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ABSTRACT
The handspring vault is the first proper vault a gymnast will probably learn. It’s considered a fundamental prerequisite for
the training of all front entry vaults (handsprings, Tsukahara, Kasamatsu). The training and development of this vault
starts from an early age with the gymnast performing basic progressions and lead-ups for their first 3-4 years of
gymnastics training before competing the actual vault. However, even after all time devoted to training this one skill,
many gymnasts still struggle to perform this vault correctly in their first year of competing it. The method presented in
this article identifies and corrects common coaching errors and misconceptions about the technical execution of this vault.
The method focuses on the first 4 vault phases, and aims to develop run-up consistency and speed, hurdle/springboard
mechanics, and quick turnover of preflight. The repulsion or block phase is not the predominant focus, as it success is
predominantly the result of the preceding 3 phases, which are identified in literature and research as the most critical
areas of focus, for the gymnast to perform exceptional front handspring vaults.
INTRODUCTION
boxtops, and even handspring flat backs, however this
The front handspring vault is as the easiest and most approach does not develop to any great extent the
fundamental front entry vault (recognized in the MAG and preceding vaulting phases. A study by Takei and Blucker
WAG Code of Points) a gymnast can learn. Not (2003) examined high and low scoring Roche vaults
surprisingly it is usually also the first. National compulsory performed by male gymnasts at the 2000 Olympics, and
streams for most western countries breakdown vaulting they found that the repulsion phase was predominantly
over the first 3-4 years into front handspring vault determined by the successful and correct execution of the
progressions, which highlight its importance in mastering pre-flight mechanics. This hints that at a young age the
prior to moving onto learning more difficult vaults. Even focus should be on developing the technical mastery of the
though the vault is considered relatively easy it is usually first 3 phases (run-up, hurdle, pre-flight) which are less
the cause of much frustration for coaches, because vaulting limited by physical strengths and abilities of young
is physically very demanding from early on, and there are athletes. This is reflected in the vaulting progressions used
no quick solutions, or tips that can make up for inadequate in compulsory streams.
physical ability. Even after 3-4 years of preparation and
training towards a front handspring vault many gymnasts This article examines the mechanical properties needed for
still struggle to perform the vault to a high technical the performance of handspring vault and provides a
standard in their first year (unpublished observations). ideological approach to preparing young athletes during
This hints that current coaching methods are possibly their first 3-4 years in gymnastics.
inadequate to cater for the less physically gifted gymnasts,
or the methods are not as effective as its believed.
METHODOLOGY
Currently coaching methods emphasize the block action,
and a great deal of time is spend practicing it, using
simulation drills like handstand blocks on the floor, over Even thought it is not stated specifically, body tension in
the performance of vaulting is critical. The following drills,
©2008 The Gym Press. All rights reserved Gym Coach Vol.1, July, 2007 - 18-
V.Uzunov, Gym Coach, Vol.1 (2007) 17-23 Methodological Article
1- The gymnast starts by standing on the springboard (on Probably the most common error that effects the hurdle
the ‘sweat spot’) aside from running speed is that the gymnast will hurdle
2- He/she then performs a power-start hurdle that is long from to close to the springboard. Olympic male vaulters
and low to land on the take-off leg (the leg that the hurdle from 3-3.1m from the springboard (from an average
gymnast will take-off from during the hurdle. This is run up speed of 7.5-10m/s). If we scale that down to the
usually the dominant leg or the leg they step into for a running speeds expected for good preadolescent vaulters,
cartwheel or round-off). we would expect to see hurdling distances of between 1.9-
3- As the gymnast lands on the take-off leg and starts 2.2m at running speeds of 6-7m/s. Often coaches will mark
running down the run way. Not counting the hurdle and out a distance for the gymnast to hurdle in front of. This is
the landing, the gymnasts counts their take-off leg steps usually done using carpet squares or using a chalk line on
(Figure 1). Take note of their final step, as this will be their the runway. Both methods work but its advised to change
starting point. A beginner gymnast whose focus is to work the texture of the surface of the too close area (such as by
on the spring board entry should measure 3 steps of the using a mat instead of a chalk line) so that the gymnast can
take-off leg, an intermediate gymnast who is working on feel when they have hurdled from too close. This method
basic vault preps (front somersaults, dive rolls, handspring had show to be effective with kids at all levels to encourage
flat backs) should measure 5-7 steps. Focus should be on the proper long hurdle. However it is strongly dependent
technique not speed. For actual vault’s of any kind, the of running consistency to carry over to competition.
