Anon Why is Round Off Technique Neglected?

[Anonymous (a897)]

I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but it seems like the round off often gets neglected after preteam to the point that it is rarely worked on at all past levels 2 to maybe 3. We’ve been part of several local gyms and this has been our experience. When watching competitions I’ve noticed that the round off is often the actual problem in floor, vaulting etc. and not the actual skill. For example, a kid struggling with bent/froggy legs in a BHS usually has a round off problem yet the focus in
practice seems to be on the BHS skill rather than the RO that is being landed with chest down and knees well in front of feet. Even at high optional levels, the biggest issue with many yurechenko vaults is the landing of the RO with feet behind the COM which causes a kid to be too high on the table, but I’ve almost never seen optionals working on RO technique. Is this consistent with what others have observed, and if so, why is the RO so neglected when it is so fundamental to so many skills at all levels? It seems like many kids would benefit from 30 minutes or more of RO work every week from my casual observations.

 

[Coach Kate]

Not at our gym. Even the Xcel platinums and diamonds do basics weeks where they drill things like round offs again. We don't do DP anymore.

 

[JBS]

Is this consistent with what others have observed, and if so, why is the RO so neglected when it is so fundamental to so many skills at all levels?

This is just my opinion... but I do have just a little bit of experience...

#1 reason... most coaches do not understand the actual "concept" of the roundoff.

#2 reason... many gymnasts are not willing to do the roundoff the way it is meant to be done... they are too scared of the power.

Then there is also the "concept" of what the gymnast is doing... "tumbling" or "taking off"...

Even at high optional levels, the biggest issue with many yurechenko vaults is the landing of the RO with feet behind the COM which causes a kid to be too high on the table, but I’ve almost never seen optionals working on RO technique.

We work on this all of the time... however... the Yurchenko at the highest levels is a "take off" from the springboard. For this reason and the fact that the springboard has quite a bit of movement to allow the body to rotate to a more vertical position during contact... the feet should be behind the body when contacting the board.

The biggest issue in my opinion with Yurchenkos is that the "flipping" of the tumbling must be as fast or faster than the run. For example... imagine the gymnast was a car tire rolling down the runway... when they go into the roundoff the tire cannot suddenly roll slower... or the tire will start to skid out. Many athletes just don't have the physical abilities to do the roundoff at such a speed... by running slightly slower many athletes could have a better Yurchenko... at least until they have enough strength for more speed.

 

[Anonymous (77be)]

Our gym works on the round off all through optionals. They do basics one day every week.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I used to spend a lot of time on roundoffs, but I've kind of circled back to spending very little time on the roundoff itself, and spending lots of time on roundoff-adjacent skills that imo do a better job of teaching an intuitive feel for what a roundoff should feel like.

So these days I spend a ton of time on front handsprings, a ton of time on carthweel step-ins, and a TON of time on standing backhandsprings..... and hardly any time on actual roundoffs. The FHS teaches the entry, the carthweel step-in teaches the support phase, and standing BHSs teach the snap and subsequent connection. Once all these components are clean and the athlete understands what they should feel like, a proper roundoff becomes fairly intuitive.