Often coaches and athletes view elite gymnasts with awe, marveling at their speed and power combined with grace and athleticism, hoping to achieve that similar level in a short amount of time. It is something that is desired but without the proper steps and mechanics for the athletes, can lead to injury, mental blocks, and loss of abilities. Understanding how vault skills change over time and athlete physical developments apply to speed, power, height, and motion are critical to the basic fundamentals to better teach, develop, and improve gymnastics skills in a safe environment.

Using simple biomechanics and physics, we will conceptualize how to teach some of the most fundamental vaults in gymnastics in a safe, progressive, and quality fashion. On vault we will look at the run and block off the table, body shaping drills, quickness, tightness, and rotational mechanics for compulsory and beginner optional athletes before introducing salto vaults.

Utilizing the mechanics of proper vault techniques and also avoiding poor mechanics and techniques leads to safer, stronger skills over a longer period of athlete training. The importance of vault drills to develop early age awareness and solid fundamentals is another crucial area and rushing by skipping steps isn’t advisable. MAGMA uses dozens of drills before even going over the vault table, air mats, trampoline, and tumbltrak before hard vaulting. The proper tool, the proper technique, and the proper development is the Magma Way!