Cheerleading Zone

Subject: Back Walkovers and Backbend kickovers

Hi. Well, my problem is that I have to have a back handspring for cheerleading and at my gym they tell me that I almost have it but now that I have a new instructor I have to get my back bend kick over and back walk over. Please tell me the fastest ways to have these.

Thanks so much.

In one sense, backbend kick overs and back walkovers are a progression for back handsprings. They obviously go backwards, turn over and require supporting bodyweight on the hands. There is one big difference – back bend kick overs and back walkovers require much more shoulder and back flexibility than a back handspring does. In back handsprings an athlete can literally jump past a certain amount of shoulder flexibility limitations.

We tend to teach the skills simultaneously with the more flexible athletes getting back bend kick overs and back walkovers sooner and the stronger athletes getting their back handsprings first. But we are not the ones teaching you, so here is what you need to do to get bend kick overs and back walkovers as fast as possible.

First before we talk about how to get those as fast as possible, let’s cover the basics. For any of these skills you need to be strong enough able to support yourself in a handstand position. You should be working handstands daily. We have our athletes compete holding handstands for time, walking handstands for distance and counting the number of walking steps on their hands and doing handstands for time and handstand push-ups against a wall. At this stage, if your handstand is weak, we recommend 25 – 100 handstands per day. (You said you wanted to learn fast).

We also recommend all cheerleaders do strength training and/or weight training. Weight training is more suitable for teenage cheerleaders rather than younger cheerleaders.

After strength, the main problem with learning these skills is developing sufficient flexibility in the shoulders, lower back and legs (splits). If you are not flexible enough, you will never learn the skill. When you are flexible (and strong enough), you can learn it in a day. If you can’t yet do a walkover, your problem must either be a strength or flexibility problem.

It has been proven time and time again that the best, most effective time efficient method of learning any skill, including back bend kick overs and back walkovers, is to be strong and flexible enough to do the skill before you try to learn it.

If you are not sure which (or if you need to work on both) test yourself. For strength, if you can hold a handstand for three to five seconds and or walk about five walking steps on your hands, you should have enough minimum upper body strength to do a back walkover.

A back bend test will give you an idea of whether you have enough shoulder flexibility (although if you are strong enough and cannot do a back walkover or back bend kick over), you are most certainly not flexible enough.

A back bend good enough to do a back walkover should have the shoulders straight above or past the hands. This is what you will need to have in order to do a back walkover and back bend kickover.

It seems fairly likely that your problems stem from a lack of shoulder (and/or lower back) flexibility. This is all too common a problem. And repetitions of back bend kick overs and back walkovers with or without a spot are likely not the best way to improve flexibility and strength levels, certainly not fast enough for what you want to do.

We are going to recommend a number of drills, skills and exercises that can and will increase your daughter’s flexibility level, but first we have some safety cautions. Doing too back walkover type skills and exercises without having sufficient shoulder flexibility can cause too much stress on the lower back. This can lead to any number of injuries including stress fractures and create short and/or long-term back pain.

The flexibility for back walkovers is a combination of shoulder flexibility and lower back flexibility. It would be wise to develop shoulder flexibility first in order to avoid over-stressing the lower back. Any lower back pain is an indication that sufficient shoulder flexibility has not been developed and the lower back is being overstressed.

We recommend that you first work on partner shoulder stretches and when you have made significant progress in improving shoulder flexibility, you can work on some of the lower back stretching exercises.

Partner stretching allows the shoulders to be stretched farther than just working in a backbend can do and targets shoulder flexibility rather than back and lower back flexibility. Stretching should be done carefully and just to the point of pain, but it will not be uncommon for gymnasts doing partner stretching to experience some pain. Make sure you are communicating. Stretching for periods of time from a minimum of 10 – 60 second sets is desirable and effective.

Improving flexibility is a function of time. The more time you spend working on it the faster you will improve. If you sit in a split for 24 hours straight, it will most likely be flat down on the floor by the end. Of course you may not be able to walk, but you will have your split down.

The lesson to be learned is that you will need to spend time working on your flexibility if you want it to improve. The harder and longer you work, the sooner you will reach your flexibility goals. You can get flexible enough in a few days or a few weeks if you spend enough time working on your flexibility each day.

The most effective way to improve flexibility is usually partner stretching. A partner can use their weight and strength to stretch your shoulders and legs farther and faster than you can by yourself. This will speed your progress.

You should choose a partner who is your size or larger and is as strong or stronger than you. Match your size and strength closely if you are going to be helping your partner stretch also.

