WAG Hurdle mat for vault

[aerialriver]

I heard today that you are no longer allowed to use a hurdle mat for vault unless you are using it for your hands (like doing a yurchenko) I heard it was because a gymnast slipped on one and broke her neck and now their is a big law suit. Is that true? Also are they doing something different with the bars? I heard the owner say something about "soft rails" just curious.

 

[MeetDirector]

Can't confirm the reason, but the statement is correct - no hurdle mat except for round off/handspring entry vaults. See page 67 of the new rules and policies.

 

[gymdog]

Really? Wow. I hadn't heard this. Kinda rough, think a smaller one helps the younger kids with their timing. Oh well.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Can you still use velcro lines?

 

[wandrewsjr]

Yes, you can still use a velco, tape or chalk line

 

[gymgal]

Dd found out about this last week and she is not happy. She uses one for timing, I guess. I figured she would just start using chalk or tape.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i'm a little late to this post. but is everyone talking about the yurchenko hand mat being placed on the runway in front of the board when they're NOT doing yurchenkos?

if so, they'll adjust. and the fact is, coaches place the hand mat there "thinking" that will get them to hit the top of the board when the reality is that most still hit the back of the board. the few that get to the top is just a coincidence. and sometimes they push/hurdle off the hand mat which is not good either.

i can't remember when this started...maybe 90's (?) and most of us that have been around for awhile just smiled when we observed this. and have you noticed that boys/men never do this?

 

[MaryA]

HC just told us about this yesterday. She was not happy. Funny thing is, at DD's old gym they never used such a thing (or velcro, or chalk lines, or anything). I'd see kids using them at meets and think, "what a good idea!" So hopefully after a year of using the mat, she will be able to go back to not using it. I saw HC using chalk lines yesterday at practice. Maybe this will be DD's last year of competing the FHS vault anyway (level 7)...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

and btw, aerialriver might be referring to a case (i can't mention names here) where a small girl actually tripped when she hurdled at the hand mat. her foot picked up the hand mat just a bit and caused her to trip out of control forward and she pile drove her head in to the table pedestal. this child is okay now.

 

[iwannacoach]

Placing a marker, hand mat, or anything else that close to the hurdle is either going to take away running power or is an indication of weak run training needing more attention. These props are set out to allow a last second adjustment during the last 2-4 strides, and adjusting means altering stride length away from the bodies own ideal pattern. That means shortening or lengthening to compensate for.......1-2 feet of running error?.....in a 70 ish foot run?

If you want an example of the ideal, I'll offer up world class sprinters, not for their speed but for their stride consistency.
The number of strides taken in a 100 meter dash is the same for each runner....every time, over and over and over. Even more interesting is that these runners have fairly similar bodies, and a majority of these athletes take 41 strides. So there must be a correlation between running fast and being consistent. BTW that Bolt guy from Jamaica.....he takes only 40 strides.

I haven't lost enough of my sanity over the sport of gymnastics to sit down and mark out where the last foot lands before these sprinters hit the finish line, but I can imagine for each athlete there's a consistent zone about 2-3 feet long where stride #40 begins, and it's always on the same foot.

Maybe I'm making too much of this, but I just can't see the need to adjust stride length to the extent that you need a "target" on the runway. These sprinters run 330 feet and have a deviation of about 18 inches long to 18 inches short (yeah it's a guess, but it's probably a good one). In vault parlance that would be the equivalent of 4 inches plus or minus on a vault run. Just say'n......

Getting that consistency is pretty easily done by starting young vaulters with a 3 or 4 step run to a punch off a springboard rebounding onto a resi-mat, stacked mats, or the vault. When they've "mastered that run they can add 2 steps and do a modified handspring onto a stack or the vault. The next two steps puts them at 6-7 steps, and when done with maximum effort that's enough for handspring vaults for kids that have any business doing a handspring vault in the first place. So if they can't run the entire length of the runway with speed and confidence, give them a shorter run and an easier vault to work on until they can commit to a full speed (for the steps allowed) consistent run. That's the easy way, and that's what the sport is all about...doing things the easy way because it's not all that complicated in the first place.

 

[iwannacoach]

and btw, aerialriver might be referring to a case (i can't mention names here) where a small girl actually tripped when she hurdled at the hand mat. her foot picked up the hand mat just a bit and caused her to trip out of control forward and she pile drove her head in to the table pedestal. this child is okay now.

