The Master Coach Series

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Arlene Brenda Summers
6 years ago
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1 Tumbl Trak Presents The Master Coach Series Vaulting Leonard Isaacs

2 Tumbl Trak Presents The Master Coach Series: Featuring Leonard Isaacs Introduction Most, if not all, of the skills we gymnastics coaches teach are unnatural and counterintuitive to our students tasked with learning said skills. Add in the large number of varied tricks that an accomplished gymnast needs to learn and it becomes quite clear that coaches have an enormous amount to learn in order to serve our students well. There are many intellectual disciplines (i.e. psychology, exercise physiology and anatomy, some knowledge of injuries and rehabilitation, some knowledge of various judging codes used for competitions, biomechanics and group administration, (et al), from which we need more than a little expertise. The bottom line is that we are in an evolving sport that encompasses a very large amount of expanding information. I hope that we can all advance our gymnastics related knowledge to the betterment of our students. Bias #1: Progressions Fear may be a gymnast s greatest learning inhibitor. The wellspring of much fear might be a sense of lack of control. In order to minimize this source of fear, I believe that skill progressions should always be used when it is possible to do so. With the advent of many types of safety related equipment, spotting need no longer be the enormously important teaching tool that it was many decades ago. To be spotted is to give up at least part of one s self control. By using well thought out progressions, we can allow our students to maintain complete self-control throughout a trick s entire learning cycle. Bias #2: Head Position A gymnast s movements and shapes are often pre-determined by their head position. For whatever reason, a gymnast s head, left to its own inclinations, is usually in the wrong position for many (if not most) of the desired shapes and movement comprising her skills, leading to imperfect technique(s) and ineffective performance. This phenomenon may have to do with how a gymnast links what she sees (while doing her skills) to her safety; constantly safe repetitions of a skill done imperfectly come with visual cues linked to the imperfect executions. Thus, it behooves coaches to demand proper head positions early and often, avoiding the very difficult problem of changing visual cues (and techniques) later. Bias #3: Basics

3 Higher level skills are composed of combinations of lower level skills that are often called basics. These basic skills need to be refined and redefined throughout a gymnast s career. One such example is the round-off which is based on the cartwheel which little girls often learn (poorly) at a very early age, thus insuring many repetitions done with poor technique. Throughout years of repetition of this skill (especially in its round-off form) a girl is negatively impacting around 40% of her all-around score (assuming a Yurchenko vault) at Levels 8 and above! Such basic skills need to be dealt with daily in order for our athletes to maximize their gymnastics achievements over the course of their careers. Bias #4: Long Term Program Orientation The activity and sport of gymnastics can and should be used by children for improving problem solving skills, listening and understanding skills, self-evaluation and restructuring, fine tuning social skills, et al. In order to maximize the aforementioned benefits children need an extended time in the activity. Yet the published USAG dropout rate from Levels 5 to 6 and 6 to 7 is 50% each! This could mean many programs are emphasizing meet participation and results (short term) instead of promoting longer term objectives. Bias #5: Open Mindedness, Including the Use of Science and its Methodology In a sport as complicated as ours we need all the help we can get from any and all relevant sources, including the sciences. How we use the help may differ greatly from coach to coach because of our varied back-grounds and personalities. Since ignorance is not a virtue: We should present an inquiring and open attitude to our students just as we should encourage the same in return from them. If we respect our students they will usually respect us in return; then we can open up a dialogue with each student that should allow all to explore and grow within our wonderful sport. Master Coach Series Leonard Isaacs: Vaulting 1. Equipment: Table, official length runway, soft (foam) table, mat stack, table surrogate over Tumbl Trak, trapezoid, spring boards, tramp boards, someplace to do layout front saltos and Barani s, and a 12 mat. 2. Running: Single most important physical quality for this event. A. Critical strengths; calves, quads, and gluts. Once strength is developed use plyometrics. B. Technique; arms bent at 90 degrees, high knee lift, kick-in-the-butt leg recovery, use of ankles, running in place for arm and leg speed.

4 C. Measuring the full run; critical for effecting maximum velocity going into hurdle. A fast runner may need to use a short run until comfortable using her top-end speed. To add to short run use the distance of the last two steps in the present (short) run. Lowering the table to an unnaturally low setting and covering it with a soft mat may lesson any fears engendered by the harder, uncovered table, thus encouraging greater running speed. In meets it might be necessary to move a run back (away from table) to account for adrenaline induced greater than normal speed. For younger and minimally experienced girls use a starting point of between 50 and 60 feet, for others 60 to 67. This allows extra room for growth and greater speed, each of which requires more distance. Allow at least 10 vaulting sessions to set and test a proper starting point and up to several months for the athletes to gain confidence in the final version. D. End of run control; the last two steps of the run may need to be adjusted to a more upright position to affect a proper hurdle. 3. Hurdle: A. Traditional; a. Height (relatively low for speed) and length (commensurate with end-of-run speed). b. Use of arms; under-swing or push movement. c. Universal error; feet too far in front of the center of mass upon board contact (sideward pike shape). B. Yurchenko round-off; a. Low input angle (very long lunge); Plié depth; hollowed (gets hands down faster). b. Hand placement- in vertical line; pre-elevated shoulders. Avoid a cross step. c. Stop kick technique; join legs together in vertical to increase repulsion off hands. d. Land on board in a very deep hollow (head down on chest). 4. The Jump: A. Traditional; the body shape upon leaving the board should be an upside down J. Huge problem- most vaulters land on the board with heads up, upper body s leaning way forward and their feet substantially in front of their hips creating an unnecessarily large backward force. Drill; use short runs to a board (and table) and get head down on board (eyes up). For Tsukaharas train Barani s that change shapes (hollow to side arch to arch to back hollow) very fast; during the jump do not turn until off board. B. Yurchenko; very little knee bend, head starts forward-downward, arms move upward as fast as possible while torso moves from a deep hollow to a hip extended arch.

