How to do a cartwheel: the hand and foot pattern, wrist and shoulder strength, progressions for children and adults, landing safely, and who should wait

Hand, hand, foot, foot

Lunge in with your arms by your ears, place one hand then the other on a line, take your legs over in a wide V, and land one foot at a time, finishing in a lunge facing back the way you came.

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Learn it low first

Coaches start with your hands down and a small sideways hop of the feet, then the hands on a low bench, then a low cartwheel with bent legs along a line. Clean and low comes before high.

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It loads your wrists

Gymnastics can put 2 to 4 times body weight through the wrists, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. In young gymnasts, turning the first hand along the line and the second hand in (a T shape) loaded the wrist and elbow less than other hand positions. Prepare your wrists every session.

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Land on your feet, and fall well

Most children's gymnastics injuries are to the arms, and wrist and forearm fractures from bracing a fall are commonest in younger children. Practise on a soft surface, and if you fall, tuck and roll rather than putting out a straight arm.

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Children and adults both learn it

Gymnastics lessons improved children's movement skills, including 7-year-olds' cartwheels. Young adults have been taught the cartwheel in a study, though the evidence for adults is indirect. No study has timed how long it takes.

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No 3D demo of the cartwheel

Our figure shows the drills instead: the lunge, wrist rocks, the bear crawl and the half handstand at the wall, the upside-down shape a cartwheel passes through. The sideways hop and the cartwheel itself are written steps.

The skill

You travel sideways along a line, turning over through a brief handstand with your legs wide, from one foot to your hands to the other foot. The sideways cartwheel comes first; the cartwheel that starts facing along the line, with a quarter turn, leads on to the round-off.

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What it asks

Wrists and shoulders that take your weight briefly, one hand at a time; a trunk that holds a straight, open-legged shape; and legs that drive the lunge and the kick. How you place your hands and how much your elbows bend change the load on your wrists and elbows.

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What you need to start

A steady lunge and the ability to take your weight on your hands for a moment. You don't need the splits or a handstand to start, though tight shoulders and hips make a straight cartwheel harder.

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How people differ

Some children get it straight away and others take years, a UK coaching sheet says. Most people have a lead side: usually the leg you naturally step forward with. Size and shape change how a cartwheel feels, not whether you can learn it.

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1. Bear crawl

The move page's dose: 4 crawls of 8 to 10 metres, forwards and back, resting as needed (our editorial starting point). For children, across the room and back, as our animal moves workout does.

2. The sideways bunny hop

Hands down on a line or in a hoop, hop both feet across to the other side, low and close. The move page's dose for lateral monkey travel: 3 to 5 sets of 6 passes, resting a minute between sets (our editorial starting point). NRG's coaching sheet notes that early attempts may just be bunny-hopping round from two feet to two feet.

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3. Hands on a low bench

Hands on the end of a padded bench or a sturdy step, hop your feet round to the floor on the other side, lifting your legs a little higher each time: 5 to 10 each way (our editorial dose).

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4. The half handstand at the wall

2 holds of 20 seconds, as our gymnastics warm-up does, building to 3 holds of 20 to 30 seconds, as our handstand progression does. It teaches the straight arms and stacked shoulders a cartwheel passes through.

5. A low cartwheel along a line

Bent legs, a small kick, and the hand order right: 5 to 10 attempts on your lead side (our editorial dose). Kick a little higher as it gets cleaner.

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6. The full cartwheel

Legs wide and straight over the top, landing one foot at a time in a lunge. Coaches use a padded wall behind the learner to straighten the line, and spot from behind at the hips.

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The T shapeEmerging evidence

In young gymnasts, the T shape (first hand turned along the line, second hand turned in) loaded the wrist and elbow less than both hands parallel or reversed, and more bend in the elbow lowered the force. These are lab studies of 10 to 17 gymnasts.

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Wrist pain

Wrist pain is common in people who take their weight on their hands: about half of adolescent artistic gymnasts in pooled studies, and 57% of adults who practise handstands in one survey. Build up the number of cartwheels gradually.

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Land one foot at a time

The first foot lands close to your hand, then the second, and you finish in a lunge. The commonest exit fault coaches see is the first foot landing too far from the hand, so you can't stand up.

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If you fall, tuck and roll

Younger gymnasts often reach out with an arm to brace a fall, which is how wrist and forearm fractures happen. Rolling into a tuck instead is what the authors of one emergency department study suggest. The forward shoulder roll teaches it.

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A soft surface and space

Grass, a gym mat or a carpet, with nothing to hit. Avoid hard or slippery floors.

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Gymnastics is good for children's movementEmerging evidence

In 333 primary school children, 16 weeks of gymnastics lessons improved balance and ball skills more than ordinary PE, and in 300 preschoolers, 36 weeks of developmental gymnastics improved motor skill scores. The NHS lists gymnastics among the activities that strengthen children's muscles and bones.

