The cartwheel

1Why this matters

The cartwheel gets its name from the spokes of a turning cart wheel: your arms and legs pass over one by one while your body turns sideways. Children have done cartwheels for centuries, and gymnasts use them on the floor and even on the 10 cm wide balance beam. It is the first skill in which you travel through a handstand, so it builds directly on the last lesson.

2The cartwheel, step by step

These steps are for a right-foot lead. For a left-foot lead, swap every "right" and "left". Work on a mat or soft grass along a straight line.

1. Start: stand facing along the line in a lunge, right foot in front, arms straight up beside your ears, hips square.
2. Reach: push off your front leg and reach forward and down. Place your right hand on the line, then your left hand further along it, shoulder-width apart. Your body turns sideways as the hands go down.
3. Kick: kick your left (back) leg up and over, followed by the right, so that your legs pass over your head in a wide straddle. Keep your arms and legs straight and your stomach tight.
4. Land: put your left foot down on the line, then your right foot, as your hands leave the ground.
5. Finish: stand up in a lunge facing back the way you came, arms stretched up.

The rhythm is even: hand, hand, foot, foot, like four beats of a drum.

3Progressions

1. Bunny hops over a line: hands on one side of a rope on the ground, jump both feet over to the other side and back, landing softly. This teaches you to take your weight on your hands while your legs travel sideways.
2. Bench hops: the same with your hands on a bench and your feet jumping from one side of it to the other.
3. Bent-leg cartwheel: the full movement with the knees bent. A smaller shape is easier to control.
4. Target cartwheel: two hoops or chalk handprints on the line show where the hands go; a third mark shows where the first foot lands.
5. Straight-leg cartwheel on both sides, then two cartwheels linked.

Worked example: marking a cartwheel

The class uses a checklist of five points, one mark each: (1) lunge start with arms up; (2) hands placed one after the other on the line; (3) legs pass high over the head, straight and apart; (4) feet land one after the other on the line; (5) controlled finish facing back, arms up.

Aline's cartwheel: good lunge start (1 mark); both hands landed together, not one after the other (0); legs straight and high (1); her second foot landed 40 cm off the line (0); controlled finish (1).

Score: 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 = 3 marks out of 5.

Analysis: both lost marks come from the same cause. Placing her hands together makes her body jump rather than turn, so she drifts off the line. The one correction to give her is: "Hand, hand: put them down one after the other along the line." Target hoops for her hands would help.

Practice

Solution. The arms and legs move round one after another like the spokes of a turning cart wheel.

Solution. The right hand touches first. The left foot, which kicked up first, lands first, then the right foot.

Solution. Kick the back leg up harder and keep it straight; squeeze the stomach so the body stays in line. He could also use the bent-leg version first and then straighten the legs step by step.

Solution. 4 marks out of 5. Point 3 needs work: the legs did not pass high over the head, straight and apart.

Solution. It teaches you to take your weight on your hands while your legs travel sideways over an obstacle, which is the key feeling of the cartwheel, at a lower and safer height.