It still shocks me when athletes who want help in working their advanced tumbling skills and passes lack the knowledge of basic body shapes.

I once had an athlete who was working her fulls ask me “What’s a hollow?”

*facepalm* ?

But you know what? It wasn’t her fault. I blame her coaches.

You see, without shapes all you have is a body that’s aimlessly thrown around in the air in an unpredictable fashion. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much what her full twist looked like.

Go figure.

So before we go any further, I want you to take a moment and do a simple thought exercise with me. Don’t worry, it’ll only take 30 seconds and I promise it won’t make your brain hurt. Just play along, as it will help illustrate my point.

Ready?

Ok, I want you to think about why you’re able to read and understand the words on this page.

Yes I realize it’s because you “know” English. But how do you know English? We both know that no one is born knowing English.

How did the process of knowing English start?

Do you even remember? Think about it for a second…

…

If you said “by learning the alphabets” then you are correct. Without knowing your ABC’s you can’t produce words. And if you can’t produce words, you can’t string them together into sentences. And without sentences you can’t have paragraphs, and without paragraphs you cannot express or convey complex thoughts and ideas to another person.

See how it all comes together?

Well guess what? Tumbling works the same way!

The 12 body shapes on this page are the ABC’s of tumbling

Every skill or trick that you want to get or include as part of your tumbling pass is built on fundamental body shapes.

And if  you don’t master your shapes, you’ll be spending years stuck in an endless loop of trying and failing, not knowing why all of your hard work isn’t paying off.

So to help you understand these fundamental shapes, I’ve produced 12 videos that will teach you not only why these shapes are important, but 4 tips on how to master each one.

Don’t Forget To Take The Interactive Shapes Knowledge Quiz!

At the end of this article, I’ve included a fun interactive quiz to test your knowledge of the 12 tumbling shapes. For example, do you know which of the 12 shapes are present in the back handspring? What about a punch front tuck? To know the answers, simply click on the skill and it will magically be revealed. If you’ve already watched the videos and are ready to start the quiz, simply click here.

Gym Owners: this is a great way to test the knowledge of your junior coaches!

Interactive Tumbling Shapes Quiz

How well do you know your tumbling skills? To test yourself, write down which of the 12 shapes are present in for each of the skills mentioned below. Really visualize what a perfect execution would look like. Once you have your answers, click the skill to find out if your answers match (Hint: They aren’t listed in any particular order).