Board Contact: Teaching Old Dog New Tricks...

[emacmommy]

What have been some concepts, visuals, ideologies, cues, techniques, drills, etc. that you have given gymmies that are consistently back on the board?

Okay, I have a seasoned L8 vaulter, about to compete Tsuk for the first time this weekend. We are missing about two inches of height-rotation ratio for a great scoring vault. I am certain what is missing is better board contact. She is CONSISTENTLY back on the board which equals about front/midway for hand contact on the table. She knows it, I know it, we've given her "visuals" to spot the tape line on the board through as much of her run as possible, moved her start spot forward three inches or so, moved her board back during timers with her not aware, told her to lengthen or not rush her hurdle. Working the lean and drive in her run has heloed tremendously, but it's not enough. This is not a stubborn or falling on deaf ears type of gymnast. She wants this and is very coachable. Can anybody give any other insight as to what might work for her?

Funny though, this was exactly a habit I had to fix when I was first competing tsuks way back in the twinkie vault periods. I can so remember just getting grilled about focusing my run on the board until the last three or four steps or so. It's just not working for her right now. Hey, she's opening up to the yurchenko idea again fear-wise. Doesn't help us this year, but maybe, just maybe, next year...

 

[gymnut1]

Drape a small mat across the bottom half of the springboard. Nothing needs to be said, brain will sort the rest out. Works for my 6 year olds.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

change the hurdle foot. but not for this week end.

and draping a mat on the bottom of the board works until you remove the mat. coaches ask me about this predictament when at meets. they can't understand why they hit the top of the board when that mat is there, then can't when they remove it or are at a meet.

it's certainly not all kids. it would just be those few who are probably hurdling off the wrong foot. change that and it's more likely than not that you will see a change.

 

[gymnut1]

We mix the mat in and out it has definitely helped but they are quite young. Interesting about the hurdle step.

 

[emacmommy]

Interesting about the hurdle foot. What is the premise behind that? I've never noticed which foot she hurdles with in relation to a lefty-righty. Is there a correct or an incorrect foot in regards to a half on? Or is the difference achieved because there is no muscle memory or habit formed with the other foot? Do you change her start position, rerunning steps, or just tell her to hurdle with the other leg and no change?

I can hear the protests about that's just too weird feeling. She wouldn't be disrespectful, but I'm sure she would want me to explain the reasoning behind it rather than just blindly following my comment that maybe all these years she's been hurdling from the wrong foot.

BTW, not to be pessimistic, but I doubt she will compete it tomorrow. We went from great vault practice Wed, vault isn't on the rotation cards on Thu, to WOW reversal this morning. She vaulted Mon & Tue too, but it was resi pit vaulting and drills. I told her we will warm up timers and see how her confidence is, maybe spot her through one if she is on, but I'm skeptical her nerves and confidence isn't going come through for her. I don't want to risk a negative first experience and would rather vault a safe vault for this meet in this situation. We have our home meet in a week which could be good neutral home territory for her first.

Now that I know she has some rather severe self doubts that I was never aware of until this morning I will be working on building her confidence in herself, her ability and that she is more than deserving to be up with the best in our state, which is small. She won AA the last meet, but not with stellar scores, rather her mistakes just happened to be less severe than the other 11 Level 8's in our state. Each and every other girl had one large mistake on at least one event that caused them to score in the low 7's, 6's and even 5's. She messed up her run for a simple handspring vault and only scored 7.95 (which she was embarassed about), the rest of her scores were mid to high 8's. She covered these feelings up well but it all came flooding out this morning. She sees herself not getting this as a bit of a failure and inadequacy on her part, and I wasn't aware. The girls she just beat in the all around she sees as intimidating because they seem to compete skills that she hasn't mastered and they look like they are easy to them. She thinks she won by a fluke... well guess what... overall consistency, good form and clean lines beats half *** thrown harder skills. She has all she needs on each event with 10.0 start value on each event. Who cares if you haven't mastered the full yet to land well and compete it... you make up for it in value elsewhere! It's all how you play the game, you don't have to do exactly the cookie cutter routines everyone else is doing.

 

[CalEliteCoach]

My 2 cents about the hurdle and board contact.

To me, the floor and vault hurdle should be the same. On floor, a right round off takes off from the left foot. Should be the same on vault.

All of my optional athletes hurdle for vault from the same zone 11-13 feet from the table. Except for Yurchenkos hurdle near 25 feet.

The board is at 1.6 feet. for most and 1.0 feet for Yurchenkos.

If one of my athletes misses the hurdle zone prescribed, I know it's because of the speed of their run. As a result they may be back or low on the board. We do tons of running to test that their approach is accurate to the hurdle line.

I would assume this is similar to Olympic long jumpers. It really does matter which foot and where they hurdle from. Right?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

My 2 cents about the hurdle and board contact.

To me, the floor and vault hurdle should be the same. On floor, a right round off takes off from the left foot. Should be the same on vault.

All of my optional athletes hurdle for vault from the same zone 11-13 feet from the table. Except for Yurchenkos hurdle near 25 feet.

The board is at 1.6 feet. for most and 1.0 feet for Yurchenkos.

If one of my athletes misses the hurdle zone prescribed, I know it's because of the speed of their run. As a result they may be back or low on the board. We do tons of running to test that their approach is accurate to the hurdle line.

I would assume this is similar to Olympic long jumpers. It really does matter which foot and where they hurdle from. Right?

precisely! but aren't you amazed at how many of those kiddos change that hurdle to the opposite foot? and even when we watch them?? some nights i'm like...shoot me now!