Coaches Vault Settings

[coachmolly]

In Xcel, girls can vault on the "lowest manufactured setting." This rule is given with the disclaimer that not all vaults will go as low as 95. I have 2 girls (both small and slow runners) who are struggling with vault. Currently they are on 100 and I'm thinking about relenting and letting them go all the way down to 95 as they continue to struggle.
Just curious, do most of your vaults go all the way down to 95? My big concern is that we'll get to a meet where that won't be an option.

 

[raenndrops]

All the meets we go to, it goes down to 95. And… if you get to a meet where it doesn't, then they will just not score as well on vault… you have options:
1 - spot them
2 - scratch them
3 - have them use a minitramp instead of the springboard (you may have to provide it though … and if your gym doesn't have one, it might be a good investment anyways).

What Xcel division are they in and, if Gold, what vault are they doing?

 

[coachmolly]

They are only Silver- so just the handstand fallback over the vault. We do have and use a tramp board, the struggles are even with using it. One of the girls had a respectable flatback last season as a Bronze, just can't make the transition. We were also vault-less for about a month in Sept. when our vault broke, so that didn't help.
I guess maybe we will give it a shot and just hope for the best at the meets we attend.

 

[fuzi]

10 years as a coach/judge and I've never been to a meet where the vault didn't go down to 95 cm.

 

[Aero]

I have on two different occasions seen a vault table that has a minimum setting of 100 at meets. In fact, in my own gym, we have an old Spieth vault table that only goes down to a minimum of 105! It's terrible and annoying and I hate it, but I have to deal with it. I work at two gyms (both owned by the same owner), and I bring the girls once a week to the other gym and we do a big vault rotation there since the set-up and table are way better. My smallest girl has learned to vault on 100 as a minimum, and we just train on the 105 table and consider it good practice for the future, haha. I do not use 95 since it is not guaranteed to be at every meet.

 

[raenndrops]

They are only Silver- so just the handstand fallback over the vault. We do have and use a tramp board, the struggles are even with using it. One of the girls had a respectable flatback last season as a Bronze, just can't make the transition. We were also vault-less for about a month in Sept. when our vault broke, so that didn't help.
I guess maybe we will give it a shot and just hope for the best at the meets we attend.

Maybe opt, at meets where it only goes to 100, to do the other vault option??? Occasionally in practice, have them practice straight jumps to 100. Then, they can just kick up to handstand for the flat back. I know they will take a hit on SV, but it might be worth it - both on the overall vault score front AND the power front.

 

[coachmolly]

I have on two different occasions seen a vault table that has a minimum setting of 100 at meets. In fact, in my own gym, we have an old Spieth vault table that only goes down to a minimum of 105! It's terrible and annoying and I hate it, but I have to deal with it. I work at two gyms (both owned by the same owner), and I bring the girls once a week to the other gym and we do a big vault rotation there since the set-up and table are way better. My smallest girl has learned to vault on 100 as a minimum, and we just train on the 105 table and consider it good practice for the future, haha. I do not use 95 since it is not guaranteed to be at every meet.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was worried about. I let her give vaulting on 95 a shot last night for 2-3 turns and it really wasn't dramatically better than her vault on 100, so I don't think it's worth the risk. I was hoping to get them all on 105, none of them are really that small (youngest is 8), but some fear issues have disrupted that plan. At this point I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to get them over.

 

[coachmolly]

Maybe opt, at meets where it only goes to 100, to do the other vault option??? Occasionally in practice, have them practice straight jumps to 100. Then, they can just kick up to handstand for the flat back. I know they will take a hit on SV, but it might be worth it - both on the overall vault score front AND the power front.

I hadn't thought about that. Maybe we will try a few of those at practice today. One of the girls will not even do her straight jump up onto the vault on 2 feet- hits the board and does a hop to 1 foot. We've been working on it for months.
As an athlete I was a terrible vaulter, so I feel like I'm getting a taste of what I put my coaches through

 

[raenndrops]

I hadn't thought about that. Maybe we will try a few of those at practice today. One of the girls will not even do her straight jump up onto the vault on 2 feet- hits the board and does a hop to 1 foot. We've been working on it for months.
As an athlete I was a terrible vaulter, so I feel like I'm getting a taste of what I put my coaches through

The good thing about the two-part vault is that even if she totally messes up the first part, she can still do the 2nd part Good luck with your vaulters!

 

[gymdog]

You'll only have a problem with meets in gyms, there are a few. Most meets use basic AAI tac 10 tables that go to 95. Mancino tables I don't remember but there's only like two meets in state that use them anyway. If you want to pm me your meets I'll tell you. Do they use an air board?

 

[coachmolly]

You'll only have a problem with meets in gyms, there are a few. Most meets use basic AAI tac 10 tables that go to 95. Mancino tables I don't remember but there's only like two meets in state that use them anyway. If you want to pm me your meets I'll tell you. Do they use an air board?

Our first 2 meets are bigger, out of gym meets so I think we should be okay there. The next 3 are in-gym meets, but one of those gyms is massive and very well equipped, so I imagine things will be fine there as well.
They do use an air board, but both girls go from a run to a speed walk right before the board, so it provides limited added benefit to them.
One made it over almost on her own yesterday (with significant deductions, but I've prepared her for that). So maybe by the time we get to our later season meets that are hosted in gyms we will be okay.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Often if you can get the kids to vault on 95, it builds their confidence, they will run faster and hit the board harder and will beleive they can get over the table. And then like magic they can do it on a higher setting.

 

[Aussie_coach]

It is interesting that you guys in the USA use feet and inches as your way to measure. Yet you speak about vault table increments in cm's.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Our first 2 meets are bigger, out of gym meets so I think we should be okay there. The next 3 are in-gym meets, but one of those gyms is massive and very well equipped, so I imagine things will be fine there as well.
They do use an air board, but both girls go from a run to a speed walk right before the board, so it provides limited added benefit to them.
One made it over almost on her own yesterday (with significant deductions, but I've prepared her for that). So maybe by the time we get to our later season meets that are hosted in gyms we will be okay.

Sounds like they just need a whole heap more of running and jumping up and over different things of various heights that are not the vault to build more confidence.

 

[coachmolly]

Sounds like they just need a whole heap more of running and jumping up and over different things of various heights that are not the vault to build more confidence.

That's what we're working on, it's just a much slower process with these 2 than I had hoped.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

That's what we're working on, it's just a much slower process with these 2 than I had hoped.

I know the feeling, suddenly competition season rolls around and you have to continue to try and get them up to speed while making them passable for competition!

 

[CoachTodd]

I've seem one or 2 that don't go all the way down.
Something I did with my kids is I would put the table all the way down at practice then put an 8" matt on top of the table and onto the flatback while challenging them to bounce as far as they can. I'm not a big fan of the mini tramp for vault but that's just me. I like a firmer board to get them to actually punch. I daughter did this vault and was less than 4' tall and weighed nothing. It took her a bit but she got it.

 

[Jeannie6]

We competed at a gym twice this year that has an old vault table that only went to 105. My girls were very tiny and had only trained at 95.
The judges were very sympathetic and reminded me that it was only a 2 point deduction for a spit at level 4. I stood close ready to spot for safety but didn't need to. Both girls got over barely. Their scores were actually generous.
I learned from this experience and train everyone at 105 minimum. This way the situation will not arise again.