a-level pe exemplar unit 04 - coursework - sections b and

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A-level Physical Education Teaching and Learning Resources

Gymnastics Performer

Marking Band: Borderline High – Very High



A2 B&C Coursework Gymnastics Performer

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weaknesses 1

B1: Self Analysis

Handspring I am analysing a handspring that I performed on floor at a recent Cheshire and Merseyside 2-piece

competition held at The City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club.

Preparation To initiate the handspring I had to run into it using three steps. I ran with my arms swinging by my

sides at a slow pace which was too slow to perform the skill to the best of my ability. My run had

three steps, starting on my left foot and on the third I went into a step-hop action, which involved

hopping on my left leg and bending my right knee up in front of me, whilst swinging my arms up in

front of me until they were right up above my head. The step-hop had too much upward

momentum, effectively causing loss of power that had been gained from my run. The step-hop led

into a lunge action with my left foot landing first, then my right in front of it. My front leg was bent

with my back leg straight behind me and my arms up above my head. The important thing about

the lunge into the handspring is the bending of the back leg and leaning forward at 45 degrees.

The angle of my body entering the handspring was about 50 degrees and as I just mentioned my

back leg was straight – bending the back leg is suppose to act like a spring. If there is no bend of the back leg it makes it difficult to push yourself into the handspring. This lack of push with the

back leg is a big key to the failure of many gymnasts’ front handsprings and is the reason I had

marks deducted from my handspring. I had my right arm slightly bent, with my left arm straight. I

pushed off my front leg in order to put my hands down on the floor in front of me, however I closed

my shoulder angle (your shoulder angle should always be completely closed - 0 degrees) and so

my arms were not completely above my head (approximately 5 degree angle) and I stuck my head

out backwards which meant that I placed my hands too close to my feet, and therefore did not

show flight into the handspring.

Execution Due to where I placed my hands, I did not hit the floor in a handstand shape, instead my shoulders

were in front of my hands and my body was short of a straight shape. My head was also stuck out

which slowed my handspring down a great deal and prevented me from gaining power through my

shoulders and arms as I hit the floor. When my hands hit the floor both arms were still bent. My left

leg lifted off the floor first and started to move above my head; however for me to do this I arched

the bottom of my back. I joined my right leg to my left before I was in a handstand shape and had a



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significant arch in my back. I then attempted to push out of the floor off my hands with bent arms. I

did this by straightening my arms, but because they were bent in the first place I had no power and

due to my body shape I was not able to push off effectively. I was not strong enough to prevent my

arms from collapsing and opening up the shoulder angle even more (approximately 8 degrees) I

pushed off my right arm more than my left which caused my body to start twisting to the left as my

left arm was late in leaving the floor. My head was still stuck out backwards at this point, which

meant that my body moved slowly through the handstand shape after the push off my hands. I

arched my back a lot and it was made more obvious by the position of my head. I showed little

flight off the floor because of the twist in my body to the left because my left foot moved to the floor

far quicker than my right foot. As my legs were apart it also made it difficult for me to use heel drive

to generate any speed or force throughout the handspring. Throughout this whole time I remained

in an arch shape and my arms were brought above my head so that they were perpendicular to my

body in front of me.

Landing Because I pushed off my right arm more, and my body twisted to the left, my left leg landed first.

As it hit the floor it bent significantly, past 90 degrees. My right foot landed slightly in front of it and

bent as well, though not quite as much as my left. I had to place my left hand on the floor next to

my left foot to stop myself from falling over and my right arm was extended in front of me – I should

have landed on the balls of my feet with my arms above my head. Due to the poor landing I

couldn’t possibly add any skills on the end, and because I placed my hand on the floor I lost a

whole mark as it was considered a fall. This had a significant impact on my placing in the

competition as because of my landing I could not add a skill on the end. This meant that I lost

difficulty as I had not linked skills in a tumble pass, whereas the rest of the competition had. My

score for floor was 10.682, out of a possible 13.200, which was 1.500 below the winner on floor.

Unfortunately the floor score also contributed to an overall score in the competition and because it

was so low, my vault score could not make up the difference completely between first and last

place and I ended up placing 7th out of 15 people overall.

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 1 B2: Elite Performer Analysis

Handspring I am going to compare my handspring at the Cheshire and Merseyside two- piece competition to that of one performed by Alexandra Raisman on floor at the 2012 Visa Championships held in

Saint Louis, Missouri.

Preparation To initiate the Handspring Alexandra took four long strides across the floor with her arms swinging

by her sides. This run was fast in order to gain power out of the floor for the execution of her

handspring. On her fourth step, off her left foot she went into a step hop action, which involved

hopping on her left foot, pushing through her toes so they were plantar-flexed, and lifting her right

knee in front of her with her right leg bent past 90 degrees. She did this whilst swinging her arms in

front of her so they were up above her head with a fully closed angle (0 degrees) at the elbow and

shoulder. In the step hop her body was leaning forwards (at a 45 degree angle) and due to the

power gained from the fast run, her momentum was in a forward direction and she didn’t lose any

power. She then placed her left foot down with her right foot in front of it in a lunge shape, with her

arms still above her head. As soon as her front foot was placed down on the floor she pushed off it



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by straightening her leg very quickly and pushing through her toes so that they were plantar-flexed

and leant her body forwards so she was parallel to the floor, with no part of her body in contact with

the floor. Whilst she wasn’t in contact with the floor she pushed her heels up behind her with

straight legs, using the power from her push off the floor, so her body started to tilt forwards.

