This mistake occurs when the swing leg is swung across the body, causing a twisted posture. This may arise when trying to swing on a tilted axis - but you forget to bring your upper body onto that axis as well.
To fix this, make sure your body stays squared with your swing leg. You may choose to either swing more vertically, or bring your shoulders down into the swing axis.

Leg/Body Misalignment

Skipping the swing results in a much less efficient movement - done correctly, a gainer should be much easier than a layout.
To fix this, try not to leave the ground until the swing is complete. 

Not Riding the Swing

Having any kind of forward momentum interferes with your ability to flip backward. To fix this, make sure you are traveling sideways and/or backward out your setup.
As you may have noticed, it's ironic that the term "gainering" is used to describe a common mistake with gainers. In the early days of tricking, the term "gainer" actually referred to any kind of backflip where you traveled forward, or "gained ground." This was typically a running backflip, done off of one foot. By the time it became far more common to travel backwards into one-foot backflips, the name "gainer" had already been cemented. 

Forward Momentum (Gainering)

Forward blocking may indicate a misunderstanding of how blocking works - blocking turns linear momentum into a combination of height & angular momentum. Forward blocking creates height and forward flip, so in order to block forward and still flip backward, the block must be done inefficiently such that neither much of height or forward flip are produced. 
To fix this, fix your setup (most likely a j-step if you have this issue) to travel & block sideways or backward. Alternatively, you can try a different setup, like scoot or pivot step.

Forward Blocking

An off-axis backflip, done from a swing setup. 

Beginner

Gainer Flash

Intermediate

Corkscrew

Swing

Pike

Cheat Gainer

Practice swinging your leg in a circle, up to at least hip height and then across your body. Keep the foot angled in the direction of travel - so not straight up and down. This will set your hips correctly to invert for later progressions.
Additionally, practice your setup of choice and make sure you enter the step-over with sideways and/or backward momentum (not forward). Our official recommendation is to do either a pivot step (shown) or a one or two step J-step.

Cheat Gainer

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Key Positions & Pathways

Swing

Pike

Common Mistakes

Leg/Body Misalignment

Not Riding the Swing

Forward Momentum (Gainering)

Forward Blocking

Progressions

Step-Over

Inverted Step-Over

Baby Gainer

Tricks to Learn Next