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The cartwheel takes timeEmerging evidence

In 75 seven-year-olds, 18 weeks of gymnastics lessons moved their cartwheel scores from about 1.5 to 2.7 out of 5. The authors call it a complex skill at that age.

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How to help

Use markers for the hands and feet (a hoop for the hands helps), start with sideways hops, and keep sessions short on a soft surface. To spot, stand behind the child on their lead side and support their hips with your hands. Showing as well as telling helped children learn gymnastics shapes more than words alone in one trial.

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Growing wrists and backs

Wrist pain is common in young gymnasts, and the growth plate at the end of the forearm bone is at risk from repeated weight-bearing. Wrist pain that is still there the day after training, or a swollen wrist, means stopping weight-bearing on the hands and seeing a GP or sports doctor, as our gymnast's wrist guide says.

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Adults can learn itMixed evidence

The evidence is indirect. Young adults aged 17 to 26 were taught the cartwheel in a study; many students arriving at a sports science degree did it poorly until taught; and adults learned movement sequences as fast as children in a lab task. No study has followed adult beginners learning it.

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Go slower with your wrists

If your wrists aren't used to your weight, spend a few weeks on the wrist moves, bear crawls and the half handstand at the wall before full cartwheels (our suggestion).

One side firstEmerging evidence

In the one learning study, practising one side at a time worked better than switching sides each time. Add the other side once your lead side is steady.

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Children's gymnastics injuriesStrong evidence

In US emergency department data, children's gymnastics injuries ran at about 4.8 a year per 1,000 participants, 42% were to the arms, and 97% went home the same day. Wrist and forearm fractures from bracing falls were commonest in younger children.

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Cartwheel injuries are rare in the recordEmerging evidence

Injuries named as happening in a cartwheel appear only in single case reports, such as an elbow dislocation in a 13-year-old gymnast.

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Wrist load and hand positionEmerging evidence

Gymnastics can put 2 to 4 times body weight through the wrists. The T-shaped hand position and slightly bent elbows lowered wrist and elbow loading in young gymnasts in lab studies.

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The teaching orderEmerging evidence

Coaching sheets teach the sideways hop, then the bench, then the low and full cartwheel. One school acrobatics curriculum taught the handstand and bridge before the cartwheel, then the round-off. Our gymnast's wrist guide brings cartwheels back after hanging skills and before flight skills.

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LearningEmerging evidence

Practising one side at a time beat switching sides in 32 young adults; showing plus telling beat words alone in children; and 18 weeks of lessons improved 7-year-olds' cartwheels. Small studies.

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A long gap between the first and second hand

Often because the learner is counting. Keep both arms by your ears so the second hand follows straight after the first.

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Shoulders collapsing and the back arching

Push the floor away with straight arms, as in the half handstand at the wall.

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Legs swinging round the side

Kick higher a little at a time, and practise along a line or with a padded wall behind you.

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The first foot landing far from the hand

You can't stand up. Bring the first foot down close to your hand.

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Finishing facing forward

The second foot lands behind the first and you turn out. Place it slightly in front and look back the way you came.

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Looking around

Keep your eyes on the floor between your hands.

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Short sessions

Our editorial starting point: 2 or 3 sessions a week, 10 to 15 minutes, with 5 to 10 good attempts on the side you're working on. Kangaroo Hoppers suggests 2 to 3 sessions a week and 3 to 5 full attempts once you're ready.

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Stop while it's clean

Stop when your attempts get sloppy, your wrists ache or you feel dizzy (our suggestion). You don't need to train to failure, as our plans' shared notes say.

How long it takes

No study has timed it, for children or adults. Our estimate: a few sessions to a few weeks for a low cartwheel with the right order, and longer for straight legs over the top.

One-handed cartwheels, round-offs and aerials

These come next in gymnastics and belong with a coach; our gymnastics page covers the sport. Our handstand guide uses the cartwheel as the safe way out of a handstand.

A wrist or elbow injury

Leave cartwheels until taking your weight on your hands is comfortable (our suggestion, as our handstand guide says for handstands).

Pregnancy

Not the time to learn: the NHS advises against sports or activities with a risk of falling in pregnancy (our suggestion, from the NHS exercise in pregnancy page, as our handstand guide says for handstands).

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Osteoporosis or a high risk of falling

Freestanding practice risks falls. Keep to wall work with someone beside you, or skip it (our suggestion).

A cartwheel is a falling skill, so keep to the wall and hands-down drills (our suggestion).

Dizziness or a recent head injury

Stop if you feel dizzy or light-headed. Keep a counter or wall within reach, and have someone nearby for the hardest moves if you've fallen recently (our suggestion, as in our older adults guide).

After a concussion, follow our concussion guide's return before anything upside down (our suggestion).

Check with a GP first

Speak to a GP first if you haven't exercised for some time, or if you have a medical condition or concerns. Get advice first, too, if you have a health problem, an injury or symptoms, have recently had a heart attack or an operation, or are pregnant or have recently given birth.