Execution Her arms were still extended fully above her head and her body was tilted forwards so that her left

foot was directly above her head and her right leg was out at a 45 degree angle from her other leg.

At this point her hands made contact with the floor and her feet joined together. As soon as her

hands made contact with straight arms she rebounded out of the floor using power from her

shoulders and by pushing through her finger tips whilst driving her feet over her head. Alexandra is

extremely strong so she could keep a closed shoulder angle – this helped her to achieve the fast

rebound of the floor whilst gymnasts who don’t have her strength would collapse the shoulder

angle slightly. Her body was then no longer in contact with the floor and was shaped in a straight

shape with a slight arch at the top of her back around her shoulders. Her arms were still placed

directly above her head and she was parallel to the floor with her head held square between her

arms. Due to the power she had already gained from pushing out of the floor her body started to tilt

forwards so her feet were aiming towards the floor and her body moved in to a completely straight

shape.

Landing Her positioning for landing out of her final flight was slightly leant back with her arms still directly

above her head. As she landed she kept her legs perfectly straight and pushed out of the floor by

plantar flexing her ankles, which meant that she bounced straight out of the floor in an upward

direction, due to a combination of forward momentum from her handspring and landing leant

backwards. This meant that she could add another skill out of her handspring effectively, and no

marks were lost from her execution score. As she linked a full twisting straight front somersault out

of her handspring she built difficulty score both for the link and the skill, which meant she was

being marked out of 15.800. Her handspring had almost no deductions, therefore did not affect her

overall execution score and as the execution of the other skills in her routine was almost perfect

she was left with a score of 14.800 placing her first in the floor competition. Her score contributed

to an overall score in the competition, which included all the scores from all four pieces. Due to her

extremely high floor score and her execution through the other pieces of apparatus she placed first

overall.

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 1 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness that I explained in B1

Self-Efficacy The theoretical reason I have chosen to explain my poor handspring that I performed at the

Cheshire and Merseyside two piece competition at the City of Liverpool Gymnastics club is the A2 topic of Self Efficacy.

Self-efficacy is part of self-confidence. Self-confidence has been described by sports psychologists

as the belief that you have the ability to succeed when performing a desired behaviour. This means

that confident athletes are more likely to expect to do well and have high levels of self-belief, which

in return is crucial in determining how far the athlete will go in trying to achieve their goals. Self -

Efficacy is situation specific, self-confidence and is based on four primary sources of information;



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these are performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and emotional

arousal (this is based on Bandura’s model of self-efficacy.)

Performance Accomplishments Performance accomplishments are the previous successes at the task and are the most important

factor for me in determining self-efficacy. It is so important because what the athlete has achieved

in training and competition helps to form the basis of future expectations of success or failure. This

means that repeated success leads to high levels of self-belief, more motivation and higher

expectations of success in future competitions. How successful I have been in past experiences at

performing the skill can affect my levels of self-efficacy. If I had experienced success and

enjoyment of the skill in the past I would have had a high levels of confidence, which is the belief

that you can succeed generally. The most recent experience is usually the most powerful. In

training prior to the competition I performed a handspring whilst practicing my routine and when I

landed I twisted my right ankle. As I was being cautious about not damaging my ankle further all

my following handsprings landed deeply into the floor and with my left foot landing first. This

knocked my confidence as repeated failures made me believe I could not perform the skill correctly

and safely. I was told by my coach what to do to improve the skill, however I could not do what she

wanted me to do and my handspring kept on getting worse as my confidence fell into a downward

performance spiral.

In the competition my handspring was extremely poor as I was highly anxious about performing the

skill correctly as I had not done so in the four training sessions leading up to the competition. This

meant I only had negative performances in my mind when competing so my confidence decreased.

Each time I had to compete on the floor in a competition I constantly tried to avoid putting

handsprings into my routine but this was not always possible as some competitions have

compulsory skills that you must include into your routine and more often than not handsprings are

one of those compulsory skills.

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 1 C2: Corrective measures

Practice The corrective measure I am going to put in place in order to correct my weakness as explained in

B1 and C1 is to use practice methods. I am going to correct my weakness by building a repertoire

of performance accomplishments before my next competition through using practice methods to

help me to relearn my handspring effectively and efficiently and to increase my self-efficacy in the

skill.

There are four different practice methods which are Whole, Part, Part Progressive and Whole-Part-

Whole. When choosing a method you must consider several different aspects, these include the

nature of the skill and how complex it is, the stage of learning the performer is in, the maturity and

experience of the performer and safety conditions.

The Part method of practice involves parts of the skill being practiced in isolation of each other. It

tends to be used for serial skills that have distinct sub routines, which are easy to practice

individually e.g. a leap series in gymnastics. It’s an effective form of practice at it helps to maintain

motivation by preventing tedium and it focuses on specific elements of the skill. It is best used for



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experience performers, but that doesn’t mean to say that it can’t be used for those in the cognitive

or associative stage of learning.

I will be using the Part Method of practice to improve my handspring. You can

apply this method as the breakdown of a handspring has distinguishable parts

that can be practiced in isolation of each other and perfected before they are

put back together in the final skill. I will effectively go back to the cognitive

stage of learning in my relearning of the skill. This means that when I am

learning it I will be learning the correct technique without the risk of any

mistakes being made in the future. I will go throughout the various skill

breakdowns, 4 in total, perfecting each part before moving onto the next and

then putting them all together. The first break down is to lean a crash mat

against a clear area of wall so that it won’t fall down. I will then step hop into a

handstand, placing my hands just in front of the mat, and then push through

my shoulders so my hands leave the floor. This break down will teach me to push through my

shoulders at the same time to give myself height off the floor without twisting. It will also prevent

me from closing my shoulder angle as I go into it.

