Right, I am going to get straight into it. I would highly recommed that you learn a front flip on your feet first with no Pro Jumps on, if you can do this then you will not need to worry about the technique so much when coming to your Pro Jumps. I would also reommend that you are very confident on your Pro Jumps and can keep your balance well even after a stumble etc.

The technique.

The first thing you need to do is get the technique down in your head, so you can remember every small aspect of it before attempting the flip. When I was first learning I did this and then every time before I did the trick I would think, "Throw arms up, plant two feet, jump up, tuck etc", until eventually I wouldn't need to think about any of these things and now it is natural. Some people like to just go for it and not think about the technique, I would try and help those people on this page but I would guess that that sort of person wouldn't come to this tutorial.

The idea of a front flip is to run forwards jump onto two feet, punch up (I mean really jump up!) tuck your knees in tight to rotate fully and land back on your feet. Now each aspect of the move needs to be looked at seperately. Try not to overlook any of the points as each one is just as important as the other. However the two most important (in my opinion) I am going to stress now is the timing and to jump up.

The techniques I discuss are aimed at people using Pro Jumps, however as I recommend to learn it on your feet first you should be able to adapt the concepts from this tutorial.

The set up (run up).

Getting a good run up will determine how well you do the entire front flip. Running too slow will cause you to under rotate and maybe go lower. Running too fast may cause you to over rotate.

All that needs to be said about the run up is to make sure that you have a consistent run and each stride is roughly the same height and length as the previous. This will help you when it comes to the take off.

The take off.

I found this was a very important part of doing front flips on Pro Jumps and I spent a while practicing this. Before I did any flips I just ran a long did the take off and tried to clear a gap between two lines or something similar. Gradually making the lines further apart and becoming more competent with my jumping.

You can perform the take off on either leg, it is whichever suits you. To do the take off right this is what I think about in my head. I run along at a speed I feel comfortable with until I feel the right step for my front flip (sometimes a step doesn't feel nice and I will take a couple more before I do the flip). When I want to go for it I push down hard on my take off leg trying to get as much height from one leg as possible. The reason for this is because the more height I have on the bounce before actually doing the flip the higher I will go. So it is extremely important to get a good bounce on your one leg. As you bounce of this leg and jump high, in the air you bring both feet together ready for take off on the front flip. Now the rest of the take off continues in the next two stesp.

Jump Up!

As you are bringing your feet together make sure you keep your whole body upright. Most people have a toendancy to lean too far forwards and therefore eliminate all their height. You do need to lean slightly forwards so that you get the rotation but not much at all, if you think about leaning forwards you will go too far. So concentrate on going upwards and you should naturally lean slightly forwards anyway.

Arms.

Remember we are still on the take off, so you need to think about step 3, 4 and this one all at the same time really. And as I stressed at the beginning it is all about timing everything. I think that the timing just comes with hours and hours of practice.

I throw my arms differently to the way I am going to recommend, only because most people find the way I do it very difficult. The best way to think about throwing your arms is as you are jumping off one foot for the take off your arms should go above your head near to your ears. And then as you come down again a spring off two feet you should jump up but throw your arms down to give you the forward rotation. This is the reason I throw my arms differently, I didn't like to jump up and throw my arms down so I throw them up to get the height and then once I have got the height I throw them forward to get the rotation. It is fairly difficult I have found when teaching to beginners so if you want to learn it just watch some videos of me over and over again!

Tuck.

So you have just jumped as high as you can in the air and are rotating slowly forwards fearing that you are not going to land it. When first learning the move a lot of people will have sort of a spasm in the air and land on their backs or try so hard to land on their feet they end up going sideways and landing on their side! Now what you should do at this point is tuck! This will help you spin very quickly and make it easy to land the flip.

When doing this move on the floor it is recommended to tuck by pulling your knees into your chest, this is different on Pro Jumps because your knee bars are in the way. Some people like to grab these knee bars to tuck and by doing this it definately does help your spin because you actually pull your knees towards you. Other people like to grab just behind their legs on the hamstrings and pull that way. Whichever place you decide to grab make sure you do it and pull your tuck towards yourself to try and make yourself smaller and therefore rotate quicker!

Landing.

Now all that is left to do is spot your landing. If you have had plenty of practice at doing this trick on the floor then you should be able to spot your landing fairly easy. However the only other way I could suggest getting used to this is by doing front flips on a trampoline. You should have enough time to jump up, tuck, feel your self coming down, release your tuck and then land. If you are finding that you spin really fast and just hit into the ground and fall backwards then you are not jumping high enough. If you are jumping high enough you should be able to feel where you are in the air giving you enough time to untuck and land on your feet.

When I first learnt front flips on my Pro Jumps I was worried that I would have no margin of error when landing because it is such a small area to land on. However this is not true, you can under rotate the flip and still manage to keep your balance by stepping backwards once you have landed and then if you over rotate you can step forwards to keep your balance. Ultimately the landing should just come naturally, especially if you can front flip before getting on your Pro Jumps. If you have never landed a front flip on the floor before then it may take you a while to get used to it. Hopefully now you should be standing on your feet thinking, "I've just landed it. This is the best feeling in the world!" I know that's what I thought when I landed my first front flip!

You've done it. Well done.

Full credit to Ian Jamieson from Urban Tricking for this tutorial