Backflips For Bants
Doing a backflip is undeniably a cool thing to master - so I mastered it.
It stemmed from a conversation with a friend over Nandos, me saying something along the lines of, how cool would it be to backflip. No further information was required, it just sounded lit to do.
As you can imagine my friend agreed and the next steps were find a place to teach me how to even backflip.
Looking back when I am 50 (iA) seeing videos of me backflip, knowing I took that risk, will definitely never get old.
See below, an image I had in my head of doing a backflip - the tricky part was getting from dude 3 to 8 without breaking my neck.
Visual representation of a well performed backflip.
Now it was time to manifest this technique.
The journey to find a coach took a quick google search, finding a gymnastics gym close to me and enrolling for an adults gym class.
Driving to this gymnastics class for the first time, I was psyching myself for the flip.
I get to the front counter, and say, I’m here for the 8pm class, I’m actually wanting to learn how to backflip.
The coach (who I assume is the coach) looks at me like okay mate, let’s get you warmed up.
Now, before going further into this story, a core learning and what some fail to forget is, 80% of success is just showing up. So just turning up and ensuring you are consistently doing this, will allow you to achieve your goals. Simple.
After a few warm up activities of doing what I view as pretty random exercises, rolling backwards on a mat which had a slight decline, jumping up and down on a trampoline and even using stretch bands to limber up my shoulders.
I’ve never done any form of gymnastics before, so of course all of this was relatively new to me, I didn’t dispute it, rather just continued with the motions.
The session went on, and after the hour I realised I was likely no closer to backflipping…
The second week came - same thing.
Third week - similar, but a little more emphasis on the jumping and technique in terms of tucking knees to chest.
It wasn’t until the fourth week, that we decided to try out the flip - usually the coach will have his hand on your lower back to support you. A sense of comfort knowing they can correct your positioning mid-air - people tend to close their eyes hoping for the best in these situations. Which is hella dangerous and is the thing which causes injuries the majority of the time.
I haven’t got any video content around that - but just know there is a story around that. Shoutout to the hotel doctor at the resort in Tunisia for saving me.
An initial attempt at the flip - evidence that not everything always goes to plan
But then… The backflip of the century - next stop olympics.
Having fun with it - doing a cartwheel into a backflip (in record slow time)
Ultimately my reason for doing a backflip wasn’t to get into any form of gymnastics in the future.
I wanted to show myself that I could actually foster enough courage and determination to actually do something quite technically challenging - and I did.
It wasn’t until showing my parents these videos (who are doctors fyi) did my career in gymnastics end…
“You could have broken your neck” - this was my mums sentiment.
“Do you know how many people come with broken bones doing stuff like this” - this was my dads.
Thankfully I didn’t get seriously injured. But if I had, daym boy that woulda been it.
Okay, since it was just a backflip and I didn’t enter the Olympics, I’ll keep this post short. For me, having video footage and documenting it out the way I have hopefully provides some inspiration for those amongst you who are interested in picking up an activity like this.
Definitely one I will show to the grandkids.
