Whip From Rebound (50 reps)

• You want your toes as far in front as possible before take off while keeping your legs tight. Let the trampoline do the work, do not try and “jump” into it

• Your arm speed and position is very important. You’ll notice that before take off, Jordan already has her arms up by her ears

• Once she whips her arms back, they go out to the side, then they come right back up

• Always finish in a hollow body rebound position

• When you’re new, you will most likely be too high. Every few reps, try and reduce the height of your whips (without sacrificing length)

RO To Hollow Rebound (20 reps)

The goal of this drill is to teach you the proper feet position so that you can have the perfect AOT (Angle Of Takeoff) for your whips, along with teaching you the importance of arm speed. Think about snapping your feet under so they contact the Tumble Trak with legs directly out in front. If you do this drill correctly, it should launch you backwards without much effort.

RO to High Bhs (30 Reps)

It is often said that a whip is basically a higher BHS. And that’s not too far from the truth, which is why this happens to be the very next drill you want to focus on. The idea behind it is that once you get comfortable, you should be able to remove the mat and maintain that height.

Once you get good at this, a progression you can use would be to add another crash mat on top. If you’re a PowerTumbler, don’t go any higher. For cheerleaders and gymnasts though, you can add a third mat while still focusing on length. As we discussed earlier, a slightly loopier whip is beneficial for these athletes.

RO Whip Back on TumbleTrak (50 reps)

Now comes the time where we put it all together and attempt the whip. I’ll be honest with you – the 50 reps is actually a very conservative number. I’d prefer you actually do 100, but I also know that not everyone has that sort of time commitment. If you focus on the other drills listed here and practice them to perfection (remember the P3 system) then your technique should stay sound.

But be sure to come back to this one, as it’s what I like to call an evergreen drill. This means it will always be useful. I know many top-level athletes that do it as part of their warm up to keep their technique as sharp as possible.

RO Whip to Hollow jump Back (30 reps)

Once you’ve mastered the single whip, it’s time to work on the connection. It doesn’t matter if you want to connect a whip to a BHS or another Whip, you still need to work on getting your toes under and in front of you. Just like drill #2, if you do this correctly then the jump back should happen almost effortlessly.

RO 2x Whips to Jump Back (50 reps)

RO Whip to BHs Connection (50 Reps)

This used to be one of my favorite connections in tumbling. It’s equal parts scary, exciting and gives you a ridiculous amount of power for your end skill.

Handstand Snapdown 2x Whips (30 reps)

This is a great drill to do near the end of your training session since it replaces the RO, thus help you save the limited amount of energy you have and using it for the skill in question. You can also work handstand snapdown to single whips if the earlier drills aren’t possible due to space issues. However, don’t make this your bread and butter drill.

Handstand Snapdown to Continuous Whips (30 reps)

Once you can do 2 whips, it’s very likely that doing 3 or more shouldn’t be much of an issue. One common problem you’ll find is that your whips start to change the more you do (much like how your BHS’s get sloppier when you’re new). This drill is a great way to bring out those mistakes and fix them. It also tests your “tumbling endurance”. Anyone can have perfect body positions during the first or second skill in a series, but can you maintain the tightness when more skills are added?

Standing BHS to Whip (20 reps)

This is a great drill that will help you develop a tonne of power. One of my favorite progressions is to do standing BHS into multiple whips down the TumbleTrak. Another great use for this drill is if you don’t have access to a full-length TumbleTrak. Just practice this as often as possible. As always, have your coach watch the height of your whips – it’s very easy to become “loopy” while doing this.

Rebound Tuck into Whip Connection (20 reps)

This is one of my favorites as it really allows you the time needed to get those feet in front, and rebound back with tonnes of power without using up a lot of space, such as with the RO entry. Think of it as a more advanced version of Drill #1. Also, it’s a great drill if you’re working advanced or creative tumbling passes such as:

• RO > Layout > Whip etc.

• RO > BHS > Full > Whip etc.

• RO > Full > Whip > Double full

Note: Initially, doing this connection can be a bit scary, so get a spot and/or use safety mats. Some of the common mistakes you’ll make are

• Not snapping feet in enough (resulting in a loopy/awkward whip)

• Snapping in the feet too much (resulting in a whip where you almost kiss the TumbleTrak)

• Forgetting about your arms (resulting in a whip where you only use your head)

• Not tucking high enough (you need LOTS of air time to get this going)

I highly suggest you take care of these issues first, because they’ll pay off when you move on to drill #12.

Rebound Tuck Into Whip Series (30 reps)

I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT move on to this drill, until you’ve perfected the initial BT to whip connection.

BHS Whip to End Skill (30 reps)