Personal Narrative: I Survived My First Back Handspring

I Survived My First Back Handspring

Tumbling is one of the things I hate the most. Some people might think that flipping your own body over to do flips is really cool and exhilarating to do. I, on the other hand, hate tumbling. Tumbling is the act, practice, or art of performing acrobatic tumbles, usually on a mat or the ground. Tumbling is a part of my passion, known as all-star or competitive cheerleading.

A back handspring is one of the more basic skills of tumbling. When I was younger, I was being taught how to do a back handspring. I was very good at doing them with a spotter helping me. I eventually became too good to need a spot, so I was told to do the back handspring by myself. Tumbling is 90% mental and 10% physical. At this point, I was terrified to do a back handspring by myself and I started to cry. Fortunately, all of my teammates and coaches cheered me on and I gained enough courage to do it. I did the back handspring perfectly fine, other than me bending my arms and bumping my head on the floor. The feeling after landing my first back handspring by myself was amazing.
No words are able to describe how terrified I was to do my back handspring by myself. Looking back at it now, this experience has become funny to me. Now, I am able to do back handsprings with no problems. I still hate tumbling, back handsprings are really fun and easy for me to do