The gymnast should twist right if his right hand touches the vault first, and twist left if his left hand touches first. It's usually a good idea to attempt most of the vaulting repetitions on soft surfaces to reduce the chance of injuries.
As a gymnast gets better with a skill on the vault, it is a good idea to do the same skill to an elevated soft surface. The soft surface minimizes the stress on the gymnast's joints while making it more difficult to land. This encourages gymnasts to apply more power and improve their technique.
The goal of this drill is to land on top of an elevated surface without having to arch the body. The gymnast can't arch and twist, which is why the drill is so important.
Practicing yurchenko timers to stacked mats is a useful way to train different vaulting techniques without having to worry about injuries. As the gymnasts get better, they can raise the height to make the drill more challenging. Observe the table repulsion on this yurchenko timer. Watch the previous video example again with a couple of still frames of the take-off. This gymnast is already straight and off the table by the vertical.
At the same time that gymnasts are learning limbers, cartwheels, round-offs and other basic skills, they can also begin learning to jump backwards onto a resi-mat.
Here are several snap down examples some better than others. Back handsprings have two flying phases one from feet to hands and the second turning from hands to feet. Snap downs help gymnast to understand the second flying phase. She could open the shoulders more to begin the snap down. In this example notice a much better shoulder opening to begin the snap down. /4th clip/ Better shoulder opening. /6thclip/ After Gymnasts can snap down safely from folded mats they can try from spring boards. The extra bounciness facilitates to train the deep hollow turn over without having to pike down. This is an incorrect snap down with an excessive pike. This gymnast shows a better turnover with a deep hollow position.
