tumbling fear... how can I fix it?

[gymjean]

Hi!

I can do a lot of things in gym, but on the trampoline I can not do a front sault! I
have a fear of doing it and my coach has been trying to help me,
but I cant bring myself to do it, if i ever do, its so close to the ground I don't make it halfway round!
Please help!

Thankyou!

 

[jenniffir]

I had this problem as well. I was scared of having to much power and over rotating (which i had done in the past onto my face) so i skipped tramp training and went to the floor in all tumbling wise. I can do a front off of the tramp and a FHS into a front off the tramp as well but that is the extent of my tramp tumbling But i think you just need to get comfortable with the tramp, power, and timing since it is a much different surface than the floor.

 

[Coach.Simon]

From your description it sounds like you're not setting.

Basically this means that as you take off for your salto, you're dropping your shoulders and/or throwing your arms up and forward way to early. This results in the salto being very low to the ground, as proper technique is to "Set up" and then, after being fully airborne and upright, initiating your rotation (throwing the arms etc.)

There are ALOT of good drills for helping with this, in fact I just had to create a thread of my own to ask for ideas on how to fix this. However a basic drill that might help....

You'll need a minitramp or a tumbletrack. At the end, stack up resi/crash mats till its about your shoulder or chest height (if you're using a tumbletrack, head height if you're doing this drill off of a mini), then from a run, do a punch and do a front pike to your bottom (You'll land on top of the mats, take off from the minitramp or the tumbletrack.) try to land with your torso upright.

The logic behind this drill is if you can land sitting upright, when the mats are gone rotation and gravity would have pulled you back down to your feet. It forces you to set, because if you start your rotation before setting, you will faceplant the crash mats/resi pit (which doesn't feel good.)

For reference, here's the other thread.
Link Removed
Good luck