The ABCs of Tire Flippin’
By
Team Gorilla Pit
Unless you live under a rock or in France, you know that incorporating
Strongman events into training has become a popular way to add variation to
any program. At Gorilla Pit Strength Sports, we’ve trained several athletes
in the discipline of tire flipping and are starting to see very distinct
patterns of how the uninitiated approach the process and how the successful
have mastered the technique. Yes, technique. As with any aspect of life, one
may be able to muscle through, but the skilled make the difficult look easy
with mastered technique. Most newbies come into the gym and figure they can
just flip over all our tires, but they often end up looking like monkeys
fornicating a football, or in this case, a large tire.
You can teach this motion any way you like, but we divide the flipping of
a tire into three segments—the start, the raise, and the push. We’re going
to look at each segment and the differing ways to go about them.
The start
This segment begins when the athlete decides to flip a tire and ends with
the first upward motion of the tire’s edge. It’s important for the athlete
to realize that the tire’s edge will move upward and forward for the same
distance, traveling along an arc and making a line between its horizontal
starting point and its vertical finish point of 45 degrees. The force
applied to the tire’s circumference should be neither parallel nor
perpendicular to the ground but should match this 45-degree angle upward.
Foot placement should mimic this. If you want to get your protractor out,
that’s fine with us, but we want our athlete’s feet placed far enough from
the tire that they lean against the tread. If at any moment during the
movement, the tire could be magically removed, the athlete should fall
forward. We establish proper foot placement by having the athlete squat down
in front of the tire and fall into it with their chest. They should have to
rock away from the tire to stand up. Feet are generally slightly more than
shoulder width apart, but this varies with each athlete.
Hand placement will also vary slightly but should be much wider than the
shoulders. The bottom edge of the tire should be gripped with fingers on the
sidewall or around treads. We always chalk very heavily.
Approaching the tire is where we see two distinct techniques. We call one the
“set” and the other the “attack.” The set technique involves the athlete
approaching the tire, setting their feet, squatting down, leaning against the
tire, setting their hands, tightening their core, and lifting the tire. Several
seconds will pass between the setting of the feet and the beginning of the lift,
and several seconds may pass with the athlete in a squatted position against the
tire. This simulates a deadlift type situation with no use of the eccentric
stretch and is favored by many of our heavyweights.
The attack technique is much faster, but it tends to involve more mental
preparation and is more prone to error. The athlete will stand several feet from
the tire, visualizing both foot and hand placement. The athlete will approach
the tire, and in one continuous motion, set feet, lean in, set hands, and begin
the lift. With often less than two seconds passing between the foot placement
and initial motion of the tire, we believe this technique takes advantage of the
eccentric stretch, simulating a squat or “dive bomb” deadlift. Misplaced feet
and hands will often cause the athlete to pause, sometimes ruining the flip for
less focused and experienced athletes.
The raise
This segment begins with the upward motion of the tire and ends with the tire
supported by the palms and upper chest and the knees and hips extended. Good
technique will involve continuous motion of the tire. A pause during the raise
is asking for trouble.
We have our athletes approach the raise as they would a power
clean—continuous motion, full hip extension followed by a slight drop, and a
hard push out of the bottom. The difference is the knee. Sometimes.
Once initial upward motion begins, the athlete should reach full knee and hip
extension with elbows extended as in a deadlift. The athlete’s body should be
leaning into the tire so that without the tire they would fall forward with the
chest as the main point of contact.
Athletes who raise the tire well but are standing nearly vertical with the
tire in their belly are placing their feet too close to the tire during the
start.
As soon as hip and knee extension is reached, one knee should be brought
sharply into the tire sidewall as the athlete slightly drops his hips and
rotates the hands so that the palms are supporting the tire rather than the
fingers. There should be no perceptible pause in the tire’s motion, and the knee
strike, hip drop, and hand rotation will be nearly simultaneous. The hands will
be much closer to the shoulders, and the tire’s lower circumference will now be
resting on the upper chest.
The knee drive should be very sharp and forceful. We often debate the actual
amount of force transfer from the knee strike into the tire. It appears to be
small, but we can’t argue with the results or popularity of this technique. A
common error is to hyperextend the back rather than dropping the hips. This may
be remedied by placing the feet farther from the tire during the start and
coaching a deeper hip drop with a lighter tire. It isn’t uncommon to come away
from this exercise with bruises on the knees and thighs. Knee sleeves provide
some protection but a distinct lack of manliness.
The second technique we like is what we call “Svend style.” We don’t know if
Svend Karlsen was the first to do this, but we saw him do it first. We think
Svend is a nice guy, and Svend style has good alliteration. Svend style more
truly replicates a power clean and seems to have better power transfer into the
tire. It’s a faster technique and that’s important in competition. Despite its
simplicity, Svend style seems to be more difficult to master than the knee
drive, and many of our athletes abandon it on heavier tires. Svend style uses no
knee strike, and the athlete should strive to have both feet leave the ground
when knee and hip extension are reached. After extension is reached, hip drop is
more pronounced, as the hands are rotated and the upper chest brought into the
tire.
No matter what technique is used, knee drive or Svend, the athlete should end
the raise with the tire resting on the upper chest, palms under, and the body at
a forward angle. Constant motion of the tire is important, and maximum
explosiveness should be used throughout the raise. This is not a slow exercise.
The push
The push starts with the tire on the upper chest with knees and hips extended
and ends with the tire at or passing through 90 degrees. There should be no
pause as the knees and hips are extended at the finish of the raise and the tire
approaches 90 degrees with the shoulders and elbows becoming extended for the
push.
The only difference in push technique arises from the goal being achieved. If
the goal is a specified number of flips or flipping for a specified length of
time, there isn’t any reason to push the tire over very forcibly, just enough to
have the tire pass through 90 degrees and fall over. If the tire needs to be
moved a specified distance, a forceful push on the tire may cause it to slide as
it impacts the ground. We have 85-foot Strongman lanes in the gym and an extra
hard push on each flip can be the difference between covering that distance in
nine flips rather than 10.
As a courtesy and a bit of common sense, leave the tire standing vertically
on the last rep. No one wants to stand up half a ton of rubber just to put the
equipment away.
Training ideas
Tires can be flipped for a specified distance with the goal to be able to
progressively cover that distance in either less time or fewer flips. Tires can
be flipped for lengths of time with the goal of increasing the amount of flips
attained in that time.
We tend to start a set of flips using Svend style and transition to knee
drive as the set progresses and fatigue sets in. With lighter tires, one arm
flips can be done with caution for bicep strain.
If you have enough space and several different weights of tires, drop sets
can be performed. Flip your heavy tire and then move onto the lighter ones. Flip
until you reach a set number or until you puke.
A favorite of ours is alternating flips. Two or three athletes will stand
equidistant from each other around a tire and simply flip the tire back and
forth, alternating turns. The goal is to flip the tire one more rep than
everyone else. This fosters a healthy environment of competitiveness that most
gyms are lacking.
Team Gorilla Pit believes that weakness is an affliction of the mind,
body, and soul that can be cured through hard work and intensity. Gorilla Pit
Strength Sports strives to provide such a healing environment to northern Ohio.
Both are physically located in Mentor, Ohio, and digitally located at
www.gorilla-pit.com.
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training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
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