Coaches Vault Drills for Level 8

[emrc1977]

My DD just started training for Level 8 this week.

She has been doing tsuk for her vault entry (right when she started optionals), while the rest of the girls mostly do yurchenko.

Since this week, they'be been asked to do yurchenko, and given yurchenko drills. And she is getting frustrated because she really want to work on her tsuk and vaulting. (Flipping, on a mat, pretty much).

Are the drills for yurchenko the same for tsuk? Will it hurt her eventually if she keeps on pushing her self to work on yurchenkos?

This the the first year for their batch that 2 of them moved to Level 8. The rest of the girls are in Level 7 (their 3rd yr).

I am not sure if this is the reason why they rarely do tsuk, because 90% of the girls do yurchenko. It is but as if she is the only one who wants tsuk.

Its been tears after tears of frustration this whole week everytime she goes home. I have been giving her my hug, support and listening ears. I dont know what to tell her anymore. I told her she shud talk to her coaches about where she wanna be this summer and before comp starts. I also gave her an option to ask permission if she can get private class from somewhere. (Her gym dont do privates, theres someone else who offers it but more conditioning that skill and apparatus training, and fhe schedule doesnt fit hers.

I am not sure if theres other options.
She refuse to move gyms.
This is their highest level so far.
It is their first year to have Level 8 with 2 girls. The other girl foes yurchenko.

Any advise wud be much appreciated.

 

[Aussie_coach]

The Tsukahara can be easier to learn initially, as you don’t have that same blond board entry and it can be less scary for kids.

But the Yurchenko is ultimately a lot more progressive, especially for females.

It’s harder to produce a lot of power from the Tsukahara, but the round off flic flac in the Yurchenko will create power.

The Tsuk to a tuck or a pike is quite doable for most gymnastics, but it’s much easier to take a Yurchenko up
To a layout and a twist.

They may want her to work the Yurchenko because it’s a lot more progressive. If she is aiming for level 10, the Yurchenko is much more likely to allow her to get a 10.0 start value.

 

[That_Gymnast]

I would like to add this as a L9 Gymnast - yes the tsuk is less common because it's not progressive for most gymnasts for L9/10, but for some it is. I have always been excellent at generating power in my tsuk, 1st place on vault competing this entry/flip since I can remember. If your daughter naturally is really good at them the gym should recognize that and hopefully support something different. As a Level 9 I compete a tsuk tuck 1/2 & a tsuk layout, my upgrades are a tsuk pike 1/2 (9.9 SV collegiately) and tsuk layout 1/2 (10.0 SV collegiately). Now, I don't plan on going D1 but from my ability to get really high and rotate fast in this vault I have been able to be successful so if your daughter is a strong vaulter and if this is something she really wants to progress on I would pay close attention to the gym wanting to switch her to something that might make her less comfortable. There is a set of skills that generally work for most gymnasts but not all so let your daughter help decide what she feels most comfortable performing, the yurchenko can help but only if she feels comfortable doing the vault.

 

[emrc1977]

I would like to add this as a L9 Gymnast - yes the tsuk is less common because it's not progressive for most gymnasts for L9/10, but for some it is. I have always been excellent at generating power in my tsuk, 1st place on vault competing this entry/flip since I can remember. If your daughter naturally is really good at them the gym should recognize that and hopefully support something different. As a Level 9 I compete a tsuk tuck 1/2 & a tsuk layout, my upgrades are a tsuk pike 1/2 (9.9 SV collegiately) and tsuk layout 1/2 (10.0 SV collegiately). Now, I don't plan on going D1 but from my ability to get really high and rotate fast in this vault I have been able to be successful so if your daughter is a strong vaulter and if this is something she really wants to progress on I would pay close attention to the gym wanting to switch her to something that might make her less comfortable. There is a set of skills that generally work for most gymnasts but not all so let your daughter help decide what she feels most comfortable performing, the yurchenko can help but only if she feels comfortable doing the vault.

