How To Learn Swing 360 With 7 Simple Steps – Freestyle Calisthenics Tutorial

by Daniel Flefil | Nov 12, 2021 | Freestyle Calisthenics

When starting out with Calisthenics Freestyle one of the most common freestyle skills that beginners want to learn is the Swing 360 on the bar.

That’s why I will cover all the necessary steps that nobody mentions and what you need to think of when learning this skill.

Let’s get straight to business, the first thing you need to do before performing ANY freestyle skills is to warm up. Not warming up is just asking for injuries and I promise you don’t want to get injured because it sucks.

If you want some tips on warm-ups you can check out our warm-up video on Youtube

How To Do The Swing 360 (7 Simple Steps)

1. Learn How To Swing On The Bar
2. Pull Yourself Up On The Backswing
3. Release The Bar And Touch Your Knees
4. Spin 180
5. Do A Full Spin Without Touching the bar
6. Swing 360 And Touch The Bar
7. Big Swing And Catch The Bar

BONUS: I will mention the 4 common mistakes that people are doing that stop them from learning the Swing 360.

Now let’s review each step in more detail.

If you are the person who would like to watch the Swing 360 – Calisthenics Freestyle tutorial instead, check out my the Swing 360 tutorial.

Step 1: Learn How To Swing On The Bar

Learn how to swing on the bar, this might seem like a no-brainer but this is one of the most common problems I encounter when people are trying to learn Swing 360. If you don’t know how to create a proper swing you will have difficulties learning Calisthenics Freestyle skills, all the professional athletes like Daniels Laizans, Eryc Ortiz and many more have mastered this basic skill. When you learn how to swing on the bar you will make other Calisthenics Freestyle skills easier for you, take your time and master this.

If you don’t know how to swing properly on the bar, check out my YouTube video here:

Step 2: Pull Yourself Up On The Backswing

Pay attention to this step- if you are not doing this step right and rushing towards the next step you are letting your ego take over instead of being a patient athlete who wants to succeed faster and smarter. 

After you have created your swing and are just underneath the bar you want to start bringing up your knees to your belly. Imagine that you are doing a tuck L-sit hang and at the same time you want to pull yourself up with straight arms like you are doing a straight lat pulldown.

This is how it will look when you pull yourself up and bring your knees to your belly like a tuck L-sit hang.

Now after you have done that you want to release the bar at the height point of the pull, straight out your legs and get ready to land with control on the ground. Land softly on the ground and repeat this step several times before moving on to the next step.

I would recommend using mats when starting to learn new freestyle tricks on the bar, the main thing that is stopping people from learning calisthenics freestyle skills is the fear of hurting themselves or landing badly on the floor. That’s why I recommend that you start out with mats underneath the bar to get the confidence up and be able to focus on the technique instead of overcoming the fear.

Step 3: Release The Bar And Touch Your Knees

It’s time to work on catching the bar. You might think “I have not done a 360 yet, why should I work on catching the bar?”

Well, this is the reason- If you are not used to grabbing a bar in the air and catching your whole body, you will have BIG PROBLEMS in the upcoming steps in this tutorial.

Create a swing, pull yourself up and when you are just about to reach the highest point on the top, you release the bar, touch your knees and grab the bar again. When you start to feel comfortable in this step you can move on to the next one. Watch instructions instead

Release the bar at the highest point so you have time to touch your knees

Touch your knees when you have released the bar.

And grab the bar again and repeat this until you feel confirmable.

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Step 4: Spin 180

The big mistake many make is that they do a full 360 directly without any control of the spin, this is not the smart way to work on Swing 360 and that’s why you need to complete this step.

Create a swing and do the previous steps (Skip the touch your knees in this step) now then you are just about to rise to the highest point look to the side you are gonna spin(Like you are looking over your shoulder)release the bar, spin 180 spin, and land with control on the ground.

In the spin you don’t want to have your hands out like helicopter wings, bring them in close to your body and remember to turn your head to the side you wanna spin.

Pro tip: If you wanna spin better remember to turn your head to the side you wanna spin, because where the head goes the body follows. Your head acts as the computer mouse, when you move the computer mouse the pointer on the screen will move as well.

Turn your head to the side you wanna spin.

Release the bar just before you reach the highest point.

Arms close to your body when, have them like this at all time when you are spinning until you are gonna land.

Land with full control on the ground, repeat this move until you feel comfortable.

Step 5: Do A Full Spin Without Touching the bar

If you have come this far in the tutorial, then I can tell you that this move is soon yours!

Time for you to work on the full spin, you are NOT gonna touch the bar until you have full control of the movement. At this point you should understand how to do a 180 spin with good control, now you are gonna do the same step as for the 180 spin but now rotate even more. You wanna rotate more and ALWAYS have control on your landing, you don’t want just to spin and land poorly, the focus here is to build up body control and awareness in the spin.

Work on this until you have done a full 360 spin and landing with full control on the ground.

