Coaches Vault for Young Pre-Team

[coachmolly]

I have a brand new group of sort of "pre" pre-team kids. They are in the 6-7 age range and have been doing rec classes for at least a few months. They only meet 1 hour/week, so hardly any time at all, but I am hoping to at least touch on the most basic things to get them ready for our pre-team group in the months to come. I feel pretty good about 3 events, but vault, the event where they have probably had the least exposure, has me feeling a little stuck. We do not have a level 3 vault stack which is part of the problem. I know I can do hurdle drills and handstand work, but I'm looking for some other ideas so I don't fall back into the same thing each time we vault giving them the idea it's terribly boring and "easy."
We do have a set of trapezoid mats as well as a trainer table, 2 spring boards (1 small, 1 standard), and a tramp board. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[gymdog]

Jump up to 16" mat stack, kick to handstand flatback. This is the USAG level 1 vault. If you are new to preteam I recommend you go by USAG level 1 and 2 plus the supplementary skills and conditioning and flexibility which is all provided in the compulsory text and also on the app (I love the app). But if you need more guidance about level 1 and 2, PM me. You definitely need to supplement tumbling but the dance is very progressive in this cycle so I do like it.

 

[gymdog]

You can make a circuit of this vault, the supplementary skills, and then a conditioning drill for body tension. Start with running exercises and finish with tumble track tumbling drills which are essential for developing timing and inversion.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Body tension drills, handstand work, high tight straight jumps with arm swings on tramp/tumble trak/double mini. Run and straight jump off board to various mats and boxes. Straight jumps with arm swings forward and backwards off the vault table, step down off large spotting box to rebound off board.

If you have a single mat the same height as the board work straight jumps, kick to handstand and fall to flatback, dive rolls and different types of jumps.

You can create the level 3 vault system by piling up mats or putting soft mats over the top of spotting boxes. This way you can also vary the height and start off with about 60cms to do the handstand flat back and keep building up until you get to the full height.

Knee's to handstand on trampoline/tumble trak, round offs on tramp to develop the leg drive.

 

[coachmolly]

Thanks so much! I'm familiar with the lower level compulsory vaults, but had not thought of using the supplementary skills. Our gym does Xcel only so we do not have the compulsory text, but I've been thinking of investing in one. I have previously done pre-team with slightly older/more advanced kids, so this beginner pre-team level is somewhat new to me. I want to make sure I am stretching them beyond the typical rec. class curriculum but balancing that with them being young.
We don't have much in the way of extra 8 inchers, so it's hard to make up a mat stack without stealing landing mats from other events, but this group mostly has the gym to themselves so it just might work.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

at this level i would start them with this:

 

[coachmolly]

There is plenty of basic coordination work. I just didn't want them feeling like they were getting gipped out of vault. We had some younger/smaller girls who had a heck of a time learning to get over the vault this season and it came right down to the wire, so I'm trying to build these kids up to avoid that.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

We always do a circuit on the floor. I set up 6 stations or more if there's 12 kids etc. I prefer circuits like this:

1) kick to handstand flat back to a soft mat
2) jump up to 3 spotting blocks and then jump over 6 rails as fast as you can
3) hollow body hold on tip toes facing a wall, hands on wall. like a reverse handstand position
4) handstand hops up and down a very thin mat or if this is too hard then hollow body hops or wheelbarrow hops with partner
5) using a minitramp or tramp board, put a spotting block behind and in front of it. the gymnasts jumps from the spotting block to the tramp and bounces to a handstand to the other block. you may want to spot this or put the block against a soft wall
6) THE vault from running
7) running straight jump of spring board, STICK the landing (I give them points if they stick and if at the end of the practice the winner gets a sticker)