The Front Flip: Lightning Movement Skills - THE EXPLOSIVE SIX - Explosive Calisthenics, Superhuman Power, Maximum Speed and Agility, Plus Combat-Ready Reflexes--Using Bodyweight-Only Methodsp (2015)

Explosive Calisthenics, Superhuman Power, Maximum Speed and Agility, Plus Combat-Ready Reflexes--Using Bodyweight-Only Methods (2015)

7

THE FRONT FLIP

LIGHTNING MOVEMENT SKILLS

Think you’re powerful, explosive, fast? Would you count yourself as agile? Reckon you’ve got strong joints and excellent coordination plus ideal reflexes?

Well, there’s one real quick test to find out if you really are all these things. It won’t take long, we won’t need any special equipment, and scientific measuring instruments are not required. Just jump up, complete a full 360 degree forward revolution in mid-air, and land on your feet again in the same place you started. Ta-daa! It’s a pretty black-and-white test—if you can do it, you’re one hell of an explosive athlete. If not, you still have a way to go, right? If so, I want to help.

The movement I described is the front flip—known as the standing front tuck in gymnastics. If there’s an iconic test of power and agility, it’s this—trust me, your entire body, from your toes to your neck needs to be whip-like explosive in order to make this one work. It’s simple, ancient, hardcore, and requires no equipment to perform. But God damn, it’s one hell of a technique, and only the explosive need apply. The good news is that you can become explosive, and you can train yourself to perform this iconic stunt, starting anywhere, even if you are out-of-shape. All you need are the progressions and knowledge in this chapter. Get ready to impress the neighbors.

DECONSTRUCTING FRONT FLIPS

Let’s examine one of the advanced techniques in the front flip chain: step 9, the running front flip. (This awesome move contains many of the components of the other steps.) There are five basic stages to look at when analyzing this flip:

RUN-UP

You only need a few steps for this—less than ten feet is optimal for most athletes. A huge long run-up might help with a long jump in track and field, but it won’t add to your front flip. There is only so much horizontal momentum that you can transform into vertical momentum by blocking anyway. (You should have already mastered the technique of blocking via the power jump chain; see pages 41-42). You don’t need to sprint, either—a few steps at a fast jog are enough. Approaching the block too rapidly can make it difficult.

TAKE-OFF

The take-off is misunderstood. Jumping—and vertical power—are essential for getting a front flip. But it’s a mistake to think that you jump straight upwards on take-off. You don’t. You dive up and forwards; a good visualization is to imagine diving head-first over the highest wall you could manage. As you dive, the arms swing downwards from your head, followed shortly afterwards by the explosive forwards sit-up motion of the torso. In explosive forward rotation, the trunk, torso and arms must all play their part in building circular momentum. One of the best drills for developing this momentum is already in this book—the kip-up. Yep, the kip-up rotation is partial (only 90 degrees) and the front flip rotation is fuller (the big 360); but the muscles are the same. Athletes who have already progressed with—or mastered—the classic kip-up, inevitably find the front flip much easier to approach.

TUCK

After the take-off—but pretty simultaneous with throwing the torso forward—comes the tuck. Have you ever seen an ice skater spinning? Sometimes they pull their leg and arms in close, and this makes the spin accelerate much faster. If you have ever seen this, you have witnessed how drawing the limbs in tight increases angular momentum. This is why we tuck tightly during flips—the tucking action makes the body revolve quicker, allowing us to land on our feet in time. Most of the tuck is due to hip and midsection power; if you have worked your way through the power jump drills, you will have an adequate tuck by now—and trust me, you’ll need one: this element is so important that gymnasts still call the front flip the front tuck.

UNFURL

Once the tuck has done its job and got you over—i.e., your legs have revolved past the point of your head, and your body is heading towards horizontal—your next job is to unfurl your legs, to start to straighten them for landing. This requires some speed, but no real power. The real difficulty here is timing. Most neophytes assume the back flip is harder than the front (because you are going backwards), but I’m convinced that the front flip is harder, and one reason has to do with vision. In a back flip, you can actually see the floor as you rotate, and your body and brain can work out when to unfurl. With the front flip, you are pretty much flying blind, and will have to rely on instinctive kinesthetic timing: your body will have to remember where the floor is. A good (but not perfect) rule of thumb is to unfurl the moment your tuck is deep (i.e., when the knees come as close to the chest as you can manage).

