I have a serious vault mental block.

[ChristianGymnast]

HI. I'm trying to go into level 8 by next year, and I thought I had all my skills. I used to be able to do yurchenko tucks with spot and now I can't even do a handspring. Every time I go up to the vault I somehow stop myself and crash. Does anyone have any tips to help me to just go??

 

[kalgymcoach]

One of our young boys had a mental block after crashing in a handstand flatback vault. We tried everything. I was watching him training this at practise one day, and suggested to him just to jump onto the beatboard and up to handstand, coach spot to come back down to beatboard. I was hoping he could just see himself visually just doing a handstand and nothing else it may help. After doing this several times he got more confident and eventually went over to flatback. Maybe breaking the skill right down to the basic and doing that may help. Good luck.

 

[gymnastbeth]

I had this happen to me, and it was VERY aggravating. I knew that I could do it, but I would just stop running!!

What I finally had to do was run up and jump on the springboard, and do a straight jump to a mat, then a taller mat. Then I ran and did a straight jump to the table. I did front handsprings and flysprings on the tumble trak and the trampoline.

I would but a block at the end of the tramp, and then bounce up to it and do front handsprings and half-ons over it.

After a while, I put the mini-trampoline board in front of the table, and ran up and did the smallest little handstand on the table. It took a long time to even keep running, but once I got the little handstand, it got easier. If you can't do that, shorten your run, even to just a few steps. I think that the root of my problem was that my steps were always messed up about a foot.

Keep doing the handstands until they get higher and higher, and start to make your run a few steps longer. After awhile, you will get it, so don't stress out so much. Once you get the fhs vault back, slowly introduce the other vaults.

If you have any videos of yourself vaulting watch them, or just picture yourself doing it. You can also watch videos on youtube of vaults.

I wish you the best of luck, I know how frustrating mental blocks can be!

 

[bswagger]

once you get your handspring, for you yerchenko tell your self you can do it, and to go for it. like with me, when i stand there, i say 'go for it' 4 times, and on the 4th time im taking my first step. and while im running im saying go for it over and over. so its in my brain that im going for it. in my hurdle, like when i put my hands down, i say go for it one last time.. and when i do this, i am always going for it. find key words that help you feel more confident. key words for me, distract my mind from negative / scary thoughts, and it reminds me some corrections i might be needing. and be sure to close your eyes and visualize you doing the skill . as you visualize it, say your key words. do that twice. then do it again, only looking at the apparatus (the vault in your case). after that, go for it. but dont over think it. and if you feel like your having a negative thought comming, take a breathe, look at the vault , and remind yourself you've done it before, you can do it again. no reason you can't. your coach is probably going to stand there , and spot you..? so remind your self, he/she is right there, he/she's got me. im fine, i can do this. just go for it. he/she is right there. just stay positive.