The second progression is to put a mat pile in the corner

of the floor so it is just at hip height. I will then step hop

into the first half of a handspring, but instead of landing on

my feet I will land on my back on the mat pile in a dish

shape. This will also help me to gain height off the floor by

remaining in the right shape and pushing through both

shoulders keeping my arms straight. This progression will

be essential in teaching me how to push off the floor

efficiently and powerfully.

The next progression is to handspring off a block using the

shoulder push that had just been practiced. The aim of this

progression will be to make me land on my feet in the

correct shape, with straight legs and my arms up above my

head. This progression will help me to feel the flight of the

skill. To make this more effective and to really get a feel for

the end flight I will first start on a high box top and when I

perform it correctly at that level I will take a level out so it is

lower. It will then be necessary for me to feel the same air

time, so I must push harder. Once I perfect that I will take

another level away etc. I am going to have to make sure

that I land in the same way each time in order to learn the

landing properly.

The final progression I will do is to perform the skill as a whole, so it will be performed correctly and

will land properly. This whole process will help to build my confidence in my handspring as I will be

able to perform it correctly continuously, which increases my number of performance

accomplishments. By increasing my number of performance accomplishments my self-efficacy in

my handspring will increase significantly which will help me no end in my next competition. Being

able to believe in my ability to perform a handspring will mean that in a competition I won’t perform

it incorrectly and my routine won’t suffer as a result. It will leave me with fewer deductions and I am

going to have a better chance of medalling, or even winning the floor event.



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Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 2 B1: Self Analysis Front Somersault I am analysing the weaknesses in my front somersault in relation to the Cheshire and Merseyside

gymnastics floor final in which I competed in Liverpool. My somersault was weak for many

reasons.

Weaknesses in Preparation To start the front somersault I first had to run into it. My run up into my somersault was far too slow;

it was more like a jog, which meant I couldn’t generate enough power as I jumped into the floor to

enter the skill. I took three long strides starting on my right foot, but on the final step before the

bounce I leant too far forward. This threw my centre of gravity forwards causing my take off

position to be in the incorrect position. I was leant forward at an angle of roughly 45 degrees with

my torso dipped in front of me and my arms held just above a 90 degree angle in front of me. This

position resulted in more forward momentum than upward in my take off. This prevented me from

taking off in a manner that would allow me to gain sufficient height. During my run up I ran heavy

meaning my knees were bent when running and as I bounced into the floor on takeoff I had bent

knees (90 degree angle) which meant I was too low to the floor resulting in loss of power during

takeoff as the floor absorbed the majority of the power that I had tried to generate during the run

up. This prevented me from extending fully out of the floor as I could not straighten my legs and

plantar flex my ankles quickly enough.

When I was running my top half of my body didn’t stay straight to the corner as I was swinging my

arms in front of my body, so I lost direction when performing the skill so risked the chances of me

going out of bounds. As well as bent legs, as I jumped into the ground my arms were straight in

front of me so I was unable to drive my arms into the somersault to increase the speed of the skill. I

was looking at my arms which meant that I wasn’t looking just above my natural eye line, so I didn’t

visualise the somersault and where I needed to jump to before entering the skill. Therefore, the

power and bounce out of the floor I had was insufficient to complete the skill safely.

To compensate that fact I hadn’t much height I had to use my leg muscles to increase height of my

bounce because, my lack of power meant that I didn’t have any redound from the floor. Moreover,

due to poor conditioning my legs were not strong to gain any much needed height. My overall body

position as I jumped into the ground looked like I was sat down on an ‘imaginary chair’ because of

this strange position my bottom was the first part of my body I used to rotate me round in the skill

which creates even more mistakes throughout the rest of the somersault.

Weaknesses in Execution As explained in my preparation, as I took off for the somersault I was leant too far forward, which

resulted in my flight being long and low at an angle that was almost parallel to the floor. The

excess forward momentum caused my tuck action to be late which caused slow rotation around

the transverse axis. My rotation speed was also hindered due to a high moment of inertia which

was caused because my body was in an open tuck position; my hip angle was too open at a 90

degree angle from my body and my knees were also bent at only a 90 degree angle, which meant

that my limbs were too far away from the transverse axis to have a high angular velocity. I held my

arms out at a right angle in front of me which caused me to be less aerodynamic. Due to the

incorrect body position upon take off from the floor I had to ‘snatched’ the skill out of the floor so I

was performing the skill at about 1.5m in the air, instead on the 2m I would usually perform at.



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Although I had created the tuck shape early my head wasn’t tucked in which meant I had a flat

back. This would slow the already struggling somersault down. My arms ended up in the wrong

place as they were out horizontal and I performed the skill around that axis which is usually the

male technique as they would have the power and speed to complete the skill. But as a female this

wasn’t the appropriate technique to use but I had to do this because the preparation was wrong.

I lost vital marks during the skill as my toes weren’t pointed so I lost 0.1 for each foot so in total 0.2

the reason I was given this deduction as the skill didn’t look as neat and elegant as it could have.