LANDING

The landing is the end point, and the sum of the previous four actions. Remember, these actions aren’t discrete units—they all flow. They must. In terms of conditioning, lots of jump drills should have prepared your landing reflexes, and fortified the bones and tissues of your feet, ankles and knees. Beyond this, the only advice I can give you is drill. Yep, you’ll land on your ass a lot. Then eventually you may start to over-rotate and land on your knees and hands. The ideal landing is not easy: the writer G. K. Chesterton once noted that: there are an infinite number of angles at which one can fall, but only one in which we can stand. (He was right: where do gymnasts always seem to go wrong? The landing!) But—with time—you’ll perfect your rotation.

The best pre-conditioning in the world for the front flip? A heavy diet of jumps, baby!

THE FRONT FLIP CHAIN

What’s the easiest way to rotate forwards? To roll. So that’s what we start with, the shoulder roll (step 1), the simplest way of rolling over forwards. The press roll (step 2) requires you to direct your roll using your hands—which allows some gentle forces to run through the arms and shoulders. These forces ramp up in the jump roll (step 3), where your hands contact the floor and briefly take some of your body’s weight before you roll through. The handstand roll (step 4) is the final roll in the chain, and continues the athletes’ conditioning by forcing them to hold all their body’s weight on their hands—if only for a fraction of a second—before rolling through. Once you’ve completed a course of all these rolls, your arms, shoulders and back will be conditioned to holding your weight as part of a rotation, and revolving forwards quickly will no longer make you dizzy or nauseous.

When you can do a handstand roll well, you’re ready to attempt a back-drop handspring (step 5). This involves running and jumping forward into a handspring and pushing off—just like a regular handspring—except you land on your feet and butt. This, essentially, is what it looks like when most people try a handspring for the first time—they get lift off, but can’t quite achieve the full rotation, enough to land on their feet. With time and practice—a lot of drilling—you will automatically begin to achieve that. When you land on your feet and stay upright, you’re at the front handspring stage (step 6). After the front handspring is properly mastered—not just performed once—the athlete moves on to tackle the perfect version of the exercise, the flyspring (step 7). A flyspring is, essentially a symmetrical front handspring; in the regular version, it’s easier to push off one leg more than the other, but in the flyspring you push off both equally.

Once you’ve got the flyspring right, you’ll be able to approach the proper front flip, where the hands don’t touch the floor. Like for the front handspring, you’ll initially need to drill a stage where you can’t rotate fully, and after a run-up and attempt, you land on your feet and butt rather than standing. This is the back-drop front flip (step 8). When the rotation becomes complete, you have the running front flip (step 9). This is a major milestone—all it takes is to gradually remove the steps in the run-up, and the athlete becomes the proud possessor of the standing front flip (step 10). I say “all it takes”—of course—this is a huge leap to make. But it can be done over time, if the athlete is lean enough, and if they continue to work diligently and progressively on the basic power moves (jumps and power pushups).

STEP ONE: SHOULDER ROLL

PERFORMANCE

· Squat towards the ground. (Placing the foot of your strongest side forward slightly may feel more comfortable.)

· Place the edge of your palm heel on the ground as you dip down—again, using your strongest side. You can place your free hand on the ground, if it helps.

· Continue lowering slowly down and forwards, until you overbalance. Brace your arm to take most of your weight. As your legs swing, simultaneously bring your hands up and towards your head.

· Let your braced arm and shoulder guide your movement as you roll over—keep your head tucked in and out of the way.

· Roll over your back, trying not to veer to either side.

· Finish the roll naturally, in a seated position.

EXERCISE X-RAY

This type of roll is the easiest on the body and joints; it’s the kind of breakfall/front roll (ukemi) you will see in many Japanese martial arts, such as jujutsu and aikido. Because the leading upper arm directs the weight of the body straight onto the upper-back, the wrists, elbows and shoulders feel no strain during the exercise. This drill should be performed gently.

REGRESSION

Rolling can make athletes nauseous, if they aren’t accustomed to it. To make the spin seem easier at first, carefully lower the head down close to the floor before initiating the rolling motion.

PROGRESSION

Once you can execute this drill slowly with good form, safely pick up speed. Keep the movement smooth—it should be impact-free. When you can perform it quickly, you can use the momentum to stand up at the end (see photos). Some martial artists spin during the roll, so that they are facing in the opposite direction when they stand—to face their attacker.

STEP TWO: PRESS ROLL

PERFORMANCE

· With your feet symmetrical, squat towards the ground.

