Vault help!

[ZJsMom]

This may be futile, but I'll try anyway. My level 7 dd is struggling with vault. She's really frustrated because it's her worst event and she can't figure out how to improve it. She thinks it's been disintegrating. I disagree. I think she's been scoring lower in 7 than 6 just because the judging standards are higher. Maybe it's also that she's trying to break it down and figure out how to improve, so she's overthinking it.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has any tips. Her coach has been working hard with her, but so far it's just not quite clicking. She recognizes that he's a good vault coach because most of the other girls are quite successful on vault. Somehow the corrections he's making aren't getting through to her. I'm hoping someone can give her some advice in a different way that might click. The main problem I see is that she's piked in her preflight. This is that part of her vault that has seemed to get worse. Her arms are straighter now and she's showing a better handstand position, but the pike is killing her. She does need to pick up her run and generally be more aggressive.

I made a vault montage, but it's set to private. Let me know if you're interested enough to look at it. Thanks!

 

[kristilyn73]

My DD was a TERRIBLE vaulter in compularies. But she seemed to figure it out in L8. Part of it could be not running fast enough and making sure she keeps her arms VERY Straight and her head in between her arms.

I would be happy to look at the video. PM Me! Thanks! ( i just hope I can help!)

 

[ZJsMom]

My DD was a TERRIBLE vaulter in compularies. But she seemed to figure it out in L8. Part of it could be not running fast enough and making sure she keeps her arms VERY Straight and her head in between her arms.

I would be happy to look at the video. PM Me! Thanks! ( i just hope I can help!)

kristilyn-- That sounds like my dd. Hopefully, she'll figure it out in level 8 too. What vault is your dd doing now?

Enough people have offered to look at the video that I decided to just make it public. Thanks!
[youtube]AfzT6--1DYQ[/youtube]

 

[CoachTodd]

From the looks of it in the videos she is doing a few things that makes it hard to get the straight body vault.

1. In all but one of the vaults she slows down her run.
2. In every vault her arms are up when she hit the board. Get the arms down.
3. If you look carefully, when she makes contact with the springboard, she is already in a hollow shape with her face already above the table. She needs to get her shoulders back more on the board.

One way of wording it would be "Stop trying to put your hands on the table. If you come onto the board with the arms lower (moving from around shoulder height and going up) and hit the spring board with your feet in front, your hands will hit the table in the middle of your flip. You don't have to put them down."

She's basically diving over the table then trying to adjust in mid flight for her hands to make contact.

She may want to do some layout drills or drills with the table set higher to get her shoulders back more.
She also may want to think about trying to push the board forward when she hits it instead of down.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

kristilyn-- That sounds like my dd. Hopefully, she'll figure it out in level 8 too. What vault is your dd doing now?

Enough people have offered to look at the video that I decided to just make it public. Thanks!
[youtube]AfzT6--1DYQ[/youtube]

well, i observed something completely different. 3rd vault at 36 seconds. you will see her take off her left foot to hurdle & right knee comes up. all the others[that i can see and are not obstructed] are the opposite. i would suspect she does a right round off. this means pushing off the left foot to hurdle. this vault was the better vault, was a bit closer to the board distance wise to allow a stronger/faster shuffle/hurdle. and she landed a bit further away from the table, all things being equal. this would be the reason her arms are 'up' when she hits the board as the other coach pointed out. her arms came up as they should when she steps left [for a right round off], but then adds an additional step with her right foot leaving her arms in the 'up' position when she should have already hurdled a step ago. you will see that her arms are lower in the 3rd vault. this is because her coordination has not been compromised by taking off, in what i believe, the opposite foot. hopefully you will come back and state that, in fact, she does a right round off.

old fashioned rule...their round off hurdle and vault hurdle should be the same. less complication when they might then learn yurchenkos. AND the push leg is practiced the same way for both round offs and hurdles for both yurchenkos and conventional vaults. why force them to hurdle the opposite of their round off, when they will spend the lion share of their time doing round off's and front handsprings[requires the same foot hurdle as the round off].

if they push off their left foot to lift the right knee in the hurdle, they should start the run with their left foot. this is consistent with a one step/3 step hurdle to round off. left start, right step, left push/hop, step down to right foot right round off. this will give the athlete an odd numbered amount of running steps 3,5,7,9,11,13.

just reverse if they round off left. you might often hear that the last 3 steps are the most important phase of any vault. for this to happen, the gymnast should begin the run with the same foot that he/she will push off of as if he/she was to round off.

some food for thought.

 

[gymdog]

I see where she hurdled right, but the vault right after that (4th vault) looks to be the best to me (better than 3rd especially in contact position) and came from a left hurdle. Since she started running with her left leg in all of the shots I could observe, and the kids tend to start with their dominant foot unless instructed otherwise, I would put bets on left dominant (I however hurdle right and start running left...probably for the odd step reason you mentioned and all the compulsory tumbling coming from 3 steps when I learned).

In the videos after those ones in the blue leo, she piked on much more than I observed earlier so she kind of had to "roll off" opening her shoulder while in contact. If she tries to scoot the board forward when she hits it (that won't really happen...she should just hit it in a way that would make that happen if it could...someone on here mentioned this cue and it is the best way I have found to make the kids understand what we mean by feet in front, shoulders back, etc) while keeping her head/upper body up, that will probably help. The other issue is positioning after takeoff. Getting to the shoulder extension rather than reaching down.

 

[ZJsMom]

Sorry dunno but she does roundoff LEFT.

I also agree with gymdog that the forth vault that starts a 44 sec. is the best vault. Of course, I'm not a coach or judge, so what do I know. I thought the last two meets, when she's wearing the white and black, had the most pronounced pike. (although she was sick for the very last meet, which I think was the worst vault, but also not representative of her best effort). The vaults are in chronological order in the montage. I don't see them as steadily getting better or worse. As I said above, I think I'd rank the vault at 44 sec. as the best and the last one as the worst. It would be intersting though to see which others see as the best and worst.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

because her arms were lower and slightly behind on the hurdle, i would experiment with taking off the left foot. it looked the most coordinated, movement pattern wise. sometimes there are exceptions.

 

[BlairBob]

Diving for the board. Bent arms off the table in the post flight. Sometimes I thought maybe the table was set too low for her.

What is she scoring?

My friend taught me that my FHS should basically be a front layout layout with popping off the hands. This encourages an aggressive "heel" drive versus diving out.

Sometimes you'll see gyms work front tuck or front lay over the table. This is why.