Partner Stretches

WARNING: Improper techniques in partner stretching may cause injury.
Partner stretching may not be appropriate for very young, relatively untrained or relatively inexperienced athletes. Care must be taken with all partner stretching done by inexperienced athletes.

WARNING: We do not recommend doing partner stretches to increase lower back flexibility.

Don’t Put Excess Stress on Joints

On all partner exercises where the partner is pushing or pulling on the arms, they should be holding the arm above the elbow to avoid excess pressure on the elbow joint. The same is true for leg split exercises. It is often best to help with partner leg splits by pushing above the knee if the force is at all putting any sideways pressure on the knee.

Partner Shoulder Stretches

• Partner Shoulders – sit in pike, arms straight out behind. Partner lifts upper arms and picks gymnast up.
• Partner Backbend – have one partner grab ankles of other, go up in backbend, partner pulls shoulders, lift lower back.
• Front prone, arms by side and lift. Pull on upper arms and stretch shoulders.
• Front prone, arms straight by ears and lift by pulling on upper arms to stretch shoulders.
• Hands clasped behind head, pull elbows together.
• Arms straight to side, pull together behind back.
• Hands clasped behind back, pull elbows together.
• Front prone shoulder stretch (arms by ears, lift arms above elbow).
• Lift leg while in split (left, right, straddle).
• Push on shoulders stretch (hands on medium or high beam).
• Kneeling split stretch (left, right, straddle).
• Partner shoulder stretch on stall bars or beam (gymnasts place hands side by side with head tucked under chin to the chest). Partner pushes down on the shoulders
• Back to back – partners stand back to back, One partner grabs the upper arms of the other who is holding their arms straight up by their ears and lifts them off the ground by bending forward stretching their shoulders.

Another effective but not as quick a shoulder flexibility exercise utilizes a stick (like a cut-off broom stick). Athletes inlocate/dislocate (move stick over the head forward and back) holding the stick in all of the possible grips (regular grip, reverse grip, elgrip, invert grip) holding the stick with the hands as close as possible. Ideally you will go straight over the top, but twisting the stick from side to side still will help.

Athletes may hang from a bar with their hands together and head forward chin on chest to stretch shoulders.

Partner Leg Split Flexibility

(you should do both your right and left splits to maintain an even body balance. Even though you don’t need to do straddle splits to learn walkovers, it probably is still a good idea to do straddle split exercises for your cheerleading career).

• Partner Wall Splits – Stand against wall, lift leg, partner pushes leg as high as possible.
• Wall Side Splits – Stand sideways against wall, lift leg to side split, partner lifts and pushes leg as high as possible.
• Back Prone Partner Leg Splits – Lay on back, lift one leg. Partner anchors bottom leg with their leg and leans weight on upper leg.
• Partner Seated Straddle Split – Sit in straddle split facing wall. Partner pushes split with feet on your buttocks.
• Partner Straddle Split – Get in straddle split on floor. Partner pushes down on split.
• Back Prone Straddle Splits – Lay on back, straddle legs. Partner leans weight on upper legs.

Once shoulder flexibility has been improved, a variety of lower back exercises can also be done. You may do the following individual shoulder and lower back exercises:

• Shoulder Flexibility
  • Bridge, push shoulders over and past hands.
  • Kneel, Front shoulder stretch, full extension.
  • Wall front shoulder stretches.
  • Shoulders at full extension (Sit in pike with arms and hands as far back and close as possible).
  • Shoulders at full extension, leg lifts – bang knees to shoulders (Tuck, pike and stalder).
  • Kip to backbend.
  • Kip through handstand to backbend.
  • Valdez to backbend.
  • Backbend and hold.
  • Shoulders at full extension.(Sit in pike, slide out straight arms as far behind as possible with hands together)
  • Inlocate, dislocates.
• Lower Back Flexibility
  • Rocking backbends.
  • Torso – circles (left and right).
  • Reach into backbend.
  • Backbend, lift legs and arms. (Right, Left.)
  • Backbend, drop hips.
  • Walking Backbend races.
  • Set-ups (Front and side prone arch ups) (front and side).
  • Twisting Set-ups.
  • Leg Overs – (Back prone, 1-2 legs up, lift leg(s) and drop (Left and right).
• Leg Split Flexibility
  • Splits (left, right, straddle).
  • Straddle split, rock all the way forward and back.
  • Split, lean all the way forwards and arch back, bend back leg and touch head. (In both left and right splits).
  • Slide to splits (no hands).
  • Helicopter splits (Swing leg, split to split).
  • Walking splits (no hands).
  • Lift, arms by ears, split to split.
  • Over-splits (feet up on mat).
  • Jump to splits.
  • Straddle jump to straddle split.
  • Back prone dynamic straddle splits.
  • Scales (Right. Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Scales with relevé (Right, Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Scales on toe (Right, Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Split jumps (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Punch, Punch Split jumps (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Straddle toe touch jumps.
  • Barré split stretching (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Straddle split push-ups.
  • Splits (Right, Left and Straddle) between two mats.
  • Straddle split, one foot on mat, 1-arm pushups (Right, Left).
  • Needle scale (Right, Left).
  • Needle scale kicks (Right, Left).
  • Handstand forward roll through straddle split to front prone (no hands).

