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I am going to offer an indoor vault conditioning class at a local gymnastics academy. We will have access to all the gym equipment, and will vault at least once a week indoors (85' runway on a sprung floor, 25' ceiling) Besides wanting to hear from interested parties in the Southwest Portland Oregon area I'd really like to hear about:

YOUR favorite gymnastics apparatus and conditioning exercise on it --

YOUR experiences vaulting indoors or equipment tips/tricks --

YOUR advice or support --

YOUR funny related stories --

I'll start it by sharing one exercise I made up the other day....take a large gym block (3'-4' high), run at it with 1-2 strides, and take your best approach jump at it. If you do it right, you land with your lead foot on the block with trail leg extended and hooked on the block, top arm straight and behind your head, and the block will tip forward with your momentum! Spotters on the side and a crash pad or pit make this a safer exercise and also provide immediate feedback. It really helps take the boredom out of jump training and forces an exaggerated jump and correct C-position. In addition your trail leg had to pull hard on the block to tip it over, developing the "tap" muscles in the hip and abs. It also gives you a clear measure of penetration power -- who can tip the block over and how many times!

Keep in mind we will have EVERYTHING at our disposal...pit...spotting belts..rings...trampoline....etc....be CREATIVE!!!!

ahh you gotta love gymnastics. by the way, did anyone else notice that the USA crowned their first world individual all around champion male last month. Paul Hamm.

anyway, my three favorite events in gymnastics are the floor, high bar and vault. i guess floor would have to be my favorite. the worst event in gymnastics: pommel horse.

there are endless things that you can do on high bar for the vault: bubkas, wipers, clear hips, kips, giants. but it is always to include a little basic tumbling on the floor just for fun even if it is just for body control and does not translate to a vault specific exercise

hey a drill that i always had to do and still do is using the vaulting table......do the same thing you described using the other block that you had made up, but you have to leap up with that lead leg and leave your trail leg behind you.......its hard when the table is all the way up, but it works really well........

my favorite gymnastics event is vault and bars...for vault you can teach them the basic handspring or squat on, just because you have to have the correct steps running up to it so it helps to get your steps consistant. on bars you can do anything since it will build upper body strength, like the other guy suggested the free hops, bubkas, and giants (only for advanced vaulters unless there is a strap bar), pull overs are good too, especially if you do them from a dead hang. you can do double let kip pulls which are basically the last half of the bubka but you can't bring your feet down, you keep your toes at the bar and extend up each time instead of also doing the leg lift........another thing you can do is climb a rope upside down or with out using your legs, its a lot of fun especially when you get the hang of it or can do it more than one time in a row. back extension rolls on the floor are also good especially when you have to try and get over something.

when i vault indoors i also do something called spring board vaulting its a lot of fun and although its not a real PR it is still great to get the sense of it. you just put a gymnastics spring board a little ways in front of the box and take off from that instead of the ground, be sure you raise your hand though quite a bit, and don't ever ever do this without a coach around.

my advice to you is if you don't have much gymnastics experience then either see if one of the coaches there can help, cuz they know a lot that will help strength wise, and if you need any help with other drills and stuff send me an email, i am a former gymnast, i coach all level of gymnastics up to girls JO level 6, and boys class 7 and 6.

i'm not going into any funny stories just cuz if my old coach ever saw this i would be in trouble

Other good gymnastics bar drills are doing clear hips into handstands and handstand pirouettes along with giants...but also see if you can get on the rings!

Vault, Vault, Vault and did I mention Vault