Yuri Marmerstein

Demonstrating how to spot somebody for a freestanding handstand push-up during my seminar in Leeds

Covering some middle split progressions during a seminar warmup

Demonstrating the concept of using falling energy to go into a cartwheel. Taken from a workshop I taught at MOVE and the context of this clip is to lead into a handstand bail out where you actually allow yourself to fall.

this concept also has other applications, but the main idea is to allow the momentum to guide the movement rather than attempting to be in complete control the whole time.
in general, I think one of my goals is to get more adults doing cartwheel. It’s such a versatile movement that teaches you a lot about body control, and I think it’s unfortunate when someone says they cannot do a cartwheel. Let’s work to fix that

handstand cartwheel gymnastics tumbling acrobatics movement martial arts holistic training body control

Back tuck

Imagine this: you’re finally ready to throw your backtuck or back handspring without a spot. You can do the movement, you feel confident, and it’s clear that your spotter really didn’t need to be there. This is it.
and then suddenly there’s a hesitation. You shuffle your feet a little bit, you take a couple of breaths, you look back at your landing spot to make sure it’s there. then when you go to throw the move, your body freezes and stops.

this is what I would call a psychological restriction. It’s when physically and technically there’s nothing stopping you from doing the skill, but either fear, lack of confidence, perceived danger, or something else mental is stopping you from the full commitment.

this can be tricky to get around, and I’ve dealt with it quite a bit in my coaching. Here is a tip that might help you or your students get over some of that fear and hesitation.

separate your thinking/prep spot from your action spot. The idea is that if you take too long to think about what you’re doing, your body is more likely to hesitate and that’s when it gets dangerous.
do all your prep, breathing, and visualization work off to the side or in a different spot. When you get to the spot that you’re ready to throw your move, you do it right away without any spare thoughts or hesitation. It should be ready to go, you just have to get your mind to allow your body to commit, and one of the ways you can do this is to not give yourself time to think.

obviously, this is not universal and everyone is a little bit different, but I found the overall concept to be helpful with a lot of students.

Give it a try and let me know what you think