Level 4 Vault Question Series #1 - Run

[emacmommy]

I am going to pose a series of questions about judgements on Level 4 vault, picking the Code of Points apart. I'm a coach, and if you've followed any of my posts the last few years I'm rather judgemental myself at the lack of consistency in our state's judges. Rather than ranting... I'm actually going to give our state's judges kudo's for their attempt to bring the consistency of their judging into line with the rest of the nation, or at least our neighboring state... Colorado. However, now I'm perplexed at some vault scores. Yes, I will probably be asking our judges after this next home meet of ours some specifics of what they've trained this year on looking for, but I thought it would benefit my "want to know more, now" mentality by posting a series of questions to the judges, and coaches if they know, on Chalkbox about how they've been trained to look or interpret things. Maybe ultimately I'll post a "guess that score" in a couple of days to a week. To give a quick back ground, I had gymnasts last year score mid 9.0's on vault, that are now scoring closer to 8.6 to 8.9. With that said...

Series #1: Run Deductions
There are three run deductions:
(sorry posting from home, don't have my COP in front of me, so paraphrasing)
Lack of acceleration..... up to 0.3
Lack of speed/power.... up to 0.3
Slowing run down before hitting board.... up to 0.3 (that one's severely paraphrased, can't remember the exact wording)

For me, most of those are straight-forward, however I feel a few of my gymnasts are getting nailed on their run. Their run is consistently moderate speed down the vault runway, but they don't usually slow down. We run straight and hard from right out of the blocks to the board. I admit many have poor arm form to run, held correct at 90* but not full range of motion, hence not full stretched out steps, but for most L4 runners out their they aren't horrible in comparison. My question is this...

Should I purposely slow their run start down, kind of like with two/three bounding-like steps, and then have them speed up to their full speed. I'm a believer in full speed all the way through, that's what I was taught. Should I play to the requirement of showing acceleration? What are the adverse dangers of "staging" that?

 

[gymdog]

Failure to maintain horizontal speed is what you're looking for, I think.

I do tell the kids to start slower and get faster. Not bounding steps per se, just accelerating to full speed (well, attempting to). I allocate almost half the vaulting rotation to running speed, footwork, and board drills (I guess some of it is also block and timer drills).

 

[gympanda]

I don't honestly have an opinion about whether it is best to start slow and speed up or run consistant. However, I do have an opinion about changing a coaching philosophy just to cater to the deductions. We've talked on this board a lot about how some of the compulsory routines have some skills that don't progress to anything (front mill circle). As L4 is the only year they are being judged on the run, I would coach it like you will want then doing it the rest of their gymnastics career and not worry about losing .3.

My opinion comes from a coaching place, but as a judge if a gymnast runs hard the whole way and I can tell they are going as fast as they can from the beginning and they don't slow down, I won't take anything for that category.

 

[emacmommy]

Thank you gympanda. I appreciate the candid opinion.

I'm notorious in the gym for loudly encouraging a fast run each time a girl is running down that vault runway in practice and warm ups at meets. From the time they move I'm on 'em vocally... GO, GO, GO, GO, FAST, HARD... yada yada yada.

 

[gymdog]

Well at the lower levels that may help them develop a better sprinting ability overall in terms of coordination. I'm mixed on it but I think in general accelerating is probably a better technique at the high levels because the fast twitch muscles don't fire for long and I don't see the point in trying to recruit those muscle fibers so early, since it's not a sprint race for time but for optimal power recruitment at the end. In other words it's probably more efficient to get really fast at the end. But obviously not every athlete works under "ideal" conditions so it might differ for some. If it works it works. That said I don't think they should change the step stride necessarily or do "bounding steps" per se, just build to their speed.

 

[KKMOMMY]

i was recently told by a parent of a level 4 gymnast, that there is a deduction for not using a arm circle for a vault. my daughter is a level 5 and doesnt use this before her vault. how true is this..

 

[gymdog]

i was recently told by a parent of a level 4 gymnast, that there is a deduction for not using a arm circle for a vault. my daughter is a level 5 and doesnt use this before her vault. how true is this..

There is no deduction for this. The board contact deduction is for "excessive forward lean of the body upon board contact." It is actually the 3rd of the three specific deductions prior to leaving the springboard in L4. The three are lack of run acceleration, failure to maintain horizontal speed (slows down), and excessive lean on board.

