Practicing the Landing Position
Lie down on your belly with your hands below your face. Get into the middle of the trampoline and stretch out flat on your belly with your legs straight behind you and your toes pointed. Bend your arms at the elbows so that they make a diamond shape with your hands meeting just under your face. Raise your head slightly so that you are looking in front of you (e.g., at the far wall of the gym) rather than staring down at the trampoline. Lie in this position for a moment until you get a sense of how it is supposed to feel.
Get onto your hands and knees and start bouncing. From the front drop position, get up onto your hands and knees. Keep your feet and knees together and your arms straight, with your hands and elbows positioned directly beneath your shoulders. Once you’re in this position, push down through your hands and knees to begin bouncing. Bounce a few times until you get into a comfortable rhythm.
Practice dropping into the front drop from your hands and knees. Once you get a rhythm going, push your legs out behind you and your arms out in front of you with your elbows bent as you bounce up. You should land in your original front drop position.Tip: To prevent scraping your elbows and knees as you master this exercise, wear long sleeves and sweatpants or leggings that cover your knees. Be mindful of what your hands and arms are doing as you drop. You want to land with your elbows out to your sides and your hands meeting directly beneath your face on the trampoline.
Bounce between the front drop and your hands and knees. When you drop into the front drop position, quickly get back onto your hands and knees as you begin to naturally bounce up again from the drop. Keep repeating this process (bouncing from your hands and knees into the drop and back again) until you develop an easy, natural rhythm. Once you feel comfortable entering the front drop from your hands and knees, try jumping in and out of the front drop from a low, crouching position.
Performing a Full Front Drop
Stand in the center of the trampoline. When you’re ready to do a full front drop, stand with both feet in the middle of the trampoline. If you’re on a gymnastic trampoline, position your feet on the cross in the center. Keep your feet and knees together and your arms at your sides.
Start with a low bounce. Bend your knees slightly and push off with your toes to begin bouncing. As you lift off from the trampoline, swing your arms slightly forward, then let them drop back down to your sides again as you land. Keep bouncing like this until you get into a comfortable rhythm.
Raise your arms and push your toes in deeper to gain height. After doing a few bounces, move into higher jumps. Land with your feet flat on the trampoline, then push down hard with your toes. Raise your arms in front of you and then above your head as you lift off. Keep jumping until you achieve a comfortable height and rhythm. Keep your head and upper body as still as you can throughout the jump. At the top of each jump, your fingers should be pointed up and your toes should be pointed down. Flatten your feet and bring your arms back to your sides as you land.
Push your hips backwards slightly as you jump to begin the drop. Once you’ve taken a few big jumps, start moving into the front drop position. To do this, push your hips back a little as you lift off in your next jump. Otherwise, keep your posture the same as you would for a regular jump, with your arms straight above your head and your legs extended straight beneath you. Don’t change anything except for the position of your hips. This will be enough to shift your center of gravity forward so that you start to drop. Keep looking straight ahead rather than at the trampoline. If you look down, you might go into a “dive” position rather than dropping flat on your torso. Try to maintain your position in the center of the trampoline. You want only your hips to move at this point, not your feet. If you move too far forward or back, you could hit the frame of the trampoline.
Bend your arms into a diamond shape with your hands in front of your face. As you begin to fall, bend your arms at the elbows while still keeping them in line with your shoulders. Move your hands in front of your face, palms out, with your fingers slightly overlapping. Your arms should now form a diamond shape around your face. This position will help evenly distribute the shock of your landing and can also help prevent your chin from hitting the trampoline bed. You can also use your hands and elbows to help you bounce back from the front drop position. Keep your head and upper body as still as possible as you enter the drop. If you bend or move your head or upper torso, you can throw yourself off balance and land incorrectly.
Land flat on the front of your torso. Ideally, your hips should land where your feet were when you began the jump. Keep your knees slightly bent as you drop, and keep your core muscles tight and engaged.Did you know? Mastering the front drop will prepare you to learn a variety of more advanced techniques, such as the half airplane, cruise, and three-quarter back cody. You should land simultaneously on your hands and elbows, chest, belly, hips, and thighs. If the landing isn’t distributed evenly across all those points, you could injure your back, shoulders, or face. As you land, keep looking straight ahead instead of looking down at the trampoline. This will help you land flat and prevent you from tipping forward so that you land head and shoulders first. Once you’ve landed, push back off with your arms and legs and return to a standing position.
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