Front Walkovers...

[d0nut_l0ver]

Okay, I have my front walkover but it's not very pretty. I'm always bending my legs the whole time, except at the end when I straighten the one that steps in front of the base leg. I'm starting to get the hang of straightening my legs at the beginning, but it feels weird!

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is... when should I bend the base leg slightly? I know, you're not supposed to bend it a lot, but it's kind of impossible to do a front walkover without bending it at all. The reason my front walkover is bad is because I either have it bent at the beginning (too early) or I bend it too late and fall on my back.

So, what is the estimated time you should bend that leg? Like, when it's straight up in the air, or when it's a little over, or a little before it's straight up in the air...

Thanks!

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

As you get more flexible and comfortable with the skill, you should barely have to bend your legs at all. Your base leg bends a little to accommodate inflexibility just about when it hits the floor. It shouldn't have to bend at all except when you land on it, so I'm a little confused by you asking "straight up in the air" and stuff. I drew you a diagram:


Make sure to keep your eyes on your hands the whole way, which will make standing up a lot easier.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

how in the heck do you guys do this? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[d0nut_l0ver]

As you get more flexible and comfortable with the skill, you should barely have to bend your legs at all. Your base leg bends a little to accommodate inflexibility just about when it hits the floor. It shouldn't have to bend at all except when you land on it, so I'm a little confused by you asking "straight up in the air" and stuff. I drew you a diagram:
View attachment 3138

Make sure to keep your eyes on your hands the whole way, which will make standing up a lot easier.

Thank you! When I said "straight up in the air," I meant whenever you're only on your hands and your base leg is pointing at the ceiling. Like you're in a handstand, but your other leg isn't all the way up... get it? It's my bad habit, I always do it that way... But thanks again!

 

[d0nut_l0ver]

how in the heck do you guys do this? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you mean, how my gym teaches this to me... well they don't really. My bad habit is to bend my base leg early so then it's just really ugly.

 

[AmandaLynn]

I think he meant the stick images.

Do you actually draw those out?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yes, amandalyynn ^^^^^^^^^^^^^, and then how in the heck to you post them up?

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Well, I drew them on MS Paint. I have a tablet pen and a lot of practice drawing! You can put pictures in your post by clicking the "insert image" button which looks like a little landscape drawing. It will let you upload either from your computer or the web, but it wouldn't upload from my computer, so I put it on imgur.com and used that link.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yep, like i understood a thing you just said. you youngens are incredible with this stuff.

 

[Liv...]

I also find some girls bend there leg to get their leg down faster to take their arms off faster so they're almost doing a bad handspring (if this makes any sense) or because they have no control or flex. Work your back flex as well as your strength to gain control. You should be able to do an absolutely perfect walkover when you can do a tic toc to your toes and lift without jumping at all.