My daughter is still "pike" on her vault

[Colie's Mom]

My daughter (level 2) is still what the coach calls "pike" on her vault. Presently, she is landing on mats and I guess she cannot progress to full handspring (without the mats) until she is no longer pike.
Can anyone help? Is there something that would help her?
I appreciate any ideas.
Thanks.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

time. practice. time.

 

[marie83]

I have one of those gymnasts in my group!

We worked on:

Running
Hitting the springboard in the correct position (feet slightly infront of the hips, arms down
Jumping upwards from the springboard rather than trying to put hands down too soon

I also moved the springboard further away from the vault so she had no choice but to jump harder and reach further! I called it superman vault because they had to fly from the board to the mats and land in handstand. I caught her in the air a few times to make sure she was in the correct position. We also did this with a trampette to give a bit more bounce!

all of the above seemed to do the trick, plus lots of practice and time as dunno said above!

Straight front somersaults are also good for getting rid of the piking action, even just 3/4 ones to land on their back on mats.


Hope some of these help, although I do realise there aren't many things to do at home!

 

[CoachTodd]

My daughter (level 2) is still what the coach calls "pike" on her vault. Presently, she is landing on mats and I guess she cannot progress to full handspring (without the mats) until she is no longer pike.
Can anyone help? Is there something that would help her?
I appreciate any ideas.
Thanks.

What vault is she doing? The level 2 USAG vault is to bounce off the springboard with the hands. The level 4 vault is the do the flatback on the mats after hitting the board with the feet.

I agree with the lots of practice. There really isn't much that can be done outside the gym to help vault shapes other than learning to hold the shapes.

 

[NotAMom]

Again, mileage applies in this case.

My youngest used to have the worst pike at Level 4. I mean to even call it a pike, I was really being nice. She literally folded in halves as she vaults and opens back up as she hit the mat. Finally, at her second states (1.5 seasons later), she had a vault that looked somewhat like a handspring flatback (still have a noticeable pike). Then she came back the season after, all of a sudden she vaulted like a different person, so much that she consistently placed top 3 (even with a big block) to wrap up her L4 training at mid season.