Glaucoma

A cartwheel is upside down for well under a second, and no study has measured eye pressure in one. Follow your eye specialist's advice on inversions, and leave out the handstand drills unless they agree (our suggestion).

After a fall onto your hand

Call 999 or go to A&E after an injury (don't drive yourself) if the arm, wrist or hand is numb, tingling or has pins and needles; a bone is sticking out or a bad cut is bleeding heavily; or the wrist, thumb or a finger has changed shape, is at an odd angle, or has turned blue, grey, white or cold.

Same day: after a fall onto an outstretched hand, pain or tenderness at the base of the thumb on the back of the wrist (the hollow called the snuffbox), even if the wrist moves well or the first X-ray was normal. A broken scaphoid can hide on the first X-ray and is slow to heal if it's missed, so ask what follow-up is planned.

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NHS 111: your wrist

For severe wrist pain, feeling faint, dizzy or sick from the pain, a snap, grinding or popping noise at the time of an injury, a wrist you can't move or hold things with, a wrist that has changed shape or colour, a very painful, hot or red lump, or lost feeling in your hand (in the US, urgent care). See a GP if wrist pain hasn't improved after 2 weeks.

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A growing gymnast's wrist

An ache on the back or thumb side of the wrist, just above the crease, in a growing gymnast (or cheerleader or diver) that builds with training and may still hurt the next day: possibly gymnast's wrist, a stress injury of the growth plate. Stop weight-bearing on the hands and get it checked: it needs weeks to months off hand loading, not a few days.

A knock to the head

Anyone who might have a concussion stops at once and doesn't play, train or do PE again for at least 24 hours. Get them assessed within 24 hours by a healthcare professional or NHS 111, and call 999 for red flags such as getting drowsier, repeated vomiting, a fit or a worsening headache (the full list is below). Fewer than 1 in 10 concussions involve being knocked out.

A fall onto your head or neck

Call 999 or go to A&E after a neck injury if the person is unresponsive, has severe neck pain or cannot move their head, has fallen from a height such as 5 or more stairs, or is drunk or has taken recreational drugs. Do not drive yourself. Being 65 or over, a dangerous fall or crash (from more than 1 metre or 5 stairs, diving, a high-speed or rollover crash, being thrown from a vehicle, a bicycle collision or an accident on a motorised recreational vehicle), or tingling in the arms or legs after an injury puts you at high risk of a broken neck: get checked.

A child's or teenager's back pain after walkovers or round-offs

A teenager in a sport that arches or twists the back, such as gymnastics, dance, diving, volleyball, cricket fast bowling, baseball pitching, weightlifting, football or rugby, with back pain that lasts more than a couple of weeks, is worse arching back or stops them training: get it checked by a GP or sports physiotherapist. It can be a stress fracture in the spine.

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Stop and get help: chest pain, faintness, breathlessness or a racing heart

Stop exercising straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell. Call 999 (911 in the US) for chest pain that doesn't go away or spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, chest pain with sweating, feeling sick, light-headed or short of breath, fainting while exercising, or a pounding, fluttering or irregular heartbeat with chest pain, breathlessness or feeling faint.

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Call 999: a sudden, severe headache

A headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while straining, can be a bleed on the brain. A headache brought on or made worse by exercise, coughing or bending down needs an urgent GP appointment or NHS 111 (in the US, your doctor or urgent care).

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Urgent GP appointment or NHS 111: your shoulder

For sudden or very bad shoulder pain, an arm you can't move, a shoulder that has changed shape or is badly swollen, pins and needles that don't go away, no feeling in your arm, an arm that is hot or cold to touch, or pain that started after a fall or injury. See a GP if shoulder pain gets worse or hasn't improved after 2 weeks.

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During any session

Stop straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell, the NHS says, and contact 111 if your symptoms worry you or don't go away.

A dull ache in your muscles for a day or two after something new is normal. Joint pain that's sharp, gets worse during a set or lingers into the next day means switching to the easier option, and seeing a GP or physiotherapist if it carries on (our plans' rule). Our muscle soreness guide has more.

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"Only children can learn a cartwheel"Mixed evidence

No study supports it. Young adults have been taught the cartwheel in a study, and adults learned movement sequences as fast as children in a lab task; the evidence is indirect. Adults learn with the same drills, often more slowly with their wrists.

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"You need the splits or a handstand first"Emerging evidence

A steady lunge and brief weight on your hands are enough to start, though tight shoulders and hips make a straight cartwheel harder.

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"Throw yourself into it and your body will work it out"Emerging evidence

Coaches teach it in parts, low before high, and falls onto an outstretched arm are the commonest way children are hurt in gymnastics.

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"Practise both sides from the start"Emerging evidence

In the one learning study, practising one side at a time beat alternating sides. Add the other side once the first is steady.

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"Wrist guards prevent wrist pain"Mixed evidence

The American Academy of Pediatrics lists wrist braces among ways to reduce the risk, but braces weren't linked with less pain in adults who practise handstands. Building up gradually matters more.

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