beginning of take-off (the instant the springs stop loading than off a springboard onto 60cm cash mat, than spotted
and begin to recoil) the arms should be beside the trunk by a coach over the table onto crash mats built up to the
pointing down at the floor, and at the end of the take-off same height as the table and than eventually the gymnast
the arms are in front of the trunk no higher then forehead does independently over the table to mats. This is a long
level inline with the head (figure 3 and 4) (5) term developmental process and the coach should begin
Unfortunately at this point, according to the author, there once a gymnast has developed a basic physical preparation
are no better or more specific drills/methods of coaching for gymnastics.
the hurdle. As a result the standard drills are still the best
recommendation available for shaping and educating the Learning how to quickly rotate over the table is the most
gymnast on how to hurdle effectively, along with the crucial purpose to this drill and phase. If the gymnast can
coaches feedback. take-off and rotate over the table onto a mats level with the
table, a block will be easy. It should be pointed out the
Pre-flight layout should be straight or in a tight arch (thought the
The success of this phase is the direct result of the gymnast chest) with an arm going to the sides as opposed to being
ability to take-off the springboard quickly, with as much brought down to the thighs.
angular rotation, and vertical velocity as possible. In
coaching terms this means lots and lots and lots of leg Regardless of the drills used to encourage heel drive during
drive (heel drive) on take-off with the arms extending pre-flight, emphasis should be on the legs leading and the
forward (figure 2 and 3). A critical body position on take- arms reaching quickly forward with the body in a tight
off is that the gymnast hips are above his feet, with the legs arch or straight position during the pre-flight. The added
completely extended, and the gymnast body in a piked advantage to being slightly arched in pre-flight as opposed
position (figure 2). This position allows for 2 things to being straight is that rotation (angular velocity) is
• Faster hand contact with the table, which means increased with the reduced inertia, as well as allowing the
an entry at a lower angle. gymnast to contact the table sooner. This technique is
• The potential to generate greater angular rotation. quite a bit more advanced to the regular straight body
Meaning the gymnast will turnover faster. position required in junior levels. This technique is worth
If the knees or hips go past the toes prior to take-off from noting, it is definitely the technique of choice used by male
the springboard the pre-flight will be compromised, and gymnasts performing handspring double front and
will usually result is far from ideal vault. Dragulescu vaults.
During the actual block action all that the gymnast has to
do is push the table down and backward (opening the
shoulder angle) as quickly as possible. This action is best
practiced doing handspring flatback drills, either as a
vault, or at lower boxed surfaces. Regular specific
conditioning exercises for the shoulders, back and
shoulder girdle musculature, such as shoulder shrugs,
push-ups, handstand press ups, and handstand blocks on
the floor are also recommended. Regardless of the
exercises chosen, they needs to be specific and done
explosively to be effective. The coach must keep in mind
Figure 2 - Illustration of the relationship between the front layout
and the front handsprings vault entry. Notice the similarity between
that the better the turnover and entry onto the table the
©2008 The
the layout Gym Press.
in picture ‘a’ andAll
the rights reserved
handspring vault ‘b’. - 24 -
V.Uzunov, Gym Coach, Vol.1 (2007) 17-23 Methodological Article
better and easier it is to block of the table. Doing block 1- Run-up technique needs to be learned, in order to take
specific conditioning should be to supplement and out run-up variables that could be slowing down the
encourage a greater block as opposed to being the sole gymnasts.
means of achieving a block. 2- Minimal springboard contact time and correct body
position on entry.
3- A quick turnover during the pre-flight. The flip from feet
DISCUSSION to hands (onto the table).