She is more like this. She's been told by her coaches that she's ready to flip it since Level 6. Her power is sometimes scaring me, but I know that her coaches back then (she moved from a different country to the US) really insisted for me to put her in a gym and when I second guessed and almost decided to have her quit. She is a state bar champion and sometimes, she lands really far during dismount.

Yesterday, though they did some vault and she did tsuk, she found herself with less height more and more than progressing to higher height. When a different coach asked her if there's drills she do to help, she surprised him by saying no. These coaches know her power coz they watched her did so good during state. And even regionals. Same coach who told her that the height of her vault is crazily high. Thats why she is getting frustrated that she is not progressing at all. Because aside from the fact that they rarely vault, they mostly do yurchenko as well.

Aside from blocking, are there ang drills for tsuk that you can recommend? I tood her to ask permission for her to get provate class somewhere. She said she will talk to her coaches.

 

[emrc1977]

I would like to add this as a L9 Gymnast - yes the tsuk is less common because it's not progressive for most gymnasts for L9/10, but for some it is. I have always been excellent at generating power in my tsuk, 1st place on vault competing this entry/flip since I can remember. If your daughter naturally is really good at them the gym should recognize that and hopefully support something different. As a Level 9 I compete a tsuk tuck 1/2 & a tsuk layout, my upgrades are a tsuk pike 1/2 (9.9 SV collegiately) and tsuk layout 1/2 (10.0 SV collegiately). Now, I don't plan on going D1 but from my ability to get really high and rotate fast in this vault I have been able to be successful so if your daughter is a strong vaulter and if this is something she really wants to progress on I would pay close attention to the gym wanting to switch her to something that might make her less comfortable. There is a set of skills that generally work for most gymnasts but not all so let your daughter help decide what she feels most comfortable performing, the yurchenko can help but only if she feels comfortable doing the vault.

She can do yurchenko, and can flip it. Shes been told she's been ready to flip since L6. But she's been competing with tsuk ever since. I've never seen her compete with a yurchenko. She found herself with less height after working with yurchenko. And I think this is what is frustrating her.

I would like to add this as a L9 Gymnast - yes the tsuk is less common because it's not progressive for most gymnasts for L9/10, but for some it is. I have always been excellent at generating power in my tsuk, 1st place on vault competing this entry/flip since I can remember. If your daughter naturally is really good at them the gym should recognize that and hopefully support something different. As a Level 9 I compete a tsuk tuck 1/2 & a tsuk layout, my upgrades are a tsuk pike 1/2 (9.9 SV collegiately) and tsuk layout 1/2 (10.0 SV collegiately). Now, I don't plan on going D1 but from my ability to get really high and rotate fast in this vault I have been able to be successful so if your daughter is a strong vaulter and if this is something she really wants to progress on I would pay close attention to the gym wanting to switch her to something that might make her less comfortable. There is a set of skills that generally work for most gymnasts but not all so let your daughter help decide what she feels most comfortable performing, the yurchenko can help but only if she feels comfortable doing the vault.

Also, she's been working on tsuk layout at first, and was told that she can do a tsuk tuck, too. She's been working on the tuck after regionals and been happy to see it progressing. Her goal is to do a double tuck someday. She's been really looking forward to Level8 because of the flipping, as opposed to the timer. I told her to be patient and hopefully will get the support she needs.

She will be joining her HS gymnastics again this Fall and maybe it can help her work on her vault. Last year she competed a Level 5 vault for HS gymnastics, as she is not trained to flip a tsuk at level 6. She hopes to compete it for HS this Fall. This is also the reason why she really want to work on her vault badly. But despite her low-vault skills and beam skills during HS comp, she was able to qualify for sectionals right from her first competition's AA scores. Her bar and floor helped a lot.

 

[That_Gymnast]

She is more like this. She's been told by her coaches that she's ready to flip it since Level 6. Her power is sometimes scaring me, but I know that her coaches back then (she moved from a different country to the US) really insisted for me to put her in a gym and when I second guessed and almost decided to have her quit. She is a state bar champion and sometimes, she lands really far during dismount.