Due to my lack of my height I lost 0.2 and the lack of height caused me to prepare to land my

somersault early which meant that I had to open up my tuck shape, when I was half way round

which slows my rotation which, created further mistakes in the landing phase of the skill and a

further 0.1 deduction

Weaknesses in Landing As I landed my head was behind the rest of the body which intern made the rest of my body lean

backwards, and my body weight ended up on my heels. Because I was leaning backwards at the

end of my somersault I landed with my feet in front of the rest of my body and the majority of my

weight was back. I landed with extremely bent legs and this resulted in me falling backwards once

my feet hit the floor and I ended up sitting down at the end, with my hands behind my body

touching the floor. This meant I could not link the somersault with another skill and a whole mark

was lost due to the fall at the end.

If a gymnast lands on her bottom out of any skill it is classed as a fall. As my somersault was low I

was unable to completely open out to make the correct landing shape. My knees; like in my

preparation were far too bent so I didn’t have enough resistance against the floor to stay on my

feet. I tried to recover the list of mistakes I had made, by taking many steps backwards to stay on

my feet but I couldn’t, so I fell backwards onto bottom which cost me one mark of deductions and

stopped me from performing the routine to its full potential. The skill, as I have mentioned was out

of a potential 0.5 but more than 0.5 can be deducted as the execution score is out of 10 and

deductions can be taken from there. In total I lost 1.6 which without adding in any of my other skills

had brought my total to 11.900. This meant that I couldn’t medal any more due to the amount of

points I had had deducted from my execution score and I came in 6 th place.

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 2 B2: Elite Performance Analysis Front Somersault I am going to compare the front somersault I performed at the Cheshire and Merseyside gymnastics floor final in which I competed in Liverpool, to that of one performed by Elizabeth

Tweddle at the 2010 British Team Championships.

Preparation To start the front somersault Beth had to run into it as I did – her preparation was perfect. She

started on her right foot and took three long strides in her run so she took off her right foot into her

hurdle step. Each stride was about one meter in length and used the springiness of the floor, to

power out of the floor to gain the extra height that she would need to complete the rest of the

tumble. As well as long strides she ran on her toes so that she could run as fast as she could, she

was able to run fast as her body weight was directly over her feet and she was driving her arms

backwards and forwards, to gain as much power and momentum as she could. In her hurdle step



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she lifted her arms up in front of her so that they were above her head and used the power from

her run to continue moving forwards into her bounce. As she bounced into the floor her feet were

directly underneath the rest of her body and her legs were straight. The positioning of her feet and

legs meant that she could gain a lot of height out of the floor without travelling forwards. As her

legs were straight, she didn’t cushion the power she had gained from the hurdle step and she

rebounded straight out of the sprung floor. As she took off her body was in a completely straight

position with her arms directly above her head and she plantar flexed her ankles in an attempt to

gain even more height. On Beth’s final step she stood tall and had straight legs which caused her

to get the big rebound out off the floor. As Beth’s feet left the floor she threw her arms; almost as if

she was doing a throw in, in football. Pushing off her toes meant that they would already be

pointed in the air so there were no deductions for neatness. The top half of Beth’s body was

straight to maintain balance as she ran and she had good direction as she began to enter the

tumble, because, she kept her body square to the corner. Beth’s head was up looking just above

their eye line so that they had a good visualisation of the tumble.

Execution When Beth was going to actually perform the skill she flew in the air for a couple of seconds so that

she would be at the highest possible point before tucking and completing the skill. Once she had

left the floor in a straight shape she started to close her hip and shoulder angles and tuck her body

right in so she had a low moment of inertia and a high angular velocity causing there to be quick

rotation around the transverse axis. Beth waited until she was about 2 metres in the air before she

made the tucked shape. As soon as her feet left the ground she started to bend her knees and

brought them up to her chest. She also brought her arms down from above her head so they were

at a right angle in front of her body. This action caused rotation to occur as well as her bringing her

head in so her body was as small as possible. As she rotated she spotted the ceiling so once her

body had rotated about 240 degrees she started to open her body out by kicking her legs straight

and bringing her arms above her head. Because of her quick initial rotation in the tuck shape, he

body continued to rotate in the straight shape even though her moment of inertia was high. This

continuation of rotation meant that she was travelling towards the floor upright and in a straight

shape ready to land.

Landing As her body was in a straight shape at the end of her somersault Beth landed upright with her arms

above her head, just short of a completely open shoulder angle. As she landed she kept her legs

straight and was able to rebound out of the floor and add another skill after it; in this case she

added another front somersault but in the straight position throughout. As she added this skill on

the end it meant that she built her difficulty score and couldn’t have any deductions for landing the

first front somersault. She got the highest score on the floor in the competition and because all the

scores were put together, she made a huge contribution to the overall team score for Liverpool

Gymnastics club. Her club came first overall in the competition. During the somersault Beth had no

deductions as she had good height and form through the air and didn’t lose any marks for not

being neat. The reason she could step out of it was because she had enough endurance and

power to perform the skill well. Also, it was that controlled she was able to land on one leg, so that

she could step out of the skill to perform a whole tumble pass. There were no deductions given for

the whole pass as the first skill was performed perfectly so the rest of the tumble stayed fluent. She

scored a 15.600 for the routine and secured the gold medal on the floor as she was the most

precise with the skills she performed.



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Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 2 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness explained in B1 Conservation of Angular Momentum The theoretical reason I have chosen to explain my poor front somersault at the Cheshire and Merseyside Floor final in which I competed in Liverpool is conservation of angular momentum.

