Cartwheels (one handed)
A cartwheel is a gymnastic movement involving the body rotate 360° to a side whilst facing the same direction. In application to firetwirling, the example movement shown is a one handed variant with the leading arm planting, peformed into and out of a double figure of 8.



Also known in Capoeira as the 'au' (pronounced ah-oow) this movement is like most of martial arts: easy to learn and difficult to get right! A clean cartwheel is executed completely sideways without wavering to the front or behind. (more on that later)

Decide first which hand is to plant. The lead hand -ie the hand on same side as the direction of the cartwheel- is easiest, as it allows an earlier hand plant. Always reach down early, not only does this ensure a clean handplant, it offers a measure of safety in case your feet slip and your head needs protection.

Begin the movement by arching your body by bending your body sideways and downwards (sidewards! :) ), simultaneously reaching the ground beside you with your planting hand and lifting your lead leg upwards ; your lead leg should be the farthest away, on the opposite side of the body to the lead/planting arm.
Your body should just reach the position depicted by the middle left figure in the illustration above.

Warning: If you are gripping a firestaff whilst the hand is planting, please make it a habit to open your palm when it does so. A closed grip will cause a silly amount of pressure to be applied to your knuckles as your body weight presses solely on them and on a hard surface this will translate into a nasty skin scrape! Opening your grip will not necessarily result in losing the firestaff. I encourage you to just practice planting with an open palm just by sitting down and doing it in front of yourself. It's ok to fiddle around with yourself... so long as no children are watching :)

It is safe to lift your remaining grounded foot as your hand plants on the ground. Later, as the lifting power of your legs increase, you may jump before the hand has planted (hop variant) or even dispense with touching the ground at all (sideways ariel)

try to jump more upward than sideways. By this point, you already have some sideways momentum from the sideways torso leaning - just concencrate on your legs providing enough lift so that as you reach the position depicted by the middle figure, the upward momentum will minimise any weight felt on your planted arm. Later on, with enough conditioning, it is easy to execute a one-fingered cartwheel.

Spread your legs apart as your body turns on it's axis to resemble the middle figure in the illustration above - the wider your legs are apart, the sooner you can land on the lead foot. This prevents you from travelling too far sideways, and minimises the chance of a screw up.

lastly, land on the lead leg as you finalise your movement in that direction. As both feet meet again, lean your torso to gracefully straighten to a stop.
The empasis on this final part of the movement is grace - a sudden stop is quite ok in gymnastics, but i urge you to consider the dance-like aspect of firetwirling; moving into and out of any movement makes it fluid, gives the impression of being effortless!

Cartwheel Hints
The above example incorporates a transition to and from a double figure of 8. This involves coiling the lead arm (figure's right arm) behind the back as the body is upside-down and whipping it into the front as the feet land (as it is shown two rightmost figures).
Keeping the unused arm up/away from the other is only an option, but it does emphasise that only one arm is used :)

Do not be overly concerned the cleanliness of this move or indeed your teeth, as learning this movement only requires basic execution. With further agility, your legs can spread wider apart when upside down, allowing for effortless landing, and your lats will be stronger, allowing for more power as your torso twists sideways.

Push ups not only provide additional strength for the 'popping' component of the cartwheel, it also provides a reassuring safeguard for your head, because firm handstand strength makes it unlikely that you will headplant through collapsing arms.

Cartwheel Variations
Planting with the trailing arm instead of the leading arm (as with above example) would allow you less of a margin for error. To overcome this, you can afford yourself an instant more of time to plant the farther arm by aiming your jump higher - the added height extends the cartwheel's duration.

A 'hop cartwheel' is a cartwheel variant whereby the legs jump before the hand is planted down.

An ordinary cartwheel uses both hands. really! would uncle bender lie to you?

You could be a tricky devil and touch the ground with a fingertip, though this would have to be executed quite slowly to be more noticeable. You would need the force of a sideways aerial to do so cleanly.