All cheerleaders should spend at least 10 minutes a day working on flexibility. For more rapid improvement like you are trying to make, an hour or more of partner and hard flex workouts are recommended.

Once you are strong enough and your shoulders and good side split are flexible enough, you should be able to learn to do a back bend kick and back walkover in a matter of a few minutes. You will most likely be able to do the back bend kick over first and then later a back walkover.

Good luck and if there is anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Have Your Own Questions?
Ask The Cheer Coach
If you have questions relating to cheerleading, we will do our best to provide you with answers to the best of our ability.

(This article was originally an email written in response to questions for help on starting a cheerleading team program for a rugby team in Italy)

Since you didn’t indicate the level of your rugby team, we have to be somewhat general in our answer to your request for more information and we are already planning and have notes for books on starting and coaching/managing cheerleading squads/teams, but you undoubtedly don’t want to wait for us to finish them.

We also must confess to little idea about the level and status of cheerleading in Italy (Imagine that, Americans that don’t know much about Europe, only their own country). So we don’t know, for example how extensive and how young cheerleading programs go in your province. Here in the United States, there are numerous cheerleading programs starting at age 5, so there are always experienced cheerleaders available at every level from which to draw a team without having to start at the beginning and teach all of the basics.

We apologize in advance for the somewhat unorganized approach. We are used to having a great deal of time to organize our thoughts and writing for our books and like to be very compete and organized. But here are some ideas for you to consider and steps to take to start cheerleading team.

In general, the age of the cheerleaders matches the age of the players on the team. High school cheerleaders cheer for high school athletes. College cheerleaders cheer for college athletes and professional cheerleaders (say ages 18 – 28) cheer for professional teams.

The status of cheerleaders also usually matches the amateur or professional status of the players. Professional cheerleaders are paid and are expected to work and train full-time. Semi-Professional and amateur cheerleaders have all their expenses paid for, although amateurs often have to fundraise to pay for their expenses.

In America, there are two types of cheerleading – competitive and cheering for sports teams. Competitive cheerleading is very big here now and cheering for teams has taken somewhat of a back seat in the amateur levels. We will assume you are interested in a team to cheer for the rugby team and that won’t compete in competitions.

This allows considerable latitude in choosing and setting up teams and, if desired, specialists. In addition to a regular cheer squad, specialists in stunting, tumbling, break dancing and flag runners can be employed to provide a more spectacular presentation.

The best source for choreography ideas for cheer squads is videos of last year’s National Cheerleading Championships. In the United States we like to get copies of the NCAA Collegiate Division I National Cheerleading Championships and cheer organizations like the UCA federation’s National Cheerleading Championships to keep up with the latest. There are a number of cheerleading federations, but many of them are small operations and do not have not as consistently high a quality of competition.

We also use MTV videos as inspiration for cheer dance moves, although the graphic sexual dance moves are not appropriate, there is much to see and learn.

We might mention, at this point, that cheerleading is currently the most dangerous sport for women in the United States. Many of the flyer and pyramid stunting injuries come about because coaches are not professional or experienced enough to demand the rigorous physical preparation and level of practice necessary for the safe and consistent execution of those skills. You must be vigilant about this because no one wants to look down at a young, beautiful and talented girl who has been permanently injured because of a preventable accident.

Due to the safety problems, it is advisable that all cheerleaders have sufficient strength, endurance and flexibility before attempting any tumbling, partner stunting, basket tosses or pyramids.

Depending on the experience level of your applicants for the cheerleading team, you may have to roll out the level of your cheerleading program over a period of time. E.g., the first year you might do only cheers, the second year you add group stunting, basic basket tosses and 1 and ½ height pyramids with spotters. By the third year, you could have safely trained new cheerleaders to do individual stunting, high pyramids and full difficulty basket toss flyers. How long it will take will be dependent on how much cheerleading experience is available from those who try-out.