Conservation of Angular momentum is the principle that the angular momentum of an object

remains constant as long as there is no external force, e.g. torque or moment, acts on that object.

Angular momentum = Angular velocity x Moment of inertia. Angular momentum is defined as the

amount of motion a body has when it is rotating. It remains constant because Angular velocity and

Moment of inertia are inversely proportional. Angular velocity is the rate of movement of a body in

rotation (the speed of rotation) and Moment of inertia refers to the distribution of mass around the

axis of rotation (how far your body parts are from the axis of rotation). When performing my

somersault I did not tuck in enough and so what should have had a low moment of inertia and a

high angular velocity did not as my limbs where not close enough to the transverse axis that I was

rotating around.

My somersault was weak because I rotated too slowly, which caused me to fall over backwards as

I landed. This was because my moment of inertia in the somersault was too high, which caused my

angular velocity to be too slow for my rotation to be completed. My moment of inertia was too high

because as I took off for my somersault my arms and legs weren’t tucked up enough, therefore

they were too far away from my transverse axis through my hips. There are two main forces that

are associated with slowing down angular velocity and they are friction and air resistance. In my

front somersault air resistance acts against the speed of my rotation. My legs and hips were bent

at right angles which meant I had a larger area for air resistance to act upon me. This caused my

angular velocity to be too slow. This is all due to the law of conservation of angular momentum

referring to the relationship between moment of inertia and angular velocity (angular moment

remains the same or constant unless acted upon by an outside force)

My moment of inertia was too high, thus causing my angular velocity to be too low. This is why I

rotated slowly and couldn’t complete the full rotation of my somersault causing me to land sitting

down.

Area of Assessment 1: Agilities Weakness 2 C2: Corrective Measures Guidance The corrective measure I am going to put in place in order to fix my weakness caused by my high

moment of inertia as explained in C1 is the use of different forms of guidance. The different forms

of guidance will help to improve my somersault by helping me to understand how to tuck in tighter

and create the right shape in my somersault enabling me to have a low moment of inertia and a

high angular velocity and reducing the air resistance.

There are many different forms of guidance and they can be used across all stages of learning as

long as they are used correctly and help the performer to understand the movement. The different

types are verbal, visual, manual and mechanical. Guidance is essential in order to give the learner

the important information they need to speed up the learning process. It aids the performer in



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developing relevant mental images of how the skill should look and feel and it helps to remove

levels of uncertainty.

Manual and mechanical guidance are physical hands on methods of guidance that are mainly used

for the novice performer and come in the form of an external person or equipment. It works best

when used alongside an already developed mental image of the skill. It can be used in dangerous

situations to increase safety, particularly in gymnastics when learning a new skill and helps the

performer to gain kinaesthetic awareness of the skill before performing it on their own. Mechanical

guidance uses equipment to help e.g. a harness for somersaults on trampoline and manual

guidance uses the coach to help support a skill e.g. holding up a handstand.

Verbal guidance is a form of guidance that occurs when the coach gives full information to the

performer about the skill and how to improve it through speech. It is supposed to help the

performer gain a full understanding of how to perform the skill correctly. This form of guidance is

most effective when it is used alongside visual guidance as the images help to consolidate what

the coach has told you and it can help you to understand the skill better.

Visual guidance involves presenting the learner with an accurate image of the required skill and its

patterns. It can come in the form of demonstrations from the coach or other performers, it could be

a video or it could even be in pictures. It is useful for novice performers who need to see the skill

before they try and replicate it, but it can also be used to correct weakness in technique. It is a very

effective form of guidance, especially if the performer already understands the skill and how it

works, but they just need help understanding how to improve their technique.

Before the competition in training my coach would use a combination of verbal and manual

guidance when teaching me how to front somersault correctly. However I could never understand

how to correct my technique properly from these forms of guidance. The way to improve my front

somersault would be to tuck up more to decrease my moment of inertia and increase my angular

velocity. My coach regularly told me before competition that I need to tuck my arms and legs in

more and each time I felt like I was, however in competition it proves that I wasn’t. My coach also

supported me manually through the somersault which prevented me from closing in around the

transverse axis as much as necessary as my coach had to put her arm across my body to support

it. These forms of guidance weren’t entirely effective individually.

To correct my front somersault my coach will introduce visual guidance in to my training so that I

can see how the skill should look and what mine currently looks like. We will break my front

somersault back down to basics looking at each individual component and correcting it by looking

at video footage of my current front somersault and then at videos of well performed front

somersaults with the correct technique. My coach will also use some verbal guidance in

correspondence with the visual guidance to reinforce the point she is trying to make about how to

correct my technique. However any verbal guidance will be kept brief so that I don’t lose my focus

as I have a tendency to drift off at times.

When looking at how to correct my shape in the front somersault we will analyse my take off from

the ground as getting that right will help me to position myself correctly. My coach will video my

whole front somersault and put it in slow motion so I can see exactly what I do wrong when I am

performing it. By doing this she will give me visual cues and crucial key points that I must observe

when I am performing my somersault. She will also allow me time for mental rehearsal once I’ve

seen these so that I am more likely to perform the skill the way she would like me to. We will sit

together and analyse it and she will verbally guide me through what I am going to change using the

video as a reference. Another way of helping me to improve my shape is to take a still image of me



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mid somersault and look at how closely tucked up I am to my transverse axis. She will then show

me the correct position in another picture of someone else so that I can compare the shapes. By

using this method of guidance I will be able to improve my somersault so that my moment of inertia

is much lower and my angular velocity is much higher. This will help me in future competitions as I

will be able to land my front somersault successfully without deduction and I won’t lose a mark for

falling over. This will make my overall score a lot higher and put me in a better position for winning

the competition.

