01. INTRODUCTION - Many excellent books on tumbling are available to the instructor or coach. Most of these, however, deal with in­dividual stunts without definite series of progressions. Further­more, in most cases the descriptions and illustrations represent the viewpoint of the single author or authors.

02. TEACHING TUMBLING - In this chapter are presented suggestions and methods that should prove helpful in the teaching of tumbling in physical education classes. These suggestions are based on the composite opinions of the many experts with whom contact was made in the preliminary survey.

03. ROLL PROGRESSION - The performer should get more practical benefit from this group of exercises than from any other part of the tumbling program. The learning of the shoulder and side rolls alone will save many hard bumps on the athletic field and in life situations. It is the natural tendency for a person to put out his arms when falling, but this often results in bruises, sprains, dislocations, or fractures.

04. INVERTED BALANCE - The first four stunts of this series, the squat hand, the head, the forearm, and the hand balance form the basis for this progression. The hand balance is the most important one of the series. The remaining half of the progression is composed of variations of the hand balance that are important enough to deserve illustration.

05. HANDSPRING - The arched-back landing for the handspring series which is shown in the illustrations is impossible for the beginner because he does not attain the necessary height until he has prac­ticed for a considerable length of time. Therefore, proper form for the squat landing, which may be considered satisfactory for the beginner in any of the stunts of the handspring series, is il­lustrated in Figure 53

06. COMPANION BALANCE - The following group is a set of popular double balance stunts that are good for exhibition work. The balance of the body is probably controlled more by the position of the head than by any other factor. As the top man works higher in the air, he will have a tendency to look down and overbalance for­ward

07. FRONT-SOMERSAULT - If the forward roll has been learned correctly, the performer will know many of the fundamentals of the front somersault. Most tumblers can dive and do a front roll without using the arms. It should be easy, then, to spring for height, turn the re­maining forty-five degrees of a circle, and land on the feet. It is the mental hazard that keeps most pupils from learning this stunt.

08. BACK-HANDSPRING - 11 stunts in this progression lead up to the back hand- spring, which is the most important stunt of the series. The back handspring is popularly called the flip-flap by professional tumblers. This name pictures nothing to the novice, and for this reason the more descriptive term was used. The first stunt in this progression is the round off (Fig. 116), which is used to acquire momentum for the back handspring routines.

09. BACK-SOMERSAULT - The important stunt to be accomplished in this progression is the back somersault. In the back handspring the per­former concentrated all his throw backward into an arch, hyper-extending the hip, back, and shoulder joints as much as possible. In the back somersault the performer must strive for a coordina­tion that is just the opposite

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - The following books are recommended for further study of tumbling. They were not used by the authors in the prepa­ration of this manual.

Balch, Ernest B., Amateur Circus Life. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924.

Cotteral, Bonnie and Donnie, Tumbling, PyramidBuilding and Stunts for Girls and Women. New York: A. S. Barnes and Com­pany, 1927.

Gwathmey, James T., Tumbling for Amateurs. New York: Ameri­can Sports Publishing Company, 1922.

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