Have you heard of Newton’s 3 laws of motion? In physics, they are a fundamental set of tools which help us understand how objects interact with each other and move through space.

And since tumbling is basically all physics anyway, it goes without saying that the better you understand these three laws, the better tumbler (or coach) you’ll become.

Now usually, these laws (along with their appropriate equations) are taught in all fundamental high school physics classes to solve problems like “calculate how far a cannon ball will travel if it’s shot out at a speed of 19m/s at an angle of 20 degrees above parallel.”

If this is starting to give you “math anxiety” then don’t worry because I’ve got some good news: number crunching is not required in our case.

I’ve taken Newton’s original 3 laws of motion, and modified them in such a way that athletes can practically use them to become better tumblers.

In fact, once you try out some of the exercises and really understand the 3 laws, you’ll be able to solve 90% your tumbling problems on your own!

By the way, if you don’t know who Sir Isaac Newton was Click Here to read his biography. This isn’t necessary to understand his laws, but he’s kind of a big deal… so I’d definitely read up on him.

Isaac Newton’s 3 Laws Of Motion

• Law #1: An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force
• Law #2: The force of an object is equal to its mass times the acceleration (F = ma)
• Law #3: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

If you already knew these 3 laws then congratulations — you’re ahead of the game. Just know that my goal is to keep things so simple, that a 10 year old can apply this information in a practical way.

And who knows? Maybe they’ll even develop a love of physics!

A coach can dream.

Anyways, now that we’ve gone over the original three laws of motion, let’s take a look at my modified versions.

The 3 Laws Of Tumbling

• Law #1: A tumbling pass in motion will stay in motion unless any of the 3 performance factors are violated
• Law #2: The force of a tumbling pass is dependant on the mass of the athlete times the speed at which they tumble
• Law #3: All training surfaces will give back exactly the same amount of force you put into them, but at an opposite angle

I hope that just by reading these laws, you can already start to figure out how they would apply, but let’s dive a little deeper into each law and see why they’re so useful.

Breaking Down Tumbling Law #1

“A tumbling pass in motion will stay in motion unless any of the 3 performance factors are violated”

What this law basically states is that when you start a tumbling pass (hopefully with lots of speed, power and tightness) it will continue to maintain at that speed, unless you screw up any of the 3 Performance Factors.

Wondering what these factors are? I bet you’re already familiar with them. Take a look below…

• Factor #1: Block/Connection Angles
• Factor #2: Body Shapes
• Factor #3: Body Tightness

Want see what happens when all 3 of these Performance Factors are applied perfectly?

Check out the tumbling pass below, performed by my friend Jordan Sugrim, who is a multiple time National Canadian Champion.

As you can see, her block angles are spot on — notice how she snaps her toes in during whips (positive angle) but at the end when she needs height for a big end skill, she gets her feet behind her hips (negative angle).

I’ve included a diagram below to help you understand this concept a little better (Note: this is from my front tuck guide, but the names of the angles are still the same when referencing back tumbling.)

Next, you’ll notice that Jordan’s body shapes are near perfect — her whips don’t look layouts and nor do they pike down. Her double salto at the end is in the “puck” position, and her full out in the middle of the pass has straight lines when coming out etc.

Finally, she obviously remains extremely tight throughout her pass. At this level of tumbling it’s rare to see limp legs and arms.

If Jordan had “violated” any of the 3 factors (such as missing her angles for whip connections) it would’ve thrown off her entire pass. Or in other words, her tumbling pass that was in motion would’ve no longer remained in motion — especially at the level that she’s competing at.

On simpler passes such as a RO BHS BT (Back Tuck), you CAN get away with small errors in angles, body shapes and tightness, but that’s when things look messy. In fact, if you’ve made major errors on any of the 3 Performance Factors, it’s simply not worth “pushing through” the pass till the end.

Safely put a stop to it, make your corrections and try again.

Here’s Why…

Your body gets used to the actions you take most often. So if you perform quality reps over and over again, that becomes the new norm. However, let’s say you keep “throwing” a tumbling pass with awkward body shapes and incorrect angles.

Sure, you might make it to your feet for now, but what happens when the skills get harder?

What will you do when you realize you need twice the negative angle out of your BHS for a big new trick you want to learn, and “muscling through it” is no longer an option?

At that point, there’s only one thing you CAN do: spend months breaking your bad habits, and re-learning the BHS entry into your pass.

Personally, that sounds like a huge waste of time.

This is why my philosophy of training is called Perfection Before Progression™ — it’s the absolute best way to learn tumbling. Not only does it follow these 3 laws, but it helps you learn skills correctly from the start, so you don’t have to re-learn them again in the future.

Practical Exercise For Law #1

It’s time to put this law into action! Get together with your teammates and record each other’s tumbling passes. Or better yet, go through the countless videos I’m sure you’ve taken and see which one of the three performance factors could be improved in order to provide the biggest benefit to the tumbling pass.

Example: If your layout is low, is it because your block angles are off? If so, then landing the BHS or RO with your feet behind (negative angle) is what you need to work on for the next few days. Or maybe it’s the shape of the layout. If that’s the case, write it down and work on shaping drills. Just pick one Performance Factor that will provide you with the biggest benefit. This exercise is harder than it looks because if you like to aim for perfection like I do, you’ll be itching to fix all three at once. But fight that urge. The best tumblers fix one correction at a time.

