So as coaches we’re always giving our athletes corrections. And if you’re anything like me, you try and word things differently from time to time because you never know what will “click” with an athlete.

I can’t recall the number of times I’ve given an athlete the exact same correction, but changed the wording ever so slightly and BOOM, magic happens.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this as well.

And you end up thinking to yourself… “Why the hell did it work when I said that that way, but when I said it the other way, they looked at me like I was speaking in Latin?!”

It can become a hair pulling experience. Ahem, as you can clearly see.

But there are some corrections that work better when you apply the rule of repetition. I call these sound bites, I believe that you should try to (metaphorically) burn them into the brains of your athletes so they’ll never forget.

Below are X of the best ones that I use and have stumbled across over the years. I hope they serve you well.

“Drills pay the bills”

I’ve been using this forever, and would love to claim credit to it, but something tells me there are old school tumbling and gymnastics coaches that have been using it far longer than I. Either way, the reason I like it, is because it emphasizes that a skill can be broken into pieces, and each piece needs to be worked on over and over.

“Double chin for the win”

I heard about this one from Dave Tilley from Shift Movement Science (Sidenote: He’s a Great gymnastics coach with lots of knowledge and you should definitely check out his blog).

As for the sound bite, why does it work so well? Because as of the writing of this article (mid 2016), athletes are spending a ridiculous amount of time SnapChatting each other their double chins and other weird faces.

Trust me, every female cheerleader, power tumbler of gymnast has basically mastered cervical spine flexion. It’s just a matter of explaining it to them in the right way during their tumbling pass… and this sound bite gives them that ever crucial “AHA” moment.

It’s useful for practically every  tumbling skill except for Front/Back Walkovers and Whip Backs.

“Do it nice, or you gotta do it twice”

This is something I came up with to help my athletes embrace the perfection before progression philosophy. It goes hand-in-hand with the concept that it’s not just practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice which makes perfect.

Think about it, you probably know (or have heard of) a few athletes who are still working on that one tumbling skill, two years later. And it’s not for a lack of trying either. I’m sure they’re putting in their hours of training. But the problem is, the human brain doesn’t know (or understand) proper body shapes and positions in tumbling.

It simply bolsters the motor-pattern based on the reps which an athlete performs most often, and with active intent.

So if an athlete does 300 rachet-looking layouts, then they will now become the new rachet layout master of the world. The quality and execution of a skill matters. This is scientifically proven. So make sure that when you tell your athletes to do 10 reps of a tuck, that it only counts if the tuck is near-perfect. This means if it takes them 30 attempts to nail that 10, then so be it.

“You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe” – Charles Poliquin

I generally deploy this quote when I’m doing tumbling clinics for coaches, more than when I’m dealing with athletes.

Now if you don’t know who Charles is, then let me give you a quick run down: He’s one of the most successful and respected strength coaches in the world and has helped get more Olympians achieve podium finishes than anyone I know. Basically, he knows what he’s talking about.

“Wait, so what exactly IS he talking about with all this cannon and canoe business?”, you might be thinking.

What Charles is referring to, is the fact that you cannot ask an athlete to perform something significant (such as fire a large cannon) without first building the solid foundation based on strength (the canoe).

Or in our lingo, don’t ask an athlete who can’t manage to execute a solid handstand to start working back handsprings. Or to start working fulls when their tumbling pass is slower than a snail stuck in a pile of mud and has the worst layout in the world.

“Show me your hershey kisses!”

If you listened to episode 3 of my tumbling podcast, we discussed the many ways you can fix bent arms in a back handspring along with how to keep an athlete safe. Well one of the major ways to keep them safe is to force internal shoulder rotation, which requires the hands be turned in (fingers almost facing each other).

Trouble is, asking young children to show you “internal rotation” will only result in looks of confusion. Thankfully we can piggy-back off the decades of marketing propaganda that the Hershey chocolate company has been bombarding the kids with, and ask them to make the ever-famous Hershey Kisses chocolate shape during their BHS.

The only down side is that I’ve yet to meet an athlete that didn’t get the craving for some chocolate after they adopted this little sound bite. But you know what? I’ll take it 🙂

“Two tickets to the armpit show”

This quote was inspired by bodybuilders who like to show off their biceps and refer it to the GUN show. Basically, when they’re setting for any end skill (tucks, pikes, layouts etc) I want them thinking about showing off their arm pits to the audience.

This works miles better than asking them to “set” for the millionth time. And the good news is that even if they have bent arms during the set but manage to “show off their armpits”, they’ll get that “lift” from the shoulders, allowing their skill to achieve an extra few inches of height.

And let’s face it, that’s really what we’re after here.

So even if they screw up the technical straight arm set, you can still achieve 50% of the result. And there are some training sessions where I’ll happily take 50% of the result instead of zero. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

“Tumbling has no squiggly lines!”

Again, I use this more so in my clinics when I’m demonstrating proper body positions, but it’s just as useful for athletes of nearly all ages.

Tumbling requires the build up and conservation of momentum, and anytime there is a slight bend in the body, or and off-angle limb that appears, the pass will lose momentum and power.

Get used to explaining and demonstrating all drills and body positions with the concept of straight lights. Of course, there will be exceptions such as the extension of the lower back in skills such as handsprings, walkovers, whips etc.

And while that’s ok in the AIR, it’s not ok during the connection with the floor, so be sure to explain that little caveat to the athletes… or they WILL call you out on it. Ask me how I know 😛

“Your head is the body’s GPS system” – Debbie Love

There is a reason why I focus so much on the proper head and chin position during skills with my athletes – where the head goes, the body will follow.

A great demonstration of this that I’ll never forget, was when I was in a martial arts class many years ago, and the instructor was going over a few self-defense takedowns. He literally grabbed one of the students’ head with both hands and pushed it to the side while asking him to resist. Sure enough, the student either had to move along where the head was going, or he would end up on the ground.

Same thing applies in tumbling. An athlete trying to do a layout full twist in the left direction will have an impossible time if they they throw their head back while looking to the right. The body will either stop rotating, the layout alignment will break, or a million other things will most likely go wrong.

“It’s a Back HANDspring not HEADspring”

One of the most common errors that athletes make while performing a BHS is they lead with their heads back instead of arms. And what you lead with, is what you’ll most likely land on.

This happens all too often. To see what I mean, take a look THIS video and pay careful attention to the head position of every athlete that’s performing the skill.

Please note that I’m not picking on these kids. I don’t know them or the gym it was filmed at. It’s simply a good example of some of the corrections these kids should be working on.

Remember: it’s only normal for beginner athletes to want to look where they’re going. Tumbling isn’t natural. That’s why we train the heck out of it. I would also combine this sound bite with a drill like the one you’ll see below to help them understand what a full extension of the arms feels like.

Found These Sound Bites Useful? Don’t Forget To Share!

Also, if you have your own sound bites that you use which makes coaching tumbling easier, be sure to drop them in the comment section below! I’m constantly on the look out for new ones!