Why is technique so important?

"I feel like my child isn't throwing hard skills like I used to see at our old studio."
"She already has multiple back handsprings, why are they taking her back to a single back handspring?"
"My child already moved off the barrel for their back handspring, but I saw them spotting him with it again!"

Ever had these thoughts go through your head or heard someone mention them? It's totally normal if you have, and it's something you are always welcome to talk to your coach or the office staff about. But we would like to address some of the reasons for these things.

Good technique is imperative to making the skill look clean and making it "easy" to do by getting our energy going in the correct direction. We break down back handsprings so that they are fluid and quick, with a tight rebound. Once they can do that, they can have easy multiple back handsprings, whips, etc.  The first back handspring is the hardest part!  

Secondly, proper technique for taking off and landing are so important to prevent immediate and long term injuries. Students who "throw" their skills, muscling their way through it, are more likely to land short at some point - possibly leading to an injury but also leading to fear of attempting that skill. Long term exposure of too high or too long back handsprings can injure wrists and arms, and landing short time and time again from short/squatty back handsprings can injure ankles, knees, and back.

Proper technique takes time for the mind to tell the body how to shape itself and the body to translate it into muscle memory. Which means doing drills related to the skills that allow the athlete to focus on just one aspect of the skill.

We love our students and want them to succeed and progress quickly, that's literally our job! :) But we also want to see that their hard work isn't thwarted when once they get a single skill, and have to start over to get a tumbling pass because their form isn't clean enough to be fluid in multiple skills.

The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.