The Tsukahara vault is easy to do … badly. We’re still seeing too many dangerous landings in competition.
Many gymnasts (especially boys) flip their first ones off a cheese mat into a pit. That’s OK … but if they do too many, most will develop some bad habits.
I put together a quicky tutorial on a better way kids could do their first flips.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Delay the first ‘FLIP’ day until kids are confident and consistent with the Round-off. And then let them only do up to 3 flips in any one work-out, once-in-a-while. It should be a reward for hard work on sprint, hurdle, pre-flight and conditioning.
Ideally, beginners would flip no more than once a week. The other days are dedicated to preparation.
Several of the kids in this video were flipping for the first time. The youngest is age-9. She now has years to stabilize the skill (and work on LANDING) before needing to compete it.
Prerequisites to the first day flipping Tsuk:
• 10 backward saltos in series on tramp
• ‘gainer’ back salto on tramp
• ‘pullover’ on tramp
• double back saltos somewhere safe (ideally tramp with belt or bungie belt)
That’s a short video. Leave a comment if you’ve a favourite drill to add.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 