Piking on Vault, please help!

[Lingualatina]

Okay, so I used to be really good at the Level 4 vault. Whenever I did it, I could easily do a fronthanspring landing on the other side of the mat. When I moved onto the FHS vault over the table, I did it really well on the lowest setting and even competed it. Then, we moved onto the next setting, and my coach put the spring board way too close to the table, which forced me to pike over it. I can still make it over, but it's SO ugly. It's SO annoying because today my other coach made us do handstand flatbacks again to work on the things we can't really work on @ the table and now even that is piked! It's as if I forgot how to drive my heels! I'm really depressed about this and I feel like I can't vault any more. Please help! I must get this! It's really really depressing me...

 

[CoachTodd]

It sounds to me like you were originally taught vault with the board too far away. I've seen grown men vault at very high difficulties with the board 1' 2" from the table. It would all depend on how tall you are but the board distance isn't what causes the pike.

Try to ignore the fact that there is a table there. I know this sounds weird but try to focus on the rest of the vault.
1. get a good run (you most likely already have this
2. good hurdle (again you most likely have this)
3. Hit the board with your feet in front. (almost like a back handspring take off shape even though you are moving forward) with your arms down. They don't have to be all the way down by your waist but below shoulder height is a good place to start.
4. punch and extend your body to a stretched position. i.e. bring you arms to your ears.
For a front handspring vault, you really don't need to think too much about the heel drive if you hit the board properly. You feet will fly over your head. You just need to be tight. The action of bringing your arms to your ears during the preflight will let you get a block off the table. Try not to thing about blocking as 9 times out of 10 it messes up the block. A block occurs when everything else is done correctly.
My guess is that your goal would look something like the girl in this vault.
YouTube - Front handspring Vault
Ignore the landing as she is doing a timer for a front-front.

A lot of drills with this on a high mat stack help as well.

Good luck

 

[Lingualatina]

It sounds to me like you were originally taught vault with the board too far away. I've seen grown men vault at very high difficulties with the board 1' 2" from the table. It would all depend on how tall you are but the board distance isn't what causes the pike.

Try to ignore the fact that there is a table there. I know this sounds weird but try to focus on the rest of the vault.
1. get a good run (you most likely already have this
2. good hurdle (again you most likely have this)
3. Hit the board with your feet in front. (almost like a back handspring take off shape even though you are moving forward) with your arms down. They don't have to be all the way down by your waist but below shoulder height is a good place to start.
4. punch and extend your body to a stretched position. i.e. bring you arms to your ears.
For a front handspring vault, you really don't need to think too much about the heel drive if you hit the board properly. You feet will fly over your head. You just need to be tight. The action of bringing your arms to your ears during the preflight will let you get a block off the table. Try not to thing about blocking as 9 times out of 10 it messes up the block. A block occurs when everything else is done correctly.
My guess is that your goal would look something like the girl in this vault.
YouTube - Front handspring Vault
Ignore the landing as she is doing a timer for a front-front.

A lot of drills with this on a high mat stack help as well.

Good luck

Thanks so much! I know exactly what you mean about forgetting that the table is there! That's very helpful! The only thing is, my hands always hit the table early, which means I hit it in a piked position. I do manage to block off anyways, but it's by quickly changing my piked position with my hands already on the table, and there's barely enough time to do that. Is there any way I can re-learn how to drive my heels? I used to do heel driver drills and they helped me a lot, but now when I do them, they don't help as much anymore.

Thanks for your help! And the girl in the video is so good! She gets so much height! I'm jealous...

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

There's a pretty good chance the issue is in how you're hitting the springboard -- leaning forward on the board almost always causes a piked vault.

Try to get your chest up in the last couple steps leading into the hurdle, and think about pushing the board forward with your feet as you hit it.

 

[CoachTodd]

There's a pretty good chance the issue is in how you're hitting the springboard -- leaning forward on the board almost always causes a piked vault.

Try to get your chest up in the last couple steps leading into the hurdle, and think about pushing the board forward with your feet as you hit it.

GT stole my answer. If you focus on having your shoulders back and push the board forward, you'll get a heal drive.

Put the spring board against a level 4 vault mat and do punch layouts onto the mat. Start out by just going to your back. You could also add an arm circle as if you were vaulting. The higher the mats the better. I actually do this drill just for fun and it really helps.

 

[Lingualatina]

There's a pretty good chance the issue is in how you're hitting the springboard -- leaning forward on the board almost always causes a piked vault.

Try to get your chest up in the last couple steps leading into the hurdle, and think about pushing the board forward with your feet as you hit it.

Thanks so much! This is probably the problem, because I can't think of anything else that might be causing the pike! I'll try to correct it next time. Thank you!