Yesterday, though they did some vault and she did tsuk, she found herself with less height more and more than progressing to higher height. When a different coach asked her if there's drills she do to help, she surprised him by saying no. These coaches know her power coz they watched her did so good during state. And even regionals. Same coach who told her that the height of her vault is crazily high. Thats why she is getting frustrated that she is not progressing at all. Because aside from the fact that they rarely vault, they mostly do yurchenko as well.

Aside from blocking, are there ang drills for tsuk that you can recommend? I tood her to ask permission for her to get provate class somewhere. She said she will talk to her coaches.

Drills:
-Tsuk timers of a cheese wedge to candle stick in pit (flip when ready), doing it off a lower surface improves block and rotation
-Heel driving drills, probably have been done in the past still very important in any front entry vault to generate power, can be ones as simple as laying on a elevated surface and driving legs down and up
-Tsuk timers to extra high mat stacks, although she's probably done this making it higher and higher to reinforce the block and flat hips always helps
-For the flip itself, basic air awareness drills of mat stack/vault table to practice landing the flip with chest up

There's not really many drills for tsuk but these cover each part of it, she if she's got all these steps down pat use them as warm-up/occasional practice drills to reinforce the shapes.

 

[emrc1977]

Drills:
-Tsuk timers of a cheese wedge to candle stick in pit (flip when ready), doing it off a lower surface improves block and rotation
-Heel driving drills, probably have been done in the past still very important in any front entry vault to generate power, can be ones as simple as laying on a elevated surface and driving legs down and up
-Tsuk timers to extra high mat stacks, although she's probably done this making it higher and higher to reinforce the block and flat hips always helps
-For the flip itself, basic air awareness drills of mat stack/vault table to practice landing the flip with chest up

There's not really many drills for tsuk but these cover each part of it, she if she's got all these steps down pat use them as warm-up/occasional practice drills to reinforce the shapes.

Thank you so much. Really really appreciate this. I will forward this to her.

For update:
She spoke to her coach and they promised to support her in every way they can. Also they have a new coach who gives her corrections and she is very very happy about it. Another coach also promised her that he will try to check on her every training day and see where she is at and how can she be supported. She felt better after talking to her coaches and let them know when she wanna be by end of this summerZ

Thank you everyone for all your help.

 

[ZB55]

The whole time reading this thread I was thinking that I'd be less concerned about which vault than the fact she hasn't had clear communication with her coaches about vaulting and what she is training and ultimately competing, especially given that there are only 2 level 8s! So it's a great resolution that she finally spoke to the coaches and got a positive response from them, hopefully that will help encourage her towards talking to them sooner in the future instead of festering in frustration.

 

[emrc1977]

The whole time reading this thread I was thinking that I'd be less concerned about which vault than the fact she hasn't had clear communication with her coaches about vaulting and what she is training and ultimately competing, especially given that there are only 2 level 8s! So it's a great resolution that she finally spoke to the coaches and got a positive response from them, hopefully that will help encourage her towards talking to them sooner in the future instead of festering in frustration.

It has been a struggle with the communication because she is pretty new to the gym ( transferred from a different country last year) and she is not that kid who likes to discuss stuffs with her coach. More on a shy kind. She just love doing gymnastics and being patient with what is given to her (even if it means getting her floor routine for Level6 4 weeks before competition). She also dont like me talking to her coach on her behalf. But now that she realized she needs more support as she levels up, I am giving her all the push that I can for her to talk to her coaches. After her talk to them, she's been different. She is happy and she in enjoying training again, even doing yurchenkos with the rest.

She loves this gym, because she was supported when she opted to do a BWO to Korbut on Beam for her connection. She appreciated this so much when her HS coach flatly refused and flatly said NO to her when she asked to compete this connection. Sometimes I am thinking that they are scared of her doing all this risky skills. But in the end, the support she gets from her coach made her achieve her goals and hitting it durinh state and regionals. Indeed, communication is the best way and I am happy that she is finally talking to them and telling them where she wanna see herself.

I would like to thank all of those who helped here as well. She is so grateful of the new drills she can work on. Thank you so much.