The use of the arm circle comes in developing the correct board approach. The most important thing is the arms are low on the board. Without doing a small backward arm circle, this can be a difficult position for beginner gymnasts to achieve. I teach a low quick circle to downward punch right when they hit the board. This has been most effective to me. First I just start them doing little hurdle jumps (off one leg, land on two) with downward punching arm motion on contact. Then we transferred this to doing a quick arm circle to that position for the punch, from a run. I used to do tons more hurdle drills but I feel like really breaking the "point" (the actual way I want them to punch the board) down has helped the most. Now even when they miss their arm circle and mess up a little (which isn't too uncommon with the L4s) they automatically still go to more of downward punch rather than throwing their arms to their ears which is a default I used to see much more often.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yet another reason to "run" to level 5 as fast as one can get there.

 

[gymnut1]

I teach an accelerating run (not in USAG though just adding to discussion)
I teach it by putting down about 4 carpet squares for them to run over down the vault runway. At the first one we shout 'fast' at the next ones 'faster' 'faster' 'faster'. It works with aged 5-7 really well.

Obviously the only problem then is they are going so fast it is hard to get them to lift up and get their feet infront of them on the board. So we have a 'lift' carpet square and a sting mat to jump over before the board to help with that. They do like having the verbal and visual cues to help them.

 

[emacmommy]

Fun, fun, fun. I love these discussions, however with board contact you guys are jumping the gun on me. I'm going to post a new thread today when I get to work today so I can quote from the CoP. Gymdog, I'll just quote you in my post towards answering the Board Contact question.

The day I posted this thread we drilled runs and board contact, but mostly running all rotation. We did clapping drills to get the girls to understand the pattern of what we were asking their feet and legs to do. It was pretty funny because the whole gym practically stopped and clapped along. I was short a coach so I had the L3's & 4's together. Kind of like the ta-ta-ti-ti-ta you clap in music classes. We did accelerated clapping tho. We also did armswing drills while seated and between two boxes to keep the arms from crossing in front or elbows out to the side. We also set the pit up to run hard and launch themselves to try and get to a mat, clear across the other side. This is their favorite.

 

[gymdog]

Emac - we tried your idea of the carpets and getting faster. Worked well, though I used foam blocks placed to the side since I didn't have carpets. Wish I did because that sounds a bit more effective but I still think it helped.

We also put a board facing low end towards the mat stack, not far away (about where they start for their board approach drill). They jumped off the high end like they would to do a power hurdle but then had to immediately sprint and do the vault in the short distance using the jump for acceleration. This also was helpful to not slow down near the board.

 

[gymmom-n-coach]

We also set the pit up to run hard and launch themselves to try and get to a mat, clear across the other side. This is their favorite.

Sounds like fun, but I am not sure I understand the set-up. Could you please elaborate?

 

[emacmommy]

Right now we have our vault table set up for competition, so it is not set up for pit vaulting. This leaves a big empty spot on the other end of the runway into the pit. We set a mat (we use about a 10" crashmat, nice and soft) to lean against the far edge of the pit. They are to run through the end of the pit (i.e. not hurdle in front and punch a board or the edge, rather treat the leap into the pit as one HUGE hurdle to try and land on the mat with both feet. A huge running long jump. The goal is to not slow down and of course to make it to the other side. We are also emphasizing running form in this drill, since they don't have to think about doing a vault immediately following the run. I believe our pit is about 12 feet across to the other side. The girls are usually singing "I believe I can fly!"

 

[gymcoach34]

We use chalk lines (esp near the board) fro the little guys & it really helps. I read somewhere that a child's depth perception does not fully develop until the age of 10 (not exactly sure about this??) so it makes sense the little ones would have a hard time running fast & hittin the board!

 

[emacmommy]

Hmmmm, never considered having poor depth perception to be an issue with board approach. Makes sense though, I'll have to ponder that some.

 

[gymnut1]

It is the reason they say children cannot cross a busy road safely until around 11-12 as they cannot judge the speed distance approach of cars. I knew that but had never applied it to hitting a board. Makes alot of sense.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

Let me just say I am not a coach. The coaches at our gym use chalk lines. I know because I can hear the vault coach talk to them about it during vault.

 

[emacmommy]

Yes, we use lines & the yurchenko pad in front of the board for our more advanced groups and vinyl preschool squares or circles for the L3 & L4 group as they range in height. I can move the squares closer for the shorties and further for the daddy long legs.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

It is the reason they say children cannot cross a busy road safely until around 11-12 as they cannot judge the speed distance approach of cars. I knew that but had never applied it to hitting a board. Makes alot of sense.

the vestibular system once again...