DrillsAndSkills.com

[Carvergirl]

What drills can I do to help the second part of a ROBHS not pike down. I have a few gymnasts that are going long into the ROBHS but they pike down at the end, i.e. in the snapdown. Their feet almost land where their hands are.

I also need help with a Handspring to flat-back vault. I have a gymnast that constantly rolls through her shoulders which just ends up making the vault a forward roll! We are doing heel drive drills but this doesn't seem to help much as she continually pushes her shoulders forward and doesn't open them , therefore she rolls. Does anyone have any drills that might help?

Thanks

[June]

Carvergirl,

When she is vaulting, what do you notice about her pre-flight? It sounds like she is probably diving in. Heel drive can definitely be a problem but how does she do with her reach?

[Guest]

In terms of the vault - tell them to look at their hands. I've found that rolling is most often a consequence of the kids ducking their head in too far. They should see their hands at initial contact and then as they block off, the shoulder angle will open up and their head will go more into proper alignment. But, at that point, the head should never be tucked in - it should be neutral.

[Carvergirl]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Yes June, she is diving in a bit. She immediately puts her head down when she contacts the vault. It has become a bad habit now, that she just rolls each time.

I will also get her to look at her hands and reach further and hopefully she will have more success. The heel drive is fairly weak as well.

[Chalkie]

Most of the time, when there are problems with the contact part of the vault, I find that the actual take-off from the beat board is actually the problem. Look at her take-off. Is she leaning forwards? If she is, then the body has no choice than to dive into the vault, and this is too much for the body to take, hence the folding in of the body. Her feet should be in front of her on the take-off, as to propel the body up and not forwards. The heel drive will create the rotation and the arm circle will generate the open shoulders.

For drills, I recommend simply starting over from the beginning. Do jumps on floor, starting in front of the line and going backwards. Make sure she does the arm circle. Do this until she gets it. Then add a small run to it. Then, introduce the beat board (still on floor) and redo the same drills. Then, put the beat board in front of the vault and do the same drills. Also, once these drills have been mastered (with proper take-off technique), make her jump onto the vault (tuck jump first, then straight jump) to get the feeling of the height. The arm circle should still be there!!!!! At any point, if something goes wrong, go back to the previous drill.

I would still work on watching her hands for the shoulder angle, and also tell her to push through her shoulders, to block the impact, instead of absorbing it.

As for the backhandspring, I have a drill I use for the pike down. We put a beat board in front of a normal crash pad (6 inch) and get the kids to do standing backhandsprings from the beat board to a front support on the mat. This teaches them the feeling of being hollow and tight at the end of the skill, and to not pike down. If you set up the drill on the side of your tumbling strip, you can have the kids do the drill in between tumbling turns, and this way, they will associate one to the other.

Good luck!!!

[June]

I think Chalkie gives a good point about positioning on the board.
There is a drill I do with my level 4s that helps with that and not diving in.
It slows down the vault and makes them work a little harder. I put a panel matt long ways in front of the board for them to start on. From a one step hurdle, have them go to handstand on the resi, using your arm as a visual for them to reach over (around eye level). That arm can catch them around the chest/shoulder area and the other on the thigh, if they need help. Sometimes, instead of going to handstand, I will just catch them in the air in a tight arch position, not really focusing on heel drive but for arms to be up by the ears and the bottom squeezed and return them to the board. I "overdramatize" the position when it seems that the gymnast is going so far the other way (like rolling into the vault). I had a gymnast who was a pro at the forward roll vault! For her, I would have her do the one-step hurdle (into my arms) into a high tight superman position. Sometime she'd be over my head and I would be forced to "tip" her over to the resi (of course she was very small so this was comfortable for me). She got used to the concept of air-time and of stretching the arms. Then we'd add in the run and I would continue to hold one arm out for her to go over. 1 out of 5 times she would dive right under! But that went away! Having that arm there will force them to stand up straighter on the board.
Maybe on the side, you could throw in a drill that involves kicking up to a handstand and falling flat onto a soft matt. The heel drive, I imagine, will come with conditioning. I hope that you will find something that works for her. Good luck!

[Coach Blair]

To fix piking down in the backhandspring as said before I like using back handspring to hollow or push up position on an 8 inch mat. And handstand snap downs/throughs where as their feet hit the tramp ( they use a block of proportionate size to be pushing/kicking up to the handstand from ) they have to scoop their feet in front of their hips so they rebound up and back instead of up.
Handstand flatback. I got on a 5 last night cause she was getting lazy with this. Tired, yes, but still some effort. So basically had her go to a floor 8" mat and work on handstand flatback. Often enough kids always hit a laxy dazy handstand and connect it as they come down. Which is sorta what their dive roll to flatbacks are like.
So have them handstand and connect at the top where you spot and make sure they are tight before they are allowed to flatback.

[Guest]

Thanks for all your replies!! I am starting to see some improvements with my gymnasts.

[Carvergirl]

Sorry, I hadn't logged in. Thanks to all the replies!! I am starting to see improvements with my gymnasts.