· Place both palms on the floor in front of you as you dip down.

· Continue lowering slowly down and forwards, by squatting and bringing your torso down. Straighten your legs until you overbalance forward. Brace your arms to take most of your weight.

· Let your braced arms guide your movement as you roll over—keep your head tucked in and out of the way. Your head should take virtually no weight.

· Roll over your back, trying not to veer to either side.

· Finish the roll naturally, in a seated position.

EXERCISE X-RAY

During handsprings, your arms have to take the pressure of your spinning body. This form of roll begins to make use of the hands as levers to control the body, albeit in a very gentle way. More advanced rolling drills will progressively increase the forces passing through the upper limbs.

REGRESSION

Rolling can seem intimidating to newbies. A controlled descent of the head, a bracing of the curled trunk (abdominal tension) and the use of soft surfaces (grass, carpeting) are all tricks that can be used to make rolls seem easier.

PROGRESSION

In the easiest type of press roll, the hands and upper-back take the body’s weight at the beginning of the technique, with the head tucked in tightly for protection. To make the drill harder, take more force through the hands, so that the upper-back only takes on force at the last moment.

STEP THREE: JUMP ROLL

PERFORMANCE

· With your feet symmetrical, bend forward aiming your palms towards the floor.

· Jump up as you descend, allowing your torso to fall as you drop your hands to the floor.

· Land on your palms, arms fairly straight, just as your feet leave the floor. You are basically catching yourself with your palms.

· Let your braced arms bend to guide your movement as you roll over—keep your head tucked in and out of the way. Your head should take virtually no weight.

· Roll over your back, trying not to veer to either side.

· Finish the roll naturally. By now you should have advanced enough to roll all the way to the standing position.

EXERCISE X-RAY

These roll-drills might not look much like a handstand, but they are a great way for non-tumblers to teach their brains to get used to the turning motion before exploring tougher techniques. Gymnasts often learn this roll by diving up and forwards—this is called a dive roll. In the jump roll, however, you build power and explosive strength by jumping up more than forwards.

REGRESSION

To reduce demands on upper-body power, begin the jump up with the palms already braced on the floor.

PROGRESSION

The higher your hands are from the floor when your feet leave the ground, the more plyometric this drill becomes. (See page 315)

STEP FOUR: HANDSTAND ROLL

PERFORMANCE

· In a split stance with your strongest foot forward, place your palms on the floor and raise your other leg behind you.

· Push yourself up through your strongest foot, swinging back and up with your other foot. Allow your torso to become more vertical as you go.

· Let the momentum from your leg push/swing to carry your legs above your torso; as they whip up, straighten them until your entire body is aligned in a handstand.

· You don’t need to hold the handstand. Allow your arms to bend and your trunk to curl up beneath you as soon as you begin to fall forward.

· Let your braced arms guide your movement as you roll over—keep your head tucked in and out of the way. Your head should take virtually no weight.

· Roll over your back, trying not to veer to either side.

· Finish the roll naturally. By now you should have advanced enough to roll all the way to the standing position.

EXERCISE X-RAY

This is the final true roll of the front flip chain. It requires some explosive power to kick the legs up above you, and begins developing the solid arm strength required for front handsprings.

REGRESSION

To make this movement easier, keep the arms bent throughout: this avoids the need to attain a handstand position.

PROGRESSION

Begin with your hands off the floor, and kick up with the legs a split-second before your palms make contact with the ground.

STEP FIVE: BACK-DROP HANDSPRING

PERFORMANCE

· Take a step to build momentum, and with your hands up above you, kick off with your strongest leg.

· Allow your torso to fall as you drop your hands to the floor. As your hands approach the ground, jump up hard, swinging with your highest leg.

· Keep your arms fairly straight, just as your feet leave the floor. You are basically catching yourself with your palms.

· Let the momentum from your jump to carry your legs above your torso.

· Allow your forward momentum to turn you over. As you spin, tuck in your head, curl your trunk, and whip your hands up off the floor.

· The bottoms of your feet should be the first part of your body to touch the ground after your hands lift off.

· Your feet should quickly act as shock absorbers, before your glutes, arms and back also contact the ground.

EXERCISE X-RAY

You are now very, very close to the front handspring—a pivotal exercise to learn if you wish to master the front flip. This drill looks like a partial handspring, teaching athletes the first portion of the spin out of the handstand. Very little upper-body explosiveness is required to master this, however. Even fairly weak athletes can practice this drill.