The most important factor in the success of your team is going to be the head cheerleading coach who will have the responsibility for at least organizing and running try-outs, choreography, training and on the field management. You will need a person with a great deal of experience in cheerleading, cheer choreography, modern dance, jazz dance, physical fitness and strength training, stunting and pyramids, tumbling, break dancing and hip hop dancing (if that seems as popular in your area as it is in cheerleading here. We even have hip hop cheer dance competitions here in the U.S.).

To some extent, assistant coaches can cover some or any of those areas of expertise the head coach lacks. But your head coach will have to be able to integrate all those aspects into your performances and thus will need a wide range of experience. Ballet dance experience has not proved to be very large factor for successful coaches here in the U.S. as the style of dance is much different. It is not a disqualifying factor though if the coach also has experience in the other dance areas.

As a cheer squad cheering for a rugby team, special routine performances s will need to be created for:

• Pre-game
• Team coming onto the field
• Sideline cheers
• Halftime/Quarter (?) performance
• Timeout (?) performances
• Team coming off the field

Sideline cheers need to be developed in order to have at least one for every aspect of the game such as kickoff, scrum and ruck. We don’t have any cheers in Italian, but there are ideas for cheers in our book and other sources for them on the Internet. In general, they need to have rhyme and/or rhythm.

Generally, fans will expect the level of cheer to match the level of play on the field so sufficient training is necessary. A professional cheer squad would train two (or three) times daily and training would include:

• Weight lifting (especially for stunt bases),
• Running for weight control and endurance,
• Individual and/or group stunting practice,
• Tumbling practice,
• Basic cheer drills (e.g. cheer motions),
• Basic dance training,
• Basic and current and future cheer routine practice.

A suitable training facility needs to be available. In the United States, many gymnastics training center facilities are expanding their programs to include cheer training. An ideal facility would have:

• A foam padded cheer practice area with full-length mirrors (gymnastics spring floors are ideal)
• Sufficient height for basket tossing – say 6- 8 meters
• Video recording equipment and playback monitors
• Trampolines
• Tumble tramps
• Power tumbling floors
• Professional sound system
• Gymnastics safety pits for tumbling
• Weight training machines or free weights
• Running track or aerobic machines, treadmills, etc.

Few cheer programs in the United States have all of these training advantages, but in most situations, cheer programs use a number of facilities to get access to all the training they need. Colleges and universities often have all or most of the facilities needed and may be rented.

After acquiring a coaching staff and developing an organizational and support structure for the cheer squad, tryouts need to be advertised and held (our cheer tryouts e-Book gives a good overview of that process). The cheer coaches may serve as the judges for tryouts but are sometimes supplemented with local jazz or modern dance teachers and tumbling or gymnastics coaches.

Tryout criteria need to be established, especially for professional cheer squads where physical appearance is often also a factor in addition to athletic and dance ability.

Cheerleaders often serve as team ambassador and as public relations and ticket sales promotion team representatives. This means that this may be a factor in the tryout criteria and that training in public relations, public speaking, etc. may be appropriate.

Obviously, a budget for all of this and more will be required. Again, budget depends on the status of the team and cheerleaders (whether they are professional or amateur). Professional teams fund and pay their cheer squads. Amateur cheerleaders fundraise to pay for their equipment and expenses.

The budget is going to include items like:

• Coaching staff
• Training
• Tryouts
• Uniforms, shoes and clothing
• Travel, food, lodging and transportation (if they are a traveling team). Note: Cheerleaders do not travel with the sports team to meets for the usual reasons.
• Equipment – pom-poms, sound systems and music, megaphones, cards, etc.

We do not profess to be expert about cheer uniforms. And there are numerous cheer uniform manufacturers in the United States (and available to view for ideas on the Internet). It seems most likely that local Italian designers would best create the cheer team image you desire much better and it is not uncommon for cheer uniforms to be custom designed and sewn.

There are other considerations in customizing the image of your cheer program. Costumed team mascots are very popular here and work and train with the cheer squads. Special cheering devices often are representative of a specific team like the cowbell is associated with Swiss teams and the tomahawks for the Atlanta Braves baseball team. You may already have something similar you wish to emphasize or create a new team cheering device tradition.

Well, that’s what we have off the top of our heads. Hope we have helped at least somewhat.