text: if you know how to swim you should try it on a low diving board because you will stand less of a chance getting injured, i would not suggest doing flips on a trampoline or beds if you are nervous about getting injured.  When you go to do a flip, either forwards or backwards (forward is easier for older people to learn because they feel safer going forward, but if you are younger than a backflip is easier because you can see where you are landing)  you should try jumping a little and then when you decide to flip, jump harder while going up lift your hands way above your head straight up to "set" yourself, then get into a tuck position and pull your arms down in the direction you want to spin.  Keep your eyes open so that you will know when to land and you will also stand less of a chance of rotating to the side and crashing on your side.  \nIf you dont like swimming you can go on to a trampoline, but make sure you have a friend around.  this way i would suggest learning a front flip first.  to do this jump a few times and then go on to your hands and knees hard and tuck and flip that way.  As you begin to get comfortable flipping like that go to your knees only and flip, then when your comfortable with that flip standing, but always make sure you set when your hands dont begin on the trampoline so you dont go crashing down.  The aforementioned should land on your bottom.  Only after you are comfortable do this and land on your bottom should you try to learn how to do it with a standing landing (when you land standing put your hands up like you see the gymnasts on tv so you dont overrotate and get hurt).  After you get the hang of standing and landing standing in one spot with your hands up you can see if a friend can spot the middle of your back (just enough so you dont crash on your head) while you try to learn to do a backflip, it should come easily.\nAfter you get how to do a backflip on trampoline comfortably, try in on less springy apparatuses and work your way to harder surfaces.  When you get the hang of this you can try running with a thin gym matt (like what they use at school) next to the wall.  For that you have to run very fast right before you hit the wall and the rest is just like the normal backflip.\nGood luck!!! Just be careful.