Learn the Back Kaboom on Trampoline

The back kaboom on trampoline can be one of the most important skills for gymnasts to learn on trampoline.

We use the back kaboom as one of our prerequisites before an athlete is allowed to flip a Yurchenko vault to a landing surface. And for that matter any type of twisting yurchenko vaults too.

Learn to teach the trampoline kaboom without spotting!

Before going straight to learning the kaboom on trampoline there are 3 prerequisite skills for the kaboom

  1. Back drop with pullover to table bounce
  2. Back drop with pullover to feet
  3. Back tuck salto on trampoline

Safety Warning: Teach your athletes to keep their arms over their head throughout the initial learning phases.

Step 1. In this first step we want to teach the athletes to learn the angle of the backdrop on trampoline with body tension.

Have the athlete start as far back as possible on the trampoline to jump up swinging arms overhead and traveling forward with a hip lift landing on 2 soft 8″ mats stacked up in a tight straight (hollow chest) position. This is lining the athlete’s body up for the correct back drop landing position with the shoulders hitting the trampoline first and the legs/feet “slapping” the trampoline. The athlete MUST maintain body tension throughout this drill. This is the time it is important to keep the athlete’s arms over their head and work the body tension. Once they are starting to go up onto their hands you will want to move onto step 2 of learning the back kaboom on trampoline.

Step 2. Learn to create rotation for the kaboom on trampoline.

The initial key to this phase is maintaining the correct angle of landing on their back without the mat stack. Once this is accomplished the kaboom starts to rotate over by itself. (Remember our safety warning when we said to “Teach your athletes to keep their arms over their head throughout the initial learning phases”?) Watch for a nice hip lift and rotation at this phase before moving onto Step 3. Once you are seeing consistent kaboom back handspring rotation move onto Step 3 the exciting part, performing a tuck kaboom on trampoline! 

Step 3. Performing a tuck kaboom on trampoline

At this point when you are ready to perform your first kaboom we give the athletes an option of going with or without having a soft mat slid onto the trampoline. We want the athletes to enjoy learning this skill as it is a lifelong vault drill for the Yurchenko’s. Most athletes will have no problem rotating their first kaboom if step 2 was followed correctly. Understand as a coach that an under-rotated kaboom on trampoline should land in a round shape table bounce position like in the prerequisites at the beginning. 

Once we have our athletes flipping their kabooms on trampoline we spend time working on the tuck shape making sure the athletes head position remains neutral with the back. We like the athletes to bring the arms up and into the chest to help hold a round shape with the eyes spotting the trampoline.

More Notes about the Kaboom on Trampoline:

Shortly after learning the tuck kaboom, we try to move our athletes onto kaboom tuck twisting in ½ increments and learning a layout kaboom at the same time.

Enjoy, be patient, and implement this into your vault program. It’s worth it!!!

Other events from How To Gymnastics:

Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautions before following any of the exercises from this article and website. To avoid any problems while doing the exercises, it is advised that you consult a medical professional and are supervised by a gymnastics professional. The responsibility lies solely with the reader and not with the site or the writers.

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