REGRESSION

At first you may begin by landing on your glutes or back before your feet can act as shock absorbers. If this is you, you can still practice this drill until you improve, but definitely use padding on the floor. (Use your imagination: how about pillows: cushions: parts of a couch, even a mattress?)

PROGRESSION

As you improve, you will begin to generate enough momentum so that you fall back onto your butt after landing on your feet. That’s fine—think of the “fall-back handspring” as a hidden step between the back-drop handspring and the running front handspring, and drill it until you transcend it.

WARNING! Vertical is a master acrobat and can perform this exercise safely, even on a hard surface. Beginners should definitely use whatever padding they can find to protect themselves! “

STEP SIX: FRONT HANDSPRING

PERFORMANCE

· Take a run-up to build momentum.

· Block (see page 50) by punching down on the floor with your strongest foot. (This will be easier than using both feet, because you can simultaneously swing your rear leg up, as you did for the previous two steps.)

· Kick up hard through your strongest leg, pushing your foot off the ground but allowing your torso to fall as you drop your hands to the floor. Your other foot should swing up behind you, assisting the rotation.

· Land on your palms, arms slightly bent, just as your feet leave the floor. You are basically catching yourself with your palms.

· Allow the momentum from your jump to carry your legs above your torso, into a bent-leg handstand position.

· Don’t hold the handstand, but allow your forward momentum to turn you over.

· Extend through your arms and hands to gain extra height.

· Continue pulling your torso forward as you land on both feet. If you need to, step forward to dissipate extra momentum.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Many calisthenics experts consider the front handspring a key stage in the development of the front flip—it is, but it is also a phenomenal explosive drill in its own right. The athlete who can perform this correctly has reached an excellent level in fundamental skills such as: running, blocking, jumping, explosive pressing (with the upper-body), rotational tolerance and landing.

REGRESSION

Landing in a low squat position will be easier because it requires less rotation; you may also fall back onto your glutes at first.

PROGRESSION

To progress, improve your rotation: a good measure of this is the ability to land with a more extended body, instead of in a deep squat position. Avoid over/under-rotation and learn to land without taking any adjustment steps.

STEP SEVEN: FLYSPRING

PERFORMANCE

· Take a run-up to build momentum.

· Perform a block jump (see page 50) with both feet, as you throw your hands down.

· Kick up hard through the legs, pushing your feet off the ground but allowing your torso to fall as you drop your hands to the floor.

· Land on your palms, arms nearly straight, as your feet leave the floor. You are basically catching yourself with your palms.

· Let the momentum from your jump to carry your legs above your torso.

· Allow your forward momentum to turn you over. Extend through your arms and hands to gain extra height.

· Continue pulling your torso forward as you land on both feet. If you need to, step forward to dissipate extra momentum.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Once an athlete has mastered the front handspring with a run-up, the next step is to explore the flyspring. Whereas the front handspring is performed by kicking off the stronger leg, sometimes landing with the feet apart (or unsymmetrical), in the flyspring you block (jump) off both feet together, and also land on both feet symmetrically. This requires much more total body power. The flyspring has several names—it’s sometimes called a bounder.

REGRESSION

If moving from front handsprings (step 6) to flysprings is too difficult, try back-drop flysprings at first—lay out some padding and perform the set-up with feet together, but finish in the back-drop position (see step 5).

PROGRESSION

To increase difficulty, gradually perform fewer steps in the run-up; ultimately the perfect version can be performed from standing—you can also learn the front handspring (step 6) from standing. However this requires huge power, and is not necessary to be able to approach the front flip.

STEP EIGHT: BACK-DROP FLIP

PERFORMANCE

· Take a run up of several steps to build momentum.

· Perform a block jump (see page 50) with both feet, as you throw your hands down.

· Jump up hard, simultaneously throwing your hands down and pulling your curled upper body down at the hips.

· Immediately begin to pull your knees up to your chest. This is the tuck and will help you rotate.

· As you rotate over, begin to extend the legs. (This extension will help your feet contact the floor before your back, protecting your spine. Never land flat on your back if you can avoid it, even with a padded floor.)

· The bottoms of your feet should be the first part of your body to touch the ground. The feet should quickly act as shock absorbers, before your glutes and back also contact the ground. You can also spread the force by touching down with the hands.

