Women Distance of spring board for vault

[flicflac24!]

I teach handspring vaults with the board relatively far away to prevent gymnasts from dropping their chest on the board and rushing to get onto the vault, therefore compromising the first flight. One of my gymnasts drops her chest, and rushed to get onto the vaulting platform no matter where the board is placed. Does anyone have any advice? We often introduce a small block at the front of the table to encourage her to create the first flight and reach onto the table in an aligned body position however as soon as I remove this, her vault reverts back. This has been on going for months.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I sometimes like the board far back for kids who are just learning handstand flatbacks, to encourage a good stretched body position in preflight; that said, the closer the board, the more power is available for post flight, so once they've got the general idea I like to work with the board closer.

Generally, I aim to have the board somewhere around 2-2.5 feet from the table for handspring, etc. Obviously this can vary depending on the specific athlete, though.