Beginners should do many drills for straight elbows while learning Yurchenko vaults.
But at the highest level we often see this:
(AP Photo/Rob Carr) – ESPNSamantha Peszek, U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials 2008, in Philadelphia.
Technical error? Form deduction?
Of course not. The gymnast should bend the elbows if they can generate more force on the push than they lose while absorbing the impact. The more powerful the vaulter, the more likely they are to bend the elbows.
Long ago at a coaching course I stated, “All vaulters bend their elbows on Yurchenko.”
My buddy, coach Dan Niehaus, proved me wrong, bringing in video clips of a number of strong vaulters who do not.
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I recall Shannon Miller having straight arms and she was still a very powerful vaulter. She never competed a Yurchenko Double but she trained one for many years, and from what I understand could have competed it but Nunno didn’t let her.
If I look back at vaults from “way back when”, I see lots of powerful vaulters that don’t bend, either. Is it a lack of attention to detail, or that some gymnasts really can’t generate the power with straight arms because of a lack of technique or a certain body type?
The physical mechanics with straight arms has the potential for much greater power generation than bent arms.
With straight arms the body has the benefit of absorbing the impact with the skeletal system locked out (the humurus and radius/ulna) aligned, which enables a more elastic collision when the vaulter hits the table, and then greater force is generated by shrugging or flexing the trapezius muscles.
With bent arms the body has to absorb the impact with the triceps and deltoids muscles and does not have the benefit of the alignment of the arm bones, which creates an inelastic collision when the vaulter hits the table. In this scenario the vaulter has to absorb the impact with the triceps muscle and then generate power with the triceps and deltoids as the major force generating muscles — which in most people are generally much weaker than the trapezius muscles.
I’m a bit confused on your terminology – elastic v. inelastic
Nevertheless, my analysis a little different and can be explained by understanding the concept of impulse (force x time).
If you’re bending your arms, you’re going to be increasing the amount of time that you’re in contact with the table because you’re “absorbing” force through eccentric muscle contraction (as Coach M explained). Well, force and time share an inverse relationship.
If you increase the time, then you’ll produce a smaller force. And, unfortunately, the rate of human muscular force production is simply not rapid enough to compensate for these losses and the resulting loss of angular momentum. So, it’s optimal to keep the arms straight and relatively “rigid” (not locked out entirely as the elbow may hyperextend) so as to “bounce” off and reduce the amount of time in contact with the table. Due to the inverse relationship, this will increase the reaction force and aid in the resulting angular momentum.
If you go look at some of the biomechanical studies out there (most have been done by Takei), you’ll see that those who are most successful always have a shorter time of contact with the horse and/or table. So, they are able to maximize the impulse generated from the reaction force.
There are no coaches anywhere that TEACH the bent arm.
It’s something that the gymnast evolves through trial and error.
Lets do some video analysis at competitions of various levels.
My prediction is that men will have much more bent arms on Yurchenko than women. That stronger vaulters will have more bent arms than weaker vaulters. That fast twitch athletes will have more bent arms than slow twitch.
The “springier” the horse, the straighter the arms.
Old-timers can recall the days when most tumblers bent elbows on backward handspring on Floor. It was hard as a ROCK.
Yurechenko’s are for split tails. Real men do Tsuks. Real, real men do handsprings.
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