EXERCISE X-RAY

For most athletes—no matter how disciplined you are in applying intelligent progressions—there is gonna come a time when, in the process of mastering the front flip, you land on your ass. This, in fact, is a big part of the process. It takes time to gain the power to carry the rotation forwards into a standing or semi-standing position. Embrace back-drop flips as the “missing link”.

REGRESSION

I know I promote drills with minimal equipment, but this sucker is definitely an exception. Always begin this technique with maximum padding to protect your spine. Dragging a thick mattress onto the floor is a good option.

PROGRESSION

At first, you’ll land on your glutes more, and less on your feet. In time, you’ll land with your weight over your feet, until you land in a semi-squat, typically falling back from that position. Once you can land in a semi-squat consistently, it’s time to take the padding away and move to step 9.

WARNING! Vertical is a master acrobat and can perform this exercise safely, even on a hard surface. Beginners should definitely use whatever padding they can find to protect themselves!

STEP NINE: RUNNING FRONT FLIP

PERFORMANCE

· Take a run up of several steps to build momentum.

· Perform a block jump (see page 50) on the floor with both feet.

· Jump up hard, simultaneously throwing your hands down and pulling your curled upper body down at the hips.

· Simultaneously snap your knees up to your chest. The tighter your tuck, the better you will rotate.

· As your rotate over, quickly whip your legs out beneath you.

· Land on the balls of your feet with slightly bent knees to absorb the shock; continue taking a few steps forwards (or even backwards, if you under-rotated) to steady yourself, if you need to.

EXERCISE X-RAY

The Master Step of this chain, the front flip—the hardest variation of this exercise—is performed from standing. This preliminary step, the running front flip, is significantly easier, because taking a run-up—even a few steps—adds forwards momentum to the rotation, as well as vertical momentum (through blocking: see page 41). This drill is used in calisthenics disciplines as diverse as parkour and martial arts “tricking”, and any athlete who reaches this stage should be proud as hell of his or her achievement.

REGRESSION

As with the back-drop flip, a simple way of overcoming fear is to use padding beneath you—a mattress at first, later cushions, pillows and similar lighter padding. This is partly for safety reasons, but is mostly psychological, to help counter the primal fear of crashing. Eventually you must remove all padding—when you do, try the drill on grass if you can.

PROGRESSION

Progress by taking fewer steps in the run-up—this will force your own body to produce the explosive power required to complete the rotation.

TIP: Running too far or too fast can stop you getting maximum height for your rotation. Keep it moderate speed.

MASTER STEP: FRONT FLIP

PERFORMANCE

· Stand with your feet less than shoulder-width apart, and your arms above your head.

· Begin by rising onto your toes to generate a little extra “bounce”.

· Dip down at the knees and hips, and explode your legs upwards as you simultaneously snap your torso and arms downwards.

· The upwards leg push combined with the downwards torso/arm thrust will cause mid-air rotation.

· As soon as the feet leave the floor, tuck the knees into the chest. The tighter you tuck, the quicker you’ll rotate. Speed is of the essence in a standing front flip. On their downwards path, your hands may meet your shins—some athletes even grip their shins or knees to enhance the tuck. (See also the catch tuck jump, page 58.)

· As your rotate over, quickly whip your legs out beneath you.

· Land on the balls of your feet with bent knees to absorb the shock; extend the arms out in front for balance if you need to.

EXERCISE X-RAY

Make no mistake—the front flip is THE explosive exercise par excellence. It is the “super-drill” for any athlete wanting speed, agility and explosive power. All the components of supreme human speed and agility are tested to the max in the front flip: jump velocity, hip and waist explosiveness (in tucking), arm speed, and plyometric force absorption (in landing). Yes, it is easiest to learn front handsprings before exploring back flip work, simply because these the reverse overhead rotation drills are more intimidating—but the front flip is actually the more demanding explosive exercise, both technically and in terms of raw power. There is also a big gap in difficulty between the run-up front flip (step 9) and the standing version, where incredible speed is required—don’t be embarrassed about training using floor padding to drill a standing back-drop front flip variation where you land on your feet then glutes (see step 8). Ultimately, there is only one way to attain the front flip…and that’s by drilling easier steps over, and over, and over again, until the components are like lightning. So get moving!

