What Is Tumbling in Cheer?

Quick answer: tumbling is the floor-based acrobatic skills in a cheer routine - rolls, cartwheels, walkovers, handsprings and airborne skills like tucks and layouts - performed standing still or running into a pass.

What Tumbling Covers

Tumbling is one of the core skill categories judged in competitive cheer, alongside stunts, jumps and motions. It's typically broken into a few broad families:

• Foundations - forward rolls, backward rolls, cartwheels, round-offs and handstands.
• Walkovers - front and back walkovers, which move through a handstand-like position without leaving the ground entirely.
• Handsprings - front and back handsprings, performed either standing or running into the skill.
• Saltos and advanced skills - airborne skills such as a tuck, layout, full or double full, which involve leaving the ground with no hands touching down.

Standing vs Running Tumbling

Tumbling passes are generally described as either standing (starting from a stationary position) or running (using a run-up, usually starting with a round-off, to build speed and power). Running tumbling is generally considered more advanced than the equivalent standing skill.

How Tumbling Fits Into a Routine

Most routines include one or more tumbling passes performed by multiple athletes at once, timed to match the music and formation changes. Tumbling difficulty and execution are judged similarly to stunts - harder skills score more, but only if performed cleanly.

Level Context

Which tumbling skills a team is allowed to perform is set by their level - see Levels Explained for how the level system works, and Level 1 and Level 2 for concrete examples of what changes between levels.