Breaking Down Tumbling Law #2

“The force of a tumbling pass is dependant on the mass of the athlete times the speed at which they tumble”

A few years back, I got a question from a fan who was wondering if they have to be skinny in order to be a good tumbler. Click Here to read that article.

The basic answer is that no, you don’t have to be skinny but your mass does have an impact on your tumbling pass and also, the health of your joints.

Practically speaking, law #2 basically states the following:

• If you’re a lighter athlete, then you’ll need to tumble at a much faster pace than your taller/larger friends in order to get the same height for your end skills (assuming all 3 Performance Factors are equal.)
• If you’re a heavier athlete then you can tumble at a slower pace and still generate adequate amount of force for your end skills (assuming all 3 performance factors are in check.)

Now you have to understand, I’m being technical here. Realistically speaking, every tumbler should be aiming to be as fast as possible. Also notice that I haven’t listed any specific weight categories. That’s because there’s no ideal weight. I’ve seen fantastic tumblers of all shape and sizes.

Your only goal should be to increase the amount of force (or power) going into your passes. And according to the law #2 there are only two ways to do this…

Option 1: Increase your bodyweight VIA muscle mass. It should be pretty obvious that for an athlete, excess body fat is essentially dead weight. So what you should be doing is following a conditioning program that is both challenging and consistent. Combine this with eating quality foods that will fuel your practices, burn fat and promote muscle growth and you’re on your way! The two resources that can help you accomplish this is The Cheer Diet (used by World level athletes) and my Cheer Conditioning Program.

Option 2: Start your passes fast, then get faster. While using the power hurdle or uphill tumbling is a very good idea and will make you work harder, don’t forget that it’s just as important to spend time working on passes where you are able to feel the speed. This is especially true for bigger end skills. For example, when an athlete is going for a layout double full out of a whip, I don’t want them starting from a power hurdle. I want them running into that pass as fast as they possibly can. Why? Because I know that will increase the amount of force. And when you apply lots of force (and/or power) to pass that has all 3 Performance Factors in check, you’re guaranteed to get a nice HIGH end skill. Physics is pretty reliable, as you’ll find out soon enough.

Practical Exercise For Law #2

Since you can’t increase or decrease your mass overnight, what you CAN do is work on the acceleration of your passes. A fun game you can play is called back handspring races. Basically, you and a friend start side by side and perform a power hurdle RO into 5 back handsprings (BHS).

Whoever finishes their 5 BHS first, is the winner and gets a point. Then you rotate and challenge another teammate. First person to get 7 points wins. This will teach you how to build up speed and acceleration. Then over the next few months as you build more muscle mass, the amount of force you’ll generate will sky-rocket! Don’t be surprised if you start doing tucks that go higher than your friend’s heads. For more fun tumbling games you can play with your friends, Click Here.

Breaking Down Tumbling Law #3

“All training surfaces will give back exactly the same amount of force you put into them, but at an opposite angle”

Whether you’re on sprung floor, dead floor, Tumble Trak, Air Trak, or a trampoline, you have to remember that the surface you’re on can’t magically give you power, speed or height.

What the 3rd law of Tumbling says, is that whatever you put into the surface will result in the exact same force coming back at you at the mirror opposite angle.

So if you have a weak and sloppy rebound during your punch front, don’t look at your coach with a confused expression, wondering why you went about as high as an ant hill.

The floor gave back exactly what you put in; it’s just following the laws of physics.

Whenever I explain this law to athletes, I almost always get this question: “If this is true, then how come when you have a negative angle (toes behind hips) out of a RO BHS you go up and not forwards? Shouldn’t the floor give back the exact same force opposite the angle you put into it?”

Well actually, the floor does try and push you forward. But you have you remember, there is so much horizontal momentum that it turns into height for our skills. Realistically, there’s also a bunch of biomechanical factors at play, but we’re going to keep it simple.

Take a look at one of the drills I use below.

So…

What did the Tumble Trak do to the athlete when she hit the negative angle (toes behind hips)?

It gave back the same force she applied, but at an angle which is opposite the one she put into it. By having her toes behind, she’s pushing down and left into the Tumble Trak from our point of view.

So in return, she was pushed up and to the right.

Make sense?

But what would happen if she did this out of RO BHS at full speed? She’d still be applying the same 2 forces from our point of view: down and left.

However, at that point the amount of downward force and left moving momentum is so great that instead of going up and forwards like in the video, she’d simply go up and continue going slightly left (where there would be a landing mat).

Basically, the force that would have pushed her to the right from our point of view gets cancelled out and turns into height. This is exactly how Jordan managed to go so high for her end skill (the tuck in full out) that you saw earlier.

Practical Exercise For Law #3

To understand this law, I simply want you to try the BHS forward rebound jump drill as shown in the video. Just remember though — if any of the 3 Performance Factors are compromised, it won’t work as well as it should. I suggest trying 10-15 reps on a soft surface such as a Tumble Trak, Air Trak or Trampoline to really get the feel.

If you don’t have access to any of those surfaces then don’t worry, it still works on floor. After all, it’s the law 🙂

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