Vaulting is mechanically the hardest apparatus to teach to 4- Development of strength and power in the legs and
young athletes because of the necessary pre-requisite upper extremities.
strength and power, in the run-up, leg thrust of the
springboard, and in the upper body. The method detailed Run-up
in this article aims to prescribe a methodological approach Running at full speed towards an immovable object like
to developing the front handspring vault through the the ‘vault table’ can be a scary task for many. Even if the
correct physical preparation of the gymnasts during their gymnast seems to be running at full speed it is quite likely
first 3-4 years in gymnastics. The rationale to this method that they may be holding back just a little in order to be
is that most vaulting errors or short comings are not a able to stop if something goes wrong. This is a major
result of technical errors but rather lack of physical mistake which can be the result of fear. If fear is the cause
preparation, or alternatively stated, technical errors are the it will require the coach to work with that particular
result of lack of physical preparation and readiness. gymnast to develop fear coping strategies that in time will
help to eliminate the negative effects of fear, along with
There are 6 phases to any vault: lots of safe developmental progressions, such as running
1– The Run-up towards a pit, vaulting over soft vaults etc. Such strategies
2– Hurdle/Springboard contact are not the scope of this method and thus will not be
3– Pre-Flight discussed.
4– Support/Repulsion
5– Post-Flight Running speed is paramount; a 10% increase in velocity
6– Landing generates a 20% increase in total kinetic energy going into
Very often coaches place a great deal of emphasis on the vault (10). That is a substantial increase in the overall
working the ‘Prop’ or block off the table (phase 4), as this is amount of energy delivered to the performance of the
the most easily observable trait of good vaults. vault. This illustrates how important it is for gymnasts to
Unfortunately this is thought to be a mistake by the learn how to sprint well, so that they can maximize the
author. Out of 6 phases, technical and biomechanical potential kinetic energy they can use in performing their
literature identify the run, the hurdle/springboard contact, vault. Simply stated, the faster the gymnast sprints, the
and pre-flight as the most crucial phases for the execution greater their potential for a well executed vault.
of high scoring front handspring vaults, and contrary to
popular belief the support/repulsion phase is commonly Unfortunately sprinting is a learned and practiced skill
identified as having a much smaller role in the successful that takes time to develop, particularly for young kids
execution of the handspring vault, because gymnasts can (preadolescents) who generally have poor intermuscular
do very little to enhance their rotational and translational coordination for fast and dynamic activities, difficulty in
requirements for the successful execution of the vault (1,5). performing consistent maximal efforts, and inadequate
This tends to support the proposed ideological muscular conditioning.
methodology applied in this articles (the post-flight and
landing are not covered as they are the direct result of the For preadolescent children an average running speed of
correct execution of the preceding 4 phases, and are about 6-7m/s (s = x/t) (7) is the norm for successful
relatively easily trained). It has been suggested that the vaulting (based sprint test results of top female USAG
gymnast can actually use a different body configuration TOPS testing). In comparison Olympic male gymnasts run
and entry to increase their angular momentum during the at speeds between 8-10.5m/s (depending on difficulty of
support phase, which is the current technique used by high vault) and 7-8m/s for women (5). The optimal training for
level male gymnasts in performing Roche vaults, however the development of optimal running mechanics for
this technique is to hard for young athletes and thus not vaulting has not been studied previously and it’s thus an
practical at an early age. area that needs further research and analysis. It is however
recommended that gymnastics coaches talk to track
Based on current scientific literature on vaulting there are coaches for advice on developing speed in preadolescent
four key areas that coaches need spend developing in the athletes.
beginning, even if it is at the expense of competition
results. An alternative are for improvement in the run-up that can
be overlooked is the inconsistency in technique during
approach. The common signs and symptoms of this are
variable stride lengths between turns, confusion about take upon by an outside and unbalanced force’ (6). This means
of leg, slowing down near the spring board, etc. This in is, that when the gymnast hurdles and leave the ground his
itself leads to inconsistency between turns, making horizontal velocity will stay the same until acted upon an
progress variable. By improving the gymnast run-up outside force, which can either slow down or speed up the
consistency they will be able to focus on other technical gymnast. In this case when the gymnasts leaves the ground
aspects, which should improve progress. the only forces acting on the gymnast are gravity which is
pulling him/her down toward the ground (and thus does
Hurdle/Springboard contact not effect his/her horizontal velocity) and air resistance
This aspect of vaulting is by far the hardest to coach to a which is acting in the opposite direction of the gymnast
beginner, because it’s the shortest and most dynamic and could slow him/her down, however air resistance is
phase. The whole point of the hurdle phase is to allow the virtually negligible at the velocities achieved during a vault
gymnast to impact the spring board in the correct body run-up and is thus can be ignored (7).