Step 6: Swing 360 And Touch The Bar

This step is easy but necessary- do the same as you did in step 5 but now touch the bar when you have done a 360 rotation. Start to understand that the bar is there and build up the confidence to catch it, BUT don’t let your ego take over and try to catch the bar, just touch the bar.

Move on to the last step when this move feels comfortable.

Do a Swing 360 but only touch the bar

But don’t catch the bar.

Step 7: Big Swing And Catch The Bar

Time for the best part in the tutorial- Catching The Bar.

You now have all the steps you need to complete a Swing 360, now it’s time to commit and catch the bar. This part can either be the easiest part for some and the hardest for others, it all depends on how you are as a person. You need to imagine yourself doing it before going up on the bar, imagine how you are gonna execute all the steps, how the bar will feel, how you are spinning, and then how you are catching the bar after the spin.

Take a few minutes just before you are gonna try it out, take some deep breaths and imagine yourself doing it. This can help you tremendously and can be the thing that unlocks this Calisthenics Freestyle skill for you.

Common Mistakes When Learning The Swing 360

1. Looking Forward When Spinning
2. Not Having Your Arms Close To Your Body
3. Butt To Far Up
4. Not Enough Height

Mistake One: Looking Forward When Spinning

If you feel that you are not able to spin and it feels like your body obeying you, this can be a mistake.

This is easy to fix- when you are about to get the height in the backswing, turn your head over your shoulder (like you are looking over your shoulder to check if somebody is behind you) and release the bar, this should solve the problem.

Mistake Two: Not Having Your Arms Close To Your Body

The goal is to have your elbows and arms close to your body so your spin will be faster, if you have your arms out like helicopter wings you are working against the spin and slowing yourself down instead. If you don’t understand how to do it in the air, try to do it on the floor.

Try to do a 360 on the floor, you jump up and try to rotate 360 at the same time try to bring in your arms close to your body as if you did it on the bar.

Mistake Three: Butt To Far Up

If your but is too high up you will automatically get your butt to far back as well, this makes it extra hard to rotate or not even rotate.

Bring you but lower down and think that you wanna bring your chest up in the air and not the but

Mistake Four: Not Enough Height

The last mistake people are doing is that they don’t have enough height in the spin. If you are not a professional spinner, with an insane spin you want to get higher up to be able to spin and catch the bar safely. This is something you also can work on while standing on the ground.

If you wanna learn more calisthenics Freestyle skills, check out the tutorials here.

How To Learn Double 360 – Freestyle Calisthenics Tutorial

by Daniel Flefil | Nov 12, 2021 | Freestyle Calisthenics

In this Freestyle Calisthenics tutorial, you will learn how to do a double 360 in 7 simple steps. Before you start this move you should be able to do Swing 360 and tornado 360. The Freestyle Calisthenics expert that will teach this skill is Pauls Jemeljanovs from Latvia, and he will give you the secret tips on how to master the double 360. But you can also use this technique to do even more the double 360.

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Step 1: Prerequisites

For this skill, you need to be able to do swing 360 and tornado already. Make sure to learn them first before trying double 360

Step 2: Kick one leg forward and bring it back.

Jump onto the bar and then kick one leg forward, now you lead the backward movement with your left leg. Twist your leg and hips inwards to the opposite side you are rotating. When you are underneath the bar, you twist your hip and leg towards the side you are rotating.

Step 3: Legs further back in the swing

When you swing backward, you need to let your lower part of the body go further backward than your upper body. This way will make it much easier to get the momentum for the second 360. If you don’t do this, you will have a harder time doing the second 360.

Step 4: How to rotate

Now it’s time to rotate! When you have come to the highest point, you want your lead leg to keep the rotation going, make sure to look over the shoulder to see the bar earlier. Tuck the upper body so it creates a faster rotation. The goal is to land more forward with your up body so you can reach the bar.

Step 5: Learning the mixed grip

For this step use a lower bar. Imitate the movement by having your legs on the ground. Now do the rotation and your lead arm will go more upward over your head, and the other hand will go underneath. When grabbing the bar, you should grab it with a mixed grip. When you have tried it on the low bar, make sure to practice this on the high bar. Start by just tapping the bar, when that feels comfortable, try to catch it.

Step 6: What to do after catching

Now it’s time to understand what you need to do after catching it. When catching the bar, your hand that is coming last from underneath needs to mimic an uppercut. Because this will help to start the second rotation more fluent and faster. Now when you catch it this way, you start to rotate your shoulders. You kick your leg forward and the lead leg follows backward behind you. Now you do the same rotation as you did in the first 360. The goal first is to land facing the bar. When you are able to see the bar before you land it. Then you try to tap or grab onto it. This will also apply for multiple 360.

Step 7: Do The Full Move

Now fully commit, and send it! Remember, practice makes it perfect! Hope you enjoy this tutorial together with Pauls, if you did make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel.