Vault: Going from Flatback to FHS successfully

[BarCoach]

My level 5s are decent vaulters. They score mid-high 8s and consistently place within the top 5, sometimes winning, so I know we're doing ok. But their vaults (specifically their block and post-flight) are much better with mats behind the table going to their backs than when they have to land on their feet. Is it just a fear thing? How do I get the flatback drill to translate to their real vaults?

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[coachmolly]

My high school girls have a similar problem, and with them most of it is mental/fear. Something about going over the table just seems to induce panic and cause them to change everything they know. We've tried to combat it by going back and forth between mats and the table, hoping something will eventually click. We've also tried stacking mats about the height of the vault and having them handspring over those- it eliminates the smacking their back against the table fear (which seems to be the big one for us).
But it sounds like your girls are doing really well in spite of it all so, so good coaching on your part!

[GymSurvivor]

I can honestly say that for me it's fear.
Doing the level 4 to flat back. You can stack mats to the exact height of the vault and I'll do a beautiful handstand to flat back, with a beautiful block.
Then when I go over the table, I end up over thinking it. Getting worried and simply not doing as well.

[JBS]

More speed...knees up and feet up on the run.

[gymgurl]

Handstand pop to feet on the mats then lower the mats behind one by one

[CoachTodd]

One thing I had work for one girls that may help is start out with the level 4 vault mats behind the table. The mats should be at least 8" higher than the table. Have her do a couple of handspring flatbacks. Now turn the mat sideways so basically, if they do the same handspring flatback, their shoulders will brush the mat stack and their feet land on the floor. The only reason this helped this particular girl was because it was a fear issue. She had landed a really nice vault a year or so before but was very loose in her core and injured her back on the landing. I think the mats just reminded her to stay tight until she landed. I'm not really sure. She did start getting the height and distance on her vault after that.

[fliptwisttwirl]

We do a drill on the rod floor that helped our 5's and 6's a lot. Have them do bounders--punch on the rod floor, hands onto a panel mat, the panel mat facing longways, and land on an 8incher. Once they master that, add a panel mat on top of the other one. And so on until you get to about 4 panel mats. (You can go higher or lower depending on the height of your girls and the height they're vaulting on.) Main points--make sure they hurdle from far back and come in and come off without any broken angles. Helped our girls a ton!