GOING BEYOND

Many athletes who graduate to at least step 9 of the front flip chain (the running front flip) can consider combining acrobatic movements at this stage, depending how far advanced they are with the back flip chain. None of this is necessary for increased power—it’s a skill feat, really—but some athletes will be interested in expanding their acrobatic repertoire. If you wish to explore combinations, it’s a good idea to add an extra rotational movement to your arsenal: the round-off. The round-off is a lot like a cartwheel. Whereas a cartwheel rotates an athlete sideways, the round-off finishes with a slight turn, leaving you facing the way you came.

THE ROUND OFF

The importance of the round-off for combining acrobatic movements is simple; as the name suggests, it turns you around. You start the movement facing front, and can finish facing 180 degrees the other way. This turns your forward momentum into backwards momentum, for back flips or back handsprings.

Once you have the round-off in your box of tricks, potential combination sequences include:

· Round-off to back handspring

· Round-off to back flip

· Round-off to back handspring to back flip

...etc. Another interesting combination coming from a slightly different idea, is to combine a handstand with a roll into a front flip (see page 168). The movement feels totally different but will perhaps appeal to hand-balancing aficionados: there are very few ways cooler than this for finishing up a handstand, provided you have the space to do it.

THE CARTWHEEL

The cartwheel can be viewed as a basic progression leading to the round-off. Both cartwheels and round-offs are excellent additions to any athlete’s power training regime, in that they add basic lateral rotational power to the body, just as the flips add front-and-back rotational power.

Once you have built up a good repertoire of bodyweight techniques, you can get real creative with your combos. A personal favorite is busting out a front flip from a handstand/roll.

As far as individual techniques go, progressing beyond the front flip is a big task, but it can most certainly be done—such a journey will take you into the sophisticated, asymmetrical-type flipping movements performed in acrobatics, “tricking” and some forms of martial arts.

Bear in mind that these advanced flip forms require incredible skill levels. For sure, many of the athletes who perform them are exceptionally explosive and perhaps even powerful, but it doesn’t follow that progressing from front flips to these movements will add very much more explosiveness to your body. It’s mostly coordination. Explore them if it interests you, but if it’s power and explosiveness you want, you don’t really need to move beyond the standing front flip—you’re better off just improving your form and speed on that exercise, while simultaneously increasing linear progression on your basic jumps and power pushups.

Torque can be applied to the front of back flip variations to ramp up power and difficulty, plus increase muscular involvement.

SMALL SPACE DRILLS

Following are three useful speed and power techniques you can utilize in your routine for variety, as ancillary work or to train your muscles from different angles. They are all solo drills, and they require zero equipment. Unlike the progressive exercises in the chains, most of the following drills can be performed rhythmically for higher reps, and can work well when used with any of the chains in this book. In this sense, they can also work as warm-ups or finishing exercises in an explosives session.

KOJAKS

Bend over and place your palms on the floor, as if you were going to perform a pike pushup. Bend the arms until your skull kisses the floor, then straighten them explosively, enough to push yourself off the ground some way. When your hands leave the floor, quickly slap the top of your head with them, before you fall and have to “catch” yourself again. This is a great preliminary to build the kind of explosive pressing power needed in the front handspring.

THRUSTERS

These are sometimes called “burpees”, depending where you are. In the pushup position explode your knees up into your chest, then immediately thrust them back straight, into the starting position. Essentially this is a kind of prone tucking exercise and is a great example of how some small space drills can be performed for high repetitions for a cardio benefit.

UNILATERAL JUMP

This one’s ideal for the strong brothers and sisters who have mastered the one-leg squat. With one leg chambered, squat down on the loaded leg, and spring back up. You can go all the way down into a “pistol”, but if you do, ensure you pause at the bottom. Plenty of benefits for this move, ranging from increased coordination, landing balance, stronger ankles, etc.

LIGHTS OUT!

I can take a stab at how many folks can do a proper pullup but I can’t predict what percentage of athletes can perform a standing front flip. The number is vanishingly small, even amongst super-athletes like MMA fighters, pro footballers or basketball players. The combination of power, total body speed, agility and skill it takes is tremendous.

If you want to become one of the very few masters of this exercise—you can. It may take years for you to get there or you may achieve it relatively quickly. I can’t know without training you myself. I can promise you this much though—when you get there, you WILL be the most explosive athlete in the room, no matter what else you can or can’t do. In pretty much any room. But it will take time, and it will take dedication.

So many would-be athletes—potential super-men and women—waste their time thinking about training, reading about training, and cruising the internet looking for training info. Can you imagine if you took all that wasted time and channeled it into front flip chain drills, instead? You woulda had this under your belt, years ago!

So, what are you waiting for now?