position, with maximum horizontal momentum, so that
the gymnasts can take-off from the springboard with the This action of hitting with extended legs forward is like
required linear and angular momentum to arrive at the hitting the breaks suddenly on a bicycle. The front stops
vaulting table under optimal conditions to perform the and the back end lifts up. If the gymnast were to hurdle
repulsion phase effectively (1). For this to be possible the from a to close distance at full run up speeds they wouldn’t
hurdle should be long and low (which is dependant on the have enough time to get their feet forward and thus
speed of the run up), to allow the gymnast to stretch out transfer the horizontal momentum to vertical lift. Of
their legs forward in preparation for impact with the course the length and height of the hurdle is going to be
board, whist also preserving maximal horizontal highly dependant on the gymnast’s horizontal velocity and
momentum during the flight phase of the hurdle, and to hurdling take-off angle. The faster the gymnast goes, the
allow the gymnast to have the necessary body position for further and at a steeper angle he/she can hurdle from.
board contact (figure 3)
The gymnast should impact the springboard reclined at
The about 30deg to allow for the body to pivot over the feet
technical during the amortization phase (or compression phase of
advantage the board) so that the gymnast can take-off with an about
of the long 20deg incline (figure figure 3) which is an ideal angle to
and low optimize elevation over the table, while encouraging
hurdles is rotation and translation.
partly
explained The underarm action is believed to be the most effective
by arm action because it helps increase the spring loading
Newtown’s during the compression phase of springboard contact.
first law of However a true underarm action is rarely seen performed,
motion which could be due to the extremely fast speeds, poor
which habits, or it is unrealistic to be performed in its true
states that nature.
Figure 3 - Diagram of the correct body positions on ‘a body in
first impact and take-off following the hurdle. Notice motion will The mechanics of this phase are rather complicated but
the position of the center of gravity relative to the
continue in basically the horizontal momentum generated during the
resultant force. This illustrates the approximate 30deg run has to conserved and thus converted into
recline backward on first impact and 20deg incline on this state
take-off. unless acted predominantly vertical lift and angular rotation.
Pre-Flight
The goal of this phase is to make
first contact with the table in the
shortest time following the
springboard take-off arriving
with the centre of mass as high as
possible (1). Boys and girls prior
to reaching adolescences are not
Figure 4 - Kinematic diagram of Marian Dragulescu performing a Dragulescu vault (Handspring double usually physically (muscularly,
front barani out) illustrating the long low hurdle with the shoulders behind the feet on first impact with the and neurotically) mature enough
springboard with a recline of about 30deg. On the take-off the center of mass is approximately on a 20 deg to generate the run-up speeds
incline, with hips above feet followed by an aggressive leg drive and long reach forward. Note that that
because the camera low frame rate there are in-between frames missing to show the exact moment
and explosive springboard take-
described. offs, and strong block actions
CONCLUSIONS
The success of any vault is predominantly determined by
the correct and ideal execution of the run-up,
hurdle/springboard contact, pre-flight and repulsion. To
coach vault the coach has to focus on developing the run-
up, hurdle/springboard mechanics, turnover during
preflight, supplementary upper body conditioning specific
to blocking, and leg plyometrics from an early age. A
common coaching error is to focus excessively on the
repulsion phase by doing blocking drills with the aim to
produce a bigger block. However, technical and scientific
literature shows that the repulsion phase is in fact deemed resolved through the use of current coaching methods, but
to play a minor role in the success of the vault in its advised that coaches seek better and more effective
comparison to the first 3 phases. Development of the methods to training the hurdle.
handspring vault should be a long term process, and the
coach should have a long term plan in order to ensure that Every care is taken to assure the accuracy of the information published
gymnast grasps the key fundamentals to effective vaulting within this article. The views and opinions expressed within this article,
are those of the author/s, and no responsibility can be accepted by The
described in this article. It’s acknowledged that there are
Gym Press, Gym Coach or the author for the consequences of actions
limitations to the method presented, due to the lack of based on the advice contained herein.
hurdle drills and progressions available. This is partially
Address for correspondence: Valentin Uzunov, Hataitai Gymnastics, Wellington, New Zealand.
valentin.uzunov@gmail.com.