coachjvinson wrote: basic tap fundamentals involve going from a hollow to arch to hollow position...
the first hollow is the plant with arms forward, stretch C is the arch, and then tap/whip to hollow position...
there is not a TAP impetus following the downswing/whipkick... at this point, if you are talking about tap or trying to tap at this point, you have missed the fundamental concept IMHO...
Thanks for this clarification, Coach Vinson.
I hesitate to assume that your interpretation of Brian's concept re the "tap" is correct, since you editted your previous post 13 times - which suggests some uncertainty. I'd still like to hear from Brian Clymer himself.
However, on the assumption that your interpretation is correct, I think it does clarify the mystery of the PV "tap" - somewhat.
It really sounds like a stretch (of one's imagination) to me to say that the first "hollow" is the plant.
And although I can see what Brian's getting at in equating the downswing to the setup of the "tap" and the final "pop"/"whip" of the downswing to the actual "tap", where I fail to see this as being identical to a true gymnastic tap is that in PV it's a one-legged downswing/tap (for most of us), instead of a two-legged gymnastic tap. In my mind, it's just not close enough to the same feeling to call it a tap. Maybe I lack imagination, and I'm being too sticky about precise definitions?
What I'm really getting at is that I don't think it's very helpful for a coach to tell his vaulter to "
swing on the pole like you're doing a tap on the highbar", and it's not very helpful for a vaulter to think "
swing on the pole like you're doing a tap". I agree that you should swing like on a highbar, but thinking about doing a tap on the pole just doesn't make any sense to me - from either a coach's or a vaulter's perspective.
But whatever. If that's what Brian's referring to, then we can at least resolve the mystery, and understand what we each mean by the terms tap, Active-I, downswing, pop, and whip.
My conclusion is that there's no special "tap" thing that a vaulter must do at a certain point of his swing. The downswing/whip that we see Bubka do is what we should model our vaults after. Nothing less, nothing more.
I will continue to call these vault parts the "downswing" and the "whip", and others can call it the "tap" and the "Active-I" if they wish.
I find these extra words confusing, but I'm ready to move on.
Kirk