Zero To Backflip

Summary

One of my goals is to demonstrate the ability to assimilate any skill with no prior experience. I went from zero to backflip over two days in about 3 Hours total. This is a video of my first 'actual' attempt on solid ground. I did 100 - 200 repetitions on a trampoline and a ledge beforehand. As you can see, the form is rough. However, the core of the movement is correct and the 'wrinkles' can easily be ironed out. 

Dissection

There are three parts to the movement:

• The jump
• The tuck
• And the landing

The very first thing I did was broke down the physics of the movements. Or, more accurately, watched someone else break down the physics of the movement. The jump is normal ballistics, and the landing is a reverse of the jump. The tuck however, was something I wanted to understand. I was a bit hesitant about jumping straight into the air and tucking into a ball. Seemed like a recipe for pain.

The basics of it are like this. The human body, once launched acts like a coin in the air, rotating around it's center of gravity, just above the hips. Momentum is conserved (you're in the air, no way to add energy) so the only way to increase your rate of rotation is to increase your speed of rotation or frequency w. You accomplish this much like an ice skater does when she pulls her arms in. You shrink your diameter by tucking and thus have a higher frequency of rotation (since the energy of your jump is conserved). ​

Identification

 I've very broadly 'dissected' the backflip into its three major parts. Now, let's identify what makes each movement successful. 

The jump:
​What do we want from the jump? As much upward energy as possible. Why? Two reasons:

1. Gives us more time for the tuck
2. And we will have more energy for the spin, and thus spin faster.

How can we accomplish this? There is a loading phase where you drop into a quarter squat, feet six inches apart, swing your arms down and back. Following this is the leap itself. The main thing to notice, that I identified, was that you need to reach for the sky. A big reach. The bigger the reach the more energy went upwards as opposed to backwards. This was the most difficult thing for me... because it is a bit counter intuitive.

The Tuck:
The tuck is the most crucial part of the backflip--I mean, it's why you flip! So, the thing about the tuck is that you actually tuck your head into your knees (not looking back towards the ground like a back handspring). This is another counter-intuitive trust exercise in physics. Luckily I have a great deal of faith is Mr. Newton so I managed.

I'll skip the landing. Not much to say for this. When you see the ground you need to untuck and put your legs down. If you've done the first two sections correctly, this takes care of itself.

Sequencing

We've broken the movement into pieces, examined the key components, but now we must determine how we are going to sequence learning the skills. For the backflip the optimum progression is fairly self explanatory. The jump -> the tuck -> the landing. However, there are ways to build up to each of these skills. Essentially this phase is about getting specific about what to do for the Encoding phase.  

Encoding

For the jump I performed two exercises:

1. Stance practice
2. Quarter jump, practicing the arm swing, toe extension, and reaching
3. Assisted full jump (I had my brother 'catch' me)

For the tuck:

1. Laying on the ground and doing practicing tucks
2. Backward somersaults

And I'll skip the landing as, again, if the other parts are done correctly the landing is taken care of.

Now, what is the best (and safest) way to put it all together? After the above drills, and mental visualization, I did the following:

1. Sideways back handsprings (to get used to going backwards) 
2. Trampoline backflips without the tuck
3. Trampoline backflips with a big jump and loose tuck
4. Trampoline backflips, tightening up the tuck with each repetition. Continue until no bounce is needed. Iterate, iterate... I did 50 - 100 repetitions in an hour, on the second day at Skymania.
5. Practice backflips off a three inch ledge. 50 - 100 repetitions.
6. Then the final backflip on solid ground as shown in the video.

Conclusion

Overall, this was an effective way to learn to do a backflip. However, if I were to do this over again. I would skip straight to the trampoline. I think I could have shaved 1.5 hours (50% time difference) if I had skipped the sideways back handspring. If you are a complete newbie, you need somewhere safe and to eliminate as much fear as possible. So, use a pool, a trampoline, or something of this nature and then move to a short ledge. Three inches can make a huge difference!

Next steps
The easiest and most effective way to improve my backflip would be to lose 5 - 10 lbs. It is amazing how much difference that much weight can make to your vertical jump. This is attractive because I intend to do this anyway. The other change is to jump less backwards and more straight in the air. The backwards jump steals height and therefore time in the tuck. I would add some kind of box jump to my exercise but I want to limit the impact to my left knee as I am missing my Posterior Crucial Ligament.