Let’s take a closer look at vaulting activities!

Delta Gym Kids classes are action packed, while allowing time to work on skills on all four gymnastics apparatus – vault, bars, beam and floor.  We are busy building strong foundations for bigger skills to be performed in the future.  But what is vault…?

When you think of Olympic level gymnastics, the vault involves the gymnast sprinting 25m to a spring board where they then execute a number of flips and twists over a stationary table, before landing on their feet on a crash mat. Ahhh… when will my child start doing that?  Vault takes time to develop the speed, strength and aerial awareness.

In our Gym Kids classes we develop coordination and leg strength with locomotor activities such as skipping, hopping, hop-scotch and jumping.  We work on fast rebounds with rope skipping and learn how to spring on trampolines and to use beat boards.

In our vault sessions we focus on the rocket shape (straight body line)!  Our Gym Kids practice a lot of rocket jumps up to boxes to develop strong body awareness.  Our Gym Kids learn how to squeeze their body tight and push their legs straight. It is important that our Gym Kids can hold their body tight while moving through the air… as one day this will lead to rotating their straight bodies through the air in a front handspring vault!

Finally, in our vault sessions we make sure that every child knows how to land safely. We call our gymnastics landing position our “Motor Bike” landing. Our Gym Kids learn how to land from a variety of different heights, directions, surfaces and skills. Motor bike landings are the best way to absorb the force and maintain control of the body. Plus in competition the judges and crowds always a love a good “stuck landing”!!