The forward entry on to the springboard for vault is a skill that the gymnast will do for most of their time in gymnastics. A tricky skill that can confuse our young gymnasts there are many different drills and techniques used to teach this fundamental.
When a gymnast hits the board they are expected to take off from one foot and “punch” the board with two feet, in dance this movement is called an assemblé which means to bring together. As seen in the images below the feet should be in front of the body allowing the gymnast to keep their chest up, this is important as the angle of the chest during any front entry vault has a direct affect on the rest of the skill. once the gymnast is on the board their focus should be on swinging their arms up to their ears and straight jumping as high as possible. the straight jump portion of this skill is important as it will help the gymnast avoid reaching down during their future skills on vault.
Vault skills build off of each other in a very literal sense, as seen in the image below, making it very important for coaches at the Preschool and Recreational levels to understand and be confident in teaching this skill to avoid ingrained bad habits in their students.