My moment of inertia and angular velocity will eventually look more like this due to the guidance I

will be given as to how tuck up tighter.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 1 B1: Self Analysis Handspring Vault I am writing about a Handspring vault that I competed at a Cheshire and Merseyside Floor and

Vault competition recently at The City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club.

Preparation In preparation for my vault I had to run towards the springboard. When I began my run up for my

vault my head was looking at the floor which meant I my shoulders where hunched making my

upper body tense so had an incorrect running position and incorrect running style. Also, my arms

were straight rather than being bent at a 90 degree angle at the elbow and as I ran they were going

across the front of my body causing me to have a reduced running speed and again disrupt my

running style. I took a shorter run up than the normal 84 feet as I felt I would not be able to control

the momentum and power that this may generate and I would use up all of my energy on the run



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up and not have anything else left for the performance of the handspring vault so my run up was

approximately 55 feet long. However I may have been better off increasing my run up as it was too

slow (I was unable to reach the average 7m/sec) and I started on the left foot which meant that as I

approached the springboard I had to shuffle my feet in order to take off on my right foot. This

shuffling of the feet meant my running style was not smooth. Due to the shuffling I removed any

speed that I had gained from my run, which meant that I had little power when hitting the

springboard. As I hit the springboard I swung my arms up in front of me until they were at a right

angle with my body and bent my legs. The bending of my legs resulted in me not gaining full power

from the springboard to execute my vault as the springs were essentially cushioned through my

knees. Not only did I bend my knees, but I leant forwards as well due to my poor arm positioning

and because I dropped my shoulders forwards.

When I hit the spring board my head was looking straight at the vault which caused me to bounce

off the spring board forward towards the vault. Another reason I bounced forwards off the spring

board was that my arms were in front of me so I had a closed shoulder angle. My legs were apart

which caused me to lose marks as my body wasn’t in the correct shape that the judges desired,

another reason I lost marks was because one of my feet were slightly in front of the other which

when I jumped off the springboard it caused me to twist slightly. My knees were bent off the spring

board which ‘killed’ my bounce off the spring board which meant I was unable to gain as much

height as I would have liked to help me perform the skill to the best of my ability – this led to

deductions in marks or lack of height.

Initial Flight and Vault The springboard position was about a metre away from the vault, which did give me some flight,

however it was too close. My arms came forward from down by my side instead of coming from

behind the hips. Due to my position as I took off from the board my initial flight was predominantly

forward, not up. My flight between the board and the vault was in a dish shape with my arms above

my head and my hip angle closed. This meant that I hit the vault with a closed shoulder angle and I

was short of a handstand position. I didn’t drive my heels up behind me until I hit the vault. This

resulted in me spending too long on the vault. I had to bend my arms in order to lift my body into a

handstand and at this point my head stuck out which slowed my momentum. My head was looking

at the vault so I went forwards and didn’t fly through the air, because I was leaning forwards on the

springboard I had to reach my arms forward otherwise I would not have been able to complete the

vault. I lifted my bottom up so my legs were in a pike shape, which caused me to have deductions

because my body position was not straight.

Once I was in a handstand my bent arms meant that I couldn’t push out of the vault using a

shoulder shrug. This meant that the push didn’t have sufficient power to fly off in the correct shape,

instead I arched and I had to use drive my heels more to compensate for that lack of shoulder

shrug in order to generate enough power to perform the skill. Overall the execution of my vault

wasn’t good as I had a pike shape at the beginning and rapidly changed to an arch shape so the

judges didn’t consider it as a smooth vault.

Final Flight and Landing As I had to reach forward my hands weren’t far enough on the vault so in order to prevent me from

hitting my back on the back of the vault I had to ‘whip’ my feet so that I could speed up my rotation

and power off the vault but this meant that my handstand shape over the vault was arched which

meant my stomach was out. I flicked me feet over my body so much it caused my knees to bend

which is a deduction. As I pushed off the vault I had to stay in the arch position to avoid injuring

myself. As my hands left I swung my arms out to the side which slowed me down and caused me



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to arch more. Because of my incorrect body position I landed with my feet behind me and leaning

forwards, which caused me to take steps forwards to stop myself from falling.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 1 B2: Elite Performer Analysis Handspring Vault I am going to compare the handspring vault I performed at the Cheshire and Merseyside Floor and Vault competition to that of one performed by Mckayla Maroney in the vault finals of the 2009

Junior Visa Championships in Dallas, Texas.

Preparation Vaulting speeds (up to approximately 7 and 8m/sec for women) may be directly related to the

difficulty of the vault being performed. Vaulting speeds may be related to the complexity of the

gymnast’s pre-vaulting table. For example, running speeds for Yurchenko’s are less than speeds

for front handspring type of vaults. Speed tends to be slower in vaults where the gymnast’s rotation

reverses in after flight—such as in the Hecht vault. McKayla began her vault at the end of the

runway approximately 82 feet or less from the table. She can choose the exact distance of the run.

