Tumbling Into My Greatest Qualities

By Ella Harrison WHY I CRIED ON THE CLEMSON FOOTBALL FIELD

The crowd roared around me. The air was cool from the raindrops that had fallen just hours before kickoff. However, that is not why goosebumps formed on my arms. I stood in awe of the close to 81,000 people filling Clemson University’s Death Valley.

A pool of tears formed in my eyes. You may think I was holding back tears because I am a die-hard Clemson fan, heartbroken over a loss to South Carolina for the first time since 2013. Not quite. I grew up in Tennessee, and thankfully, the Vols won our rivalry game against Bama and beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl this year. Tears did not threaten to slip down my cheek because I was disheartened; rather I was filled with extreme gratitude.

Taking in the atmosphere at Death Valley. Courtesy: Travis Bell Photography

As I tumbled across Clemson’s end zone in my Furman University cheer uniform, I was transported back to a run-down warehouse next to a laundromat on South Cumberland Street in Morristown, Tennessee. I was back home at Jana’s Gymnastics, running down the singular blue mat at my first tumbling class. This image came to mind because, in that moment, I realized I was living out the dream I held from a young age.

I have been cheering since I was old enough to remember the words of a chant and coordinated enough to put those words with motions. Achieving my goal of cheering at the collegiate level was no easy task. In order to cheer in college, you must have a combination of skills, but one of the most important is terrific tumbling.

Flipping your body in the air in a series of passes requires strength, grace, and confidence. I learned these three qualities throughout 15 years of tumbling, and I have been able to apply them in a multitude of areas of my life.

SUMMON STRENGTH

When I was five years old, my mom enrolled me in my first tumbling class. Since my mom was a cheer coach for our local middle school, she had already taught me the most basic tumbling skills: cartwheels and roundoff (See video posted next to “cartwheel” and “roundoff”). At my first tumbling class at Jana’s, I was able to move on to a back handspring.

• Back Handspring: Athlete starts from the feet and jumps backwards rotating through a handstand position. (Check out this video.)

Although it is the most basic flipping skill, it requires a lot of power from a five-year-old’s body. There were a few times in the beginning of my tumbling career where my arms crumpled under the weight of my own body and my knees smacked into the ground.

In my personal life, I have been faced with obstacles that have resulted in similar outcomes. I felt the sky crashing down on me when I got rejected from my dream school. Then, when I received my first poor grade at Furman, my pride was wounded just as much as my body after a failed somersault. When I am confronted with challenges like this in my personal life, I call on the knowledge I gained through tumbling to pull myself through.

A few faulty flips did not stop me from trying again. The strength I mustered to continue attempting back handsprings is the same grit I used when applying to different colleges. It is the same energy I bring to my rigorous classes at Furman.

Just as many college students do, I have days where I want to throw in the towel. Reminding myself that it is a privilege to receive an education helps me to summon the strength needed to push forward.

GRANT GRACE

After learning the most basic skills such as cartwheels, roundoffs, and back handsprings, cheerleaders learn airborne skills such as tucks and layouts.

• Back Tuck: Flip involving hip-over-head rotation in a tucked position in which the body is bent at the waist and the knees are drawn into the chest. (See a video of a tuck next to “Flip” definition.)

• Layout: An airborne tumbling skill that involves a hip-over-head rotation in a stretched, hollow-body position. (Check out this pass next to the definition of “Layout.”)

• These tricks can be performed standing, but most often cheerleaders do them connected in a running tumbling pass.

In middle school, Jana’s Gymnastics moved to a larger gym where I had room to grow both as an athlete and a person. It was during these years that I learned to connect all the individual skills I had learned into passes like a roundoff back handspring tuck and a roundoff back handspring layout.

Unlike standing tumbling, running passes require more than just sheer strength. Paired with power, they require grace. I had to achieve the perfect balance between the two to be successful.

It was during this stage in life that I learned the importance of grace in my relationships with family and friends. It is essential to stand up for yourself but having the maturity to forgive is just as important. This value is one that I constantly must be cognizant of.

CONCRETE CONFIDENCE

Once I had a foundational understanding of airborne skills, I was able to add twisting elements to my tumbling.

• Full: 360-degree rotation during a backflip. (You can find a video of this skill beside “full” definition.)

Out of all the flipping skills I have attempted, a full requires the most confidence. When doing a full, you cannot see the ground because of the spinning. This requires total confidence in yourself to execute the skill successfully and then land with sure footing.

I pursued a full at a point in my life when I faced a great amount of change. I chose a college three hours from all things familiar and I was about to be a member of a cheer team where I knew no one. When it came time to move to Greenville, South Carolina for school, it took confidence to go through with the plans I had made.

I had to believe that I had all the attributes needed to flourish during my college years and beyond. Furthermore, I had to have the confidence to actually implement strength and grace in leaving my family and forming new friendships.

TURN TEARS INTO GRINS

The smile shown in the picture to the right is the smile of the girl who just tumbled in Clemson’s endzone after a Furman touchdown. That same smile glowed on my face almost 15 years ago at Jana’s Gymnastics when I did my back handspring for the first time.

Post Tumbling Pass. Courtesy: Travis Bell Photography

Just because I have accomplished my goal of cheering in college does not mean I have become complacent with my tumbling skills. Collegiate cheerleading presents new challenges as you must learn to tumble on new surfaces. It is a continual learning process, but being able to rely on strength, grace, and confidence makes that test achievable.

My grin lifts similarly when I accomplish a task outside of cheer. As a person, I am continually evolving, and I know I will do so throughout my entire life. But with strength, grace, and confidence in a perfect balance, I can flip over any challenge triumphantly.