Acrobatics are often looked at as somehow not natural movements, this is a false conception I have encountered mentions of flipping and hand balancing in games played by kids world wide, other primates are known to practice somersaults and acrobatics as well.
It is true that they are not generally directly utility movements and the pursuit of acrobatics soley without the development of more basic motor patterns is narrow foundation for developing an overall mover but I believe that if allowed to play and given healthy physical development being able do back flip or front flip is actually just normal motor development for a human being.
And developing these capacities is important, moving in the air without contact with a surface gives us the greatest degrees of freedom in movement the most options and this result in the potential for incredible complexity in motor patterning and tons of novel information for the brain. The ability to orient while flipping and twisting absolutely helps with being able to recover from falls.
Its not to late to start learning either, start with basics, forwards and backwards rolls to develop the sense of rotation, handstands to develop comfort in inversion, pirouetting action for developing horizontal spinning, and the specific take of mechanics of the flip which are distinct from most jumping.
We will be releasing a longer article and guide for basic acrobatics soon but for today I wanted to share the basic idea and encourage you to open to exploring acrobatic capacities.
If already have acrobatic capacities use to day to work on a new trick.
Your inspiration today enjoy this video from Rasmus Ott
