I will try to give some background for you: My son is 5 - he will be 6 in May. He has had PT for Gross Motor Delays and Motor PLanning issues since just before turning 3. He has shown some imporvement but has some residual issues - he still does not go down stairs alternating feet and I discovered at Thursday's Karate class that he can not tumble - do a somersault. AT ALL. It just broke my heart to watch him struggle so hard - ultimately the instructor had to flip him - it was heart wrenching. My question is - does anyone have any ideas how I can help him with this at home? Aside from the obvious practicing - anything else that can be done that might make it easier for him - he is such a willing spirit - I hate to see him struggle like that when he makes such a huge effort. Oh - and the reason I don't ask his PT is that the one he has this year is a collossal dope who insists that ds is at the same level as his peers. The guy is a jerk. I don't want to even try to talk to him for fear I might go off on him. I really feel he has failed my son. :bang: Thanks for any ideas you may have.
aww, i take gymnastics, and i am into the whole flipping thing, so i'll try and give as much help as possible. presumably he is trying a front summi ?? ok, heres a video you can download - ftp://tricks:tricks@67.18.198.27/3run/FrontFlip.wmv right click , save target as, save it wherever you want and watch, that helped me a lot. Front flip is a hard move, you need a lot of height and need to have body awareness, because in forwards tumbling you cannot see where you are going to land. Perhaps buying a trampoline (bit expensive ) or crash mats (also expensive) could help him, but using an old (thick) mattress or a lot of cushions on top of eachother can work just as well. For the frontflip, his arms need to come from behind his head, thrown upwards, like hes throwing a ball at a wall as high as possible, his eyes must be focusing on something straight ahead, looking at the floor will make him go there, then he wants to do a big punch on the floor with his feet out in front of him so that he transfers his horizontal (running) momentum into his verticle (jumping) momentum more info on that can be found on this video - http://www.extremetricking.com/teamimmortal/videos/Tutorials/blockingtut.wmv then as hes in the air, you want him to wait till hes at his highest point before he tucks, if he tucks straight away, he wont get any height and will most likely land on his bum. i think more information on that can be found on this video http://www.extremetricking.com/teamimmortal/videos/Tutorials/DogenCenterofGravityTutorial.wmv . heres another video explaining the move which may cover some points i didn't. i hope this helps, if i explained the wrong move, or you want more tips etc. just ask
Thanks so much - I am working on downloading these files now. What he was trying to do was a simple somersault. He is very much a beginner. Thanks so much - I will let you know if I need more help after I check out these videos.
