WAG Running and vault

[gymisforeveryone]

I have a question about vault training. How much do you spent on teaching proper running technique or DO running and running drills? Our gymnasts used to have a separate running practice once a week (1 hour) last year but not anymore (not my choice) and now we have to do all the running training during normal practices. My higher level girls still struggle with running technique and steps and that has a huge impact on their vaulting. They have even got worse on vault.

The little ones who I coach are 8 years old and some of them have serious problems with the technique (slow run, arms go from side to side or are too straight, low knees, legs fall behind, shoulder on ears etc).... I want to fix it now when the vaults are still easy and can be done without very fast and powerful run and hurdle. They practice 6 hours a week and in two different locations. The first gym they go two times a week doesn't have a real runaway. The vault is set on floor and they have to run on floor... In that gym we usually do more drills and no running. In the second gym there is a track and at the beginning they run 2 laps (610 meters) as a warm up. Then we do sprints on long jump runaway (they end up jumping into the sandpit) for about 5 minutes. Sometimes we have time to do relay races or some running drills (high knees, knees to buttom, single leg runs etc). But in that gym we don't do actual vaulting because there is not enough space.

So they spend 15-20 minutes a week on running. I would love to spend an hour! But there is also floor, beam, bars, conditioning, stretching, dance...

How are your vault practices structured in different levels? Do the gymnast do running drills or run around floor? Do you do many drills or is it just the actual vault? How many times a week do you practice vault?

 

[emilykatherine]

This is how our whole vault prActice goes :
Board drills and run backs( high knees, butt kicks, jumps) to a certain point and then back to the line
Run ups over the table( start on spot and run as fast as u can over the table timed)
10-15 vaults each with fills inbetween (normally in groups by table height)
Timed hands stands
Then during conditioning we either run or do plyometrics

 

[emilykatherine]

And we practice vault 3 times a week 45 mins each

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Been there done that with not having a long enough runway. If you did a flipping vault you weren't expected to do it at practice because of the runway problems so we always did a lot of running drills and other vault drills. Once a month we got to set the vault up into the lobby so we could run as far as we needed, but usually we had to go to open gym at another gym every weekend to vault. Since we only got to vault once a week at the most, you would think most people's vaults weren't very consistent, but the people who did flipping vaults were better at vault than the people who didn't flip because we did so many drills. We ran a lot and we would go over the vault with sneakers on (we never flipped with sneakers on, just timers). The sneakers added weight but they didn't harm like ankle weights and actually supported us when we ran. It really helped our heal drives. We also did thousands of standing back tucks and pikes with sneakers on.

 

[CoachTodd]

Start with the last 3 steps. They are the most important. Start them 3 steps from the board and let them get the feel for accelerating into the hurdle.
From there back them up 3 more steps. Have them do a kind of high knee jog for the first 3 steps then accelerate the last 3. Once they have this, back them up again. (rinse, repeat )
On the same note, I've had some really good vaulters whose runs weren't very good until they got to those last few steps before the hurdle.

 

[catou]

I also coach 8-9 year olds.We do 3x 30 minutes of vault/week. We have running drills at every beginning of every vault training. We mostly do the followings:
- high knees
- kick butts
- straight legs, one straight, one flexed
- some others, but I don't know their english names
- rebound in handstand
- sprint to the top of the vault

One thing that really helped is telling them to start slowly for the first third, then medium speed for the second and full speed for the last third. They tended to sprint right from the start, but weren't able to maintain that speed until they reached the board.

With gymnasts that small, I also make them start a bit closer to the vault