And to that, I have nothing to say but.....!!!

 

[Blackie6]

So funny to see this post as I never really gave any thought about the "hurdle mat" my daughter used until last month. She changed gyms and when I was watching her on vault one day at practice I realized she wasn't doing well at all. When I asked her about it afterwards she told me that she is not allowed to use a hurdle mat & it feels like she is learning to vault all over again. I didn't really know what she meant (we even joked around and called it a splat mat!) until I thought about all the times before my daughter would vault her coach would slap that mat out for her. It all started back in L4 when she had an epic fail into the mats. They used it for her for timing and it carried over into L5 and even L6 sometimes. Just to add to the theory it changes the "run" or slows it down...nope...my daughter won a medal at states for both L4 and L5 for vault, LOL. In her head, it was a visual cue. But I am afraid it may have become a bad habit and she is now working on not using the mat anymore! As far as injuries, I've seen them happen with and without that mat, vault has always scared me the most!

 

[gymgal]

It's interesting to hear all the coaches' views on this. dd has never been a great vaulter but she has placed in top 3 in a 1-2 meets at each level, including some state comps. So she's not horrible either. Her gym has always used the mat to help the kids with timing. I think in the beginning it did help them but I noticed last year, which was dd's first year competing the FHS, that she had a much harder time with timing for the vault and bawked (is that the right word?) several times in meets because her stride before the hurdle was off. I never really thought about it but now I wonder if that mat could have been hindering her by "forcing" her to hurdle before she was ready and without that mat, she could have taken that extra step... just thinking aloud because I have no clue. I get the other events....mostly. But vault is just totally foreign to me and I gave up understanding it a long time ago.

As for recent training, she complained about not having the mat for a couple of days but I asked her today and she said she's fine with it now, just will take time to adjust.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

My coach uses the hurdle mat to get me to lengthen my hurdle. I won't step onto the mat while vaulting so it forces me to hurdle earlier than I do comfortably (because my habitual hurdle is much too short). A line of chalk on the runway accomplishes the same thing, although it can be a little harder to tell if I'm hurdling in the right place or not, and it's sometimes confusing if people have marked their hurdles at different spots.

At my gym we heard that they instated the no hurdle mat rule for forward-entry vaults because some level 5 girl somewhere tripped and broke her arm. Now, I remember a time in level 5 when my friend broke her wrist doing cartwheels on the floor. Just sayin.

 

[Kiwi]

this child is okay now.

So glad to hear that!

 

[flipflopcrystal]

there was an update to the rules on 8/21. hope someone can enlighten on it because it still says ONLY when hands are placed in front of the board, but now says for roundoff or fronthandspring entry.

UPDATED 8/21/12 - A correction has been made to the Apparatus chapter under Vault (page 67):

• Jr. Olympic: A hand placement mat may be placed on the runway (but not on the board) ONLY for vaults that require placing the hands on the runway in front of the board (Round-off or Front handspring entry.) The hand placement mat must be manufactured by a gymnastics equipment company and cannot exceed 2 inches in height. No other type matting is allowed

:: USA Gymnastics :: Women's Program Rules and Policies ::

 

[wandrewsjr]

This is refering to front handspring ENTRY vaults, where the gymnast puts his/her hands on the mat and front handsprings onto the board. I, personally, have never seen one, but they are in the code.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

that's correct. and i had a gymnast do this vault in 1987 to a front tuck only. it was the trend then. haven't seen any myself in quite a few years.

 

[gymdog]

and btw, aerialriver might be referring to a case (i can't mention names here) where a small girl actually tripped when she hurdled at the hand mat. her foot picked up the hand mat just a bit and caused her to trip out of control forward and she pile drove her head in to the table pedestal. this child is okay now.

I mean this is awful, but that could happen if a kid tripped on the springboard too. Most vaulting equipment/areas aren't sufficiently padded and matted to reduce injury in these cases. I've seen similar incidents from tripping or balking on yurchenko entry hurdles. On front handspring vaults, I have seen kids run too close to the spring board and hurdle over it, breaking legs/ankles.

I'm not too worked up about it either way, but it's just not really something I saw coming as a big inherent risk that needed to be banned. It's not a golden crutch, but it's worked for me for SOME kids (have never used it for ALL kids...depends on the situation).