Vault help

[MamaofEnS]

Hi Coaches,

My dd is on pre-team but has been struggeling with vault for 7 years. I think I finally figured out why. When she punches off the springboard, she does so with bent legs. This gives her no power to vault. Her coach tells her to punch with straight legs, but she still doesn't. Since she has been in gymnastics for 7 years, and never learned properly how to do this, how can the coach reteach her?

MamaofEnS

 

[BlairBob]

Hit the board with bent legs and extend them by straightening out the knees and opening up at the hip and pushing through the foot. Full extension.

If you punch with straight legs and only involve ankle flexion/extension you're not getting what you could. As well, I'm trying to prepare our kids to punch the floor correctly in later levels for front punch front salto, layouts, etc.

It's hard to guess at what she is doing but basically if you stutter or run slowly on vault, and have a short hurdle, and don't punch the board aggressively, you won't get much out of it.

Run fast, jump long, punch the board hard and stay tight. There is more to that such as the cueing of an arm lift/circle , hitting with the feet in front of the body and driving the arms, etc but really run fast and jump hard.

 

[Bobby]

There was a time I was terrible at vault, and much time was wasted by my coach on critiquing my run.
Basically though I was just scared - no idea why. When I got over the fear (by changing to a gym where we vaulted into the pit) I became a great vaulter virtually overnight. Once I fully intended to hit it, I figured out the run for myself real quick (until then I was purposely going in slow motion).
Being categorised as a bad vaulter (instead of a fearful one) probably held me back longer.
... Any chance this is a factor??

 

[gymdog]

The knees should be slightly bent on contact. Not a deep bend, and obviously on the jump up they have to straighten. It's more of a quick heel depression (don't know how to say it). I tell kids to stomp on the board. It seems to more or less work. I want them to bring their knees up a little in the hurdle, rather dragging the feet along.

I don't know what the coach is doing to correct it. It's like any jump. If you told someone to jump on floor, they would bend their knees and then straighten them to push against the surface (action-reaction). I would assume the kid was afraid and was intentionally trying to halt their momentum on the board because otherwise that aspect of jumping should be a fairly natural movement pattern (most often the problem is arm or torso positioning errors). Sometimes it just comes with time and more balance/stability/coordination that helps the kid feel more in control. I typically have the kids try to do a lot of jumping up before we work on the upward-forward momentum.

 

[MamaofEnS]

Thank you all so much for your suggestions.

I do think her run is pretty slow. I'm not sure how that can be changed. She is pretty "slow" about doing everything. She has medical challenges, so that affects her ability to do a lot. However, her coach said the only thing holding her back right now is vault. She has done many privates (no significant improvement), and even has had her big sis coach her. She has been stuck at this level for about 2 years, so she needs some positive movement.

Keep those suggestions coming.

MamaofEnS

 

[CoachTodd]

Arm circle punches on a tumble trak. Try to get higher and higher on each bounce. If she's bending as she hits, she'll fall. If she's extending as she hits, she'll fly.