Can Vault be set too low?

[Verjakes]

My daughter is a first year level 5 and has been struggling with vault. She started vaulting at 1 in practice and .05 in competition and had acheived as high as 8.375, then her coach decided to lower her to a 0 and she has been back in the high 7's last two meets. I think he was thinking scores would go up. But, she is a tall 10-year-old (4'9"), and not only does it look too low for her, but she also says it does not feel right to her. Is it possible for a vault to be set too low???? Her coach does not seem to think so, but I have read that it could cause bad shapes and no power off the table for a tall girl.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

The vault should be at whatever height she performs best on. That depends on not only her height, but her weight, power, and speed. Perhaps she began to break form with the table higher, so the coach decided to lower it. Sometimes vaults just come and go. Also, a 0.4 or 0.5 difference in scores between meets may be attributable to something other than table height - she may have had a good vaulting day at the first meet, or the judging may have been more forgiving.

In any case, it is her first year doing this vault so it will definitely get better over time! She will get much more comfortable with the handspring in the future. If she feels that the table is too low, she should ask her coach if she can practice and compete on a higher setting. If he says no, I'd assume she is doing it better on the lower setting, even if it feels strange at first.

 

[CoachTodd]

As a general rule, I try to keep the table anywhere between bottom of the chest and their eyes. In some rare occasions, some kids do well on a really high table. There are quite a few factors as Mack mentioned above that would determine the vault table height as well as the spring board distance from the table. It also all depends on if they want to achieve a good compulsory vault or if they are working toward something a little more advanced. I've seen cases where a 9.8 level 7 front handspring turns into a 9.2 at level 5 rules. I haven't figured out why they judge the compulsories the way they do but they want to see a bouncing stick more than a true front hand spring.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Be happy that you even have these options. In Australia the vault for level 4must be between 105cms and 125 cms. In level 5 it must be between 110 cms and 125 cms. In level 6 it must be either 120 cms or 125 cms and in level 7-10 it must be exactly 125 cms. There is no leeway for the tiny 7 yr old or the six foot teenager.

 

[Verjakes]

Thanks much! I love your bouncing stick comment, CoachTodd. The girl who scores highest on our team is tiny and truly looks like that! I think the table is about at my daughter's belly-button now...

 

[CoachTodd]

If she's hitting the springboard correctly, she should almost do a straight bodied layout over the table if it's that low (depending on the distance from the board) My guess is her shapes may be a bit off so the coach has to wait for her to do some correctly and come in too high before they'll feel comfortable raising the table.
This is all speculation without a video.