The vault was set at 125cm high. In preparation for her vault Mckayla ran at the vault starting on

her left foot. She took ten steps and ran as fast as she could (7.2m/sec) towards the springboard in

order to gain as much power as possible out of the board with long strides of about 1 metre in

length. Due to McKayla’s experience she knew exactly where to start her run from so that her

stride pattern was correct so make sure that her vault had all the power it needed. She had a very

smooth running style. She ran upright with her body square to the vault to keep her direction. As

she was approaching the board she ran upright using her arms to gain speed and she took off on

her right foot about 1.5 metres from the springboard. When running her arms where bent at a 90

degree angle at the elbow and moved parallel to each other. Her legs also moved parallel to each

other and she had a good lift of the knee each time. As she took off the floor she swung her arms

above her head and joined her feet together so she was in a straight shape with a slightly closed

hip angle, so her feet were in front of her and she kept her head looking straight ahead. As she hit

the board her body was perfectly straight. She hit the board with straight legs and gained a large

rebound due to the speed she had gathered during the run. In order to aid with the rebound off the

springboard she plantar-flexed her ankles to gain extra height. When she hit the spring board she

could convert her speed into power and gain sufficient height off the spring board so that no

deductions could be given. McKayla also kept her head up looking above the vault so that she

could visualise the skill as she was running and also to keep her body tall and straight so that she

was in the best running position.

When hitting the spring board the aim is to create as much height as possible so that a gymnast

will have more time to make the perfect shapes during the skill and therefore have minimal

deductions. She showed how to get the most out of the spring board. In the warm up McKayla had

measured her run up correctly and so was able to us the spring board to its full potential as she hit

it to begin her vault. She managed to hit the board at the top of it so she was able to convert her

very fast speed into power and gain lots of height to hit in the air prior to actually performing the

skill. As McKayla hit the vault she was slightly leaning backwards, as far back as she could lean

without falling over, this meant that she had even more air time. The general shape of her body

when she hit the spring board was straight her body was a perfect straight line from her figures to

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her feet. Most importantly her legs were straight so there was no loss of power as none of the

spring was absorbed by her knees.

Execution As she left the springboard her body remained in a straight shape, however she lifted her legs &

heels up behind her by arching slightly in the lower back. This action caused her body to tip

forwards until she was completely upside down and had rotated 180 degrees. Because of her

positioning on the board as she took off, she had a lot of height onto the vault and showed a good

initial flight, which involved showing the full rotation needed before her hands touched the vault.

This was because she brought her arms from behind her hips during the hurdle step onto the

springboard swinging her arms forward which causes caused the springboard to depress further.

Just before Mckayla hit the vault on her hands she removed the arch in her lower back by tensing

her abdominal muscles, which caused her to make contact with the vault in a perfectly straight

shape with her head looking back towards the start of the vault runway. She had completely open

shoulders and hips and her arms and legs were straight.

Final Flight and Landing Because she had made contact with the vault in a straight shape Mckayla rebounded from the

vaulting table almost as soon as her hands had made contact with it. She pushed through her

fingers to gain extra height from the table for her flight off. As she left the table her body moved

upwards, but due to the forward momentum gained from the run, and the rotation from the initial

flight her body continued to move forwards and rotate. She made a dish shape as she came off,

which involved having a slightly closed angle at the hips. This meant that she landed with feet

slightly in front of her and as she bent her knees to cushion the landing her body continued to

move forwards so that she finished perfectly up right with her arms above her head. Her only

deduction was a 0.1 for not pointing one of her toes so overall she scored 12.300 and easily won

Gold on the Vault. This gave her a big confidence boost in a major competition of which she lacked

experience performing in a front of large crowds. It also helped to raise her profile within the

gymnastics world making people sit up and take notice of her.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 1 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness explained in B1 Impulse The theoretical theory I have chosen to explain my poorly executed handspring in the Cheshire

and Merseyside floor and vault competition at the city of Liverpool gymnastics club is the

biomechanical principal of impulse.

Impulse is the principal of applying force over the correct amount of time so as to create optimum

momentum. Impulse is shown on graphs known as FT graphs (force x time). Any increase in the

amount of force applied, or in the time the force is applied for will increase any resulting

momentum.

There are three different types of impulse graphs, these are positive impulse, negative impulse and

equal impulse. When taking off from the springboard during a vault in gymnastics you want to

create a positive impulse. A positive impulse is described as an impulse that moves the body. It is

desirable when vaulting as you want to gain as much power and momentum out of the springboard



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as possible in order to execute the vault to the best of your abilities. Looking at the positive impulse

graph you can see that a reasonable amount of force is applied over a short period of time

resulting in a large positive force.

When I vaulted I created an impulse more similar to that of the equal Impulse graph. I did this

because as I landed on the springboard I bent my legs as I explained in B1. This meant that the

springs in the springboard compressed too much and for too long a time which resulted in me not

getting enough upward momentum off the springboard for me to execute my vault in a desirable

manner. The bending of my knees, caused by lack of strength in my quadriceps, meant there was

not enough rebound off the springboard. This is shown in the equal impulse graph. The force I

applied on the springboard is shown in the negative force; it was applied for too long. The resulting

positive impulse was therefore too small to gain sufficient momentum to perform my vault.