5 5. Pre-Flight: A. Traditional; the best developmentally would be to move from a hollowed jump to a slightly arched pre-flight. The USAG compulsory vault pictures show hollow only to a straight take-off, a technique used infrequently in optional vaulting. Drill hollow to arch jumps off board with hands on table; also drill layout front saltos. Visual spot check for coaches - see if gymnast s body moves through the pre-flight (and over the table) with speed that is commensurate with the end of the run. B. Yurchenko; the goal is to get the hands on the table as fast as possible with shoulder angle open. Head control is probably the key; gymnast should not look for the table. Drill- fly backs onto mat stack. 6. Support Phase: A. Compression; the center of mass gets closer to the table, i.e. arching after the hands touch the table. B. Repulsion; the center of mass moves farther away from the table, i.e. the body straightens. C. In most (if not all) vaults the gymnast should be attempting to leave the table (take-off) in the vertical plane to maximize height (height deduction is up to.5). Note; it is much easier for most vaulters to take off in the vertical on a Yurchenko than on a Tsukahara, thus its preferred usage at advanced levels. Support shape changes may be heavily dependent upon the vault s angular momentum. D. On the Yurchenko the shoulder should remain flexed open (straight) during support phase until just before take-off, at which point they should reverse to a forward pull (extension) violently - this increases post-flight rotation without negatively impacting height (much). 7. Take-off: The point during which the gymnast departs from the table. Optimally the shoulders are elevated and the body shaped to aid the post-flight; the rules for shaping are as follows A. On forward (back to landing area, such as in a handspring) take-offs; arch to increase rotation and hollow to slow down rotation. Note; for a handspring front tucked the take-off position should be straight to allow for a fast tucking action. For piked and layout fronts the take-off can (should?) be arched. B. On backward take-offs (front to landing area, such as with a Tsukahara); hollow to increase rotation and arch to slow down. 8. Post Flight: While this is essentially tumbling some oddities can occur. One interesting example would be a twisting salto where the starting body shape (hollow) is the opposite of what a gymnast has gotten used to (arch) in tumbling.

6 This difference may warrant some drill work, as in finding a way to start a back twist from a hollow. 9. Landing: The last chance to save point. Lengthen body (including arms up) to slow rotation, shorten to speed up. Tucks should open from hips, knees and ankles equally and simultaneously while avoiding straight knee landings. 10. Vault Selection; optionals. A. Slower runners - twist vaults. B. Faster runners - flipping vaults. a. Good round-off, flexible back and shoulders, medium to fast run; use a Yurchenko. b. Very good speed, strong shoulder flexors, good front landing ability; use a handspring front. c. Good speed, technically sound Barrani, good back salto air sense, use a Tsukahara. 11. Drills: Since this event happens so fast (with little or no time to think during the execution of the vaults various parts) all techniques need to be drilled separately until they happen automatically (correctly) at high speeds. Critical drills: A. Yurchenko s; arm and body movements during the jump. B. Fronts; arched to straight handstands with head moving from up to neutral. C. Tsukaharas; speed Barani s. 12. Other Considerations: Because of the speed used in this event it is critical that equipment, spotting and strategy are always well thought out. A common example of where a vault might need a special strategy is where it moves from a pit landing to a meet landing. Do you remember the situation where a Chinese team vaulter broke her neck at an American Cup meet while warming up a layout front vault with no spotter and no appreciable extra matting? Paralyzed! Another potential meet problem concerns the number and stiffness of vault board springs when a gymnast s workout board cannot be used. 13. Conditioning: Any and all running drills, ankle plyometrics and appropriate shoulder work (probably shoulder elevation (shrugs with weights totaling athlete s weight)). For Tsukahara and Yurchenko vaults - abdominal contractions (with appropriate resistance) starting from an extended (arched) position. Master Coach Series Leonard Isaacs: Conditioning Concepts

7 1. Gymnastics is primarily an anaerobic sport and conditioning should reflect that fact. 2. Exercising aerobically does not use fast twitch (type II) muscle fiber. Each person s distribution of type I and type II fiber is primarily a function of heredity. 3. A rule of thumb: If one can do an exercise more than 7 times before extinction than the exercise is becoming more aerobic and may need more resistance. 4. Gymnasts need power more than strength; thus the more joint speed an exercise contains the more appropriate for gymnasts. 5. Eccentric work is more effective than concentric. 6. Use plyometrics for jumping and running conditioning. Be sure that on landings the knee(s) stays over the 2 nd toe.

Girls Program AK-1 VAULT

2018-19 Girls Program AK-1 VAULT Start value 10.0 Vault #1 - Run; Straight jump off board 5.00 The run is not judged. The board position is judged. Deductions for leaning into the board are found in the