by site editor Rick McCharles
Mas Watanabe posted some basic drills on The Gymnastics Minute for improving the “alignment” of round-off. (see the video here)
Without question of the tumbling “basics”, round-off is the most problematic.
In reality, mistakes in round-off are taught at a very early stage. These drills (and others) must be introduced and improved by a very sophisticated coach, one with a good eye for detail. This is one reason that the Head Coaches must be closely involved with precomp classes.
My own system is to delay the round-off as long as possible, instead challenging beginners with accelerating cartwheel series. When gymnasts can do cartwheel series both directions fairly well, they won’t have major problems learning round-off.
That said, I’ve seen World Champions at World Championships doing basic round-off drills on the podium. This is one basic you should never stop training.
When it comes to difficult skills like round-off, go slow to go fast.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 