A Fall in Grace : Power Tumblers Get the Jump on Strength, Speed and Skill

At the tender age of 13, Tanya Carr felt burned out and washed up as a gymnast.

“I got tired of practicing for 24 hours a week,” she said. “I wanted to have a life.”

Carr also felt buried in the gymnastic hierarchy, too old even as a teen-ager to have a decent shot at achieving national ranking. So she quit gymnastics and turned to power tumbling.

There are no America’s sweethearts like Mary Lou Retton in power tumbling, but attracted by the sport’s requirements of strength and grace, children and adults are taking it up in increasing numbers.

Although fewer than 1,200 athletes participated in power tumbling five years ago, according to the USA Tumbling and Trampoline Assn., more than 5,000 compete today.

Power tumbling is taught at the Orange County Tumbling Academy in Irvine, and at a few other gyms in Orange County, where top athletes and beginners mingle on the mats in one of the more energetic of summer’s recreational offerings.

“What kid doesn’t like to somersault and tumble?” asked Tim Schlosser, national coaching director for the USA Tumbling and Trampoline Assn.

Tumbling, he said, is a simple form of recreation.

“You’re talking about one piece of equipment, a mat, so the cost of equipment start-up is minimal,” Schlosser said. “A lot of organizations like the Boys Club [of America] like tumbling because they don’t need a lot of space.”

At the sport’s highest level, watching a power tumbler is like witnessing a series of firecracker explosions.

Muscular thighs churning, they race down a 60-foot runway and leap into the air, landing in a crouch. At this point, their body is like a compressed spring, and now the real action starts.

Ever been impressed by watching someone do a back flip or handstand? Try a series of eight consecutive power moves like double flips and aerial somersaults in the pike position--all at the speed of a 78-r.p.m. record.

“Power tumbling is all about power, grace and more power,” Schlosser said.

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Like gymnastics, children as young as 5 can get involved in power tumbling. Some go on to competitive tumbling, while other youngsters “just stick around because they enjoy it,” said Carr, a Laguna Hills resident who also teaches youngsters at the Tumbling Academy.

Although power tumbling often loses top athletes to the lure of gymnastics, it also draws many teen-age gymnasts who are burned out by the rigorous practice regimen demanded by some coaches.

Carr, 16, practices only one event instead of the four required in gymnastics. “I have more time to be a kid,” she said.

Last month, Carr finished third in her age group at the USA Tumbling and Trampoline’s national championships in Denver and is considered ready to move into the sport’s adult elite rankings by next year.

Carr has a long athletic future before her, because unlike gymnasts who often peak by age 18, power tumblers are in their prime during their mid-20s.

“That’s because more strength is required to do the tricks,” said Rudy Markham, who coaches at the Tumbling Academy.

Comparisons to gymnastics are easily made. And there is some resentment toward gymnastics among power tumblers who feel left out of the glory handed out to Olympic gymnasts.

To make matters worse, occasionally a promising young tumbler will defect to gymnastics.

“I’ve lost some really exceptional kids” to the Olympic dream, Markham said. “Their parents say, ‘Maybe we should try gymnastics,’ and all of a sudden they’re gone.”

Those who guide power tumbling are acutely aware of their sport’s second-class status. But in recent years, steps have been taken to emphasize power tumbling’s natural flamboyance and get people excited about the sport.

The biggest changes have affected the running mat. In the early 1980s, that’s all it was: a two-inch slab of foam rubber.

Today, the mat is more like a mini-springboard. A three-inch-thick piece of fiberglass, it sits on a series of thin, flexible wooden slats spaced about three inches apart. The effect is a bit like bouncing on a trampoline.

“The skills people can perform now, the level of difficulty, is amazing,” Schlosser said. “It revolutionized the sport, without a doubt.”

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Whether the revolution will vault power tumbling into the Olympics any time soon is uncertain.

Ann Sims, executive director of the USA Tumbling and Trampoline Assn., said power tumbling, which disappeared from the Olympics in 1932, might be designated an exhibition sport in the 2004 games. Even then, “everything is a maybe,” she said. “There are so many other sports in line.”

But that might be OK with some power tumblers like Carr, who knows that pursuing Olympic gold can sometimes be more plague than pleasure.

“When I was younger, I really wanted to be in the Olympics bad. But as I started getting older, I really saw how hard it is,” Carr said. “It’s a good goal, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it anymore.”

Today, she practices 10 hours a week, goes out with her friends and participates in an occasional national meet.

“We’re out here for the fun of it,” she said. “Tumbling is something I really enjoy.”