Because I didn’t get enough flight off the springboard I had to change my body shape in order for

me to reach the vault. However the shape change I made impacted me negatively upon scoring

because it was incorrect and triggered a chain reaction of poor form through the rest of my vault as

I could not regain control of my positioning. My poor positioning throughout my vault meant that I

landed leaning forwards and had to take steps which also caused my score to be deducted from

more. In the competition my score was only 8.900 out of a possible 12.400. The source of the

problems for my vault in this case was the poor springboard technique and the lack of positive

impulse that I generated off the springboard.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 1 C2: Corrective Measure- Plyometric Training The corrective measures I am going to put in place in order to improve my vault are to undergo

Plyometric training to gain more power in my legs. By gaining more power in my legs I will produce

a positive impulse graph off the springboard. This is because the power in my legs will generate a

large amount of force, but over an extremely short amount of time, therefore I will generate much

more momentum and have a much larger positive impulse. The larger positive impulse means that

I will gain more height and speed coming off the springboard when I am executing my vault. The

extra height I will gain means that I will have more time to correct my body shape in the air and I

will have more time to reach the top of the vault. By having the means to change my body shape it

means that I will be able to keep my body in a straight shape during the initial flight and hit the vault

in a perfectly straight handstand shape. If I hit in a perfectly straight shape the rest of my vault will

show flight in the exit and I will land upright and solidly without any extra steps. In competition this

will help me significantly as it means that the judges will not be able to make as many deductions

to my vault and I will have a greater chance of winning.

Plyometric training is a type of training that is designed to improve power and exercises involve

bounding, hopping, skipping or depth jumping to make muscles work eccentrically before a

Equal Impulse Graph Negative Impulse Graph Positive Impulse Graph



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powerful concentric contraction. Power = Strength x Speed and is required to make the body move

quickly and is essential if you have to jump high (Gymnastics). Plyometric training is high intensity

and involves explosive muscular contractions that engage the stretch reflex. Plyometrics work

because when a quick stretch is detected by the stretch receptors in the muscle an involuntary and

protective stretch reflex occurs in an attempt to avoid injury. The stretch reflex increases activity in

the muscles that are contracting eccentrically allowing it to be much more forceful. This means that

there is a powerful braking effect and a large potential for a resulting powerful concentric muscle

action. The concentric action must occur almost immediately after the eccentric action otherwise

the potential energy that has been gained will be lost.

Plyometric movements involve three different phases:

Elastic energy is generated and stored when there is eccentric muscle action.

The time between the eccentric muscle action and the concentric muscle action. The shorter this phase is the more powerful the following muscle will be.

This phase is the final muscle contraction and this is the movement I am aiming to develop.

In the punch plyometric exercise, as a gymnast jumps into the punch movement, the calf muscle

(gastrocnemius) is stretched as the ankle flexes. The ankle flexes automatically as it lands to

absorb the energy of the landing.

It is important for a gymnast to shorten the time between the eccentric lengthening and loading

phase and the contracting, explosive concentric phase. Gymnasts should be mentally focusing on

making this phase as short as possible (taking off from the springboard), and act and react as

quickly as possible, from the eccentric phase to the concentric phase.

I have created a programme of Plyometric training with my coach. I will make sure that I won’t jump

from too great a height and it will be performed on our slightly sprung floor as it has shock

absorbing qualities and will prevent me from injuring myself. I will make sure that I jump from a

height that will result in immediate rebound response. To achieve this I must make sure that I use a

height that ensures that when I rebound from the floor the heel of my foot does not touch the

ground. Each exercise I perform will consist of three sets of ten repetitions with a rest period

between each of the sets. I will gradually increase the number of repetitions performed – I will

assess my improvement at the end of every two weeks and then decide on the appropriate number

of repetitions to increase the exercises to.

This twelve week plyometrics training programme is for my lower body involving a series of box

jumps, depth jumps and single leg hops. This will condition my legs to gain more muscle by using

concentric muscle contractions. I train four times per week so this plyometric exercise will be

completed in two out of the four training sessions per week for a period of twelve weeks. This

should be enough time to allow my muscles to adapt to the training programme and allow me to

see an improvement. During each session I will do three sets with full recovery time in-between in

order to prevent fatigue.

Box Jumps I will use six box tops at approximately 40cm in height and I will place them in sequence. I will start

in front of the first box in a slight squat position and then jump onto the box on the balls of by feet

into a squat position. After this I will jump off into squat and as quickly as possible and then jump



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up onto the next box. The aim will be for me to anticipate landing and spring up without letting my

feet touch the floor for too long.

Bounds This exercise will be done over 30 metres and will consist of three sets. I will jog into this exercise

and push off with my left foot and bring the other leg forward with my knee bent, my toes dorsi

flexed and my thigh parallel to the ground. As I push off I will reach forward with my left arm. My

left leg will extend backwards and remain extended for the rest of the push off. I will hold this

extended stride for a short amount of time then land on my right foot. and the process is repeated.

When I land on my foot I will make sure I land on the sole of my foot as this will allow the energy to

be stored in the leg muscles and take off again straight away.

Single Leg hopping I will stand on one leg and push off with the leg I am standing on and jump forward, landing on the

same leg. The opposite leg will swing forward forcefully to increase the length of the jump but aim

mainly for height off each jump. It is important to land on the ball of my foot to allow energy to be

stored by the leg muscles and take off again straight away. It is also important that I make sure I

keep my body vertical and straight and perform this exercise on both legs. I will perform this over

30-40 metres and allow recovery time in-between. It is more important to make sure the technique

of the bounding is correct rather than try doing too many bounding exercises.

Depth jumps I will use a 40cm box for this exercise. I will stand on the box with my toes close to the front edge. I

will then step from the box and drop to land on the balls of both of my feet. I will then try to spring

up as quickly as possible by anticipating the landing. I will do three sets of this and allow a full

recovery in -between sets.

Over a period of training sessions the power gained in my legs will become more obvious when on

vault as the height I gain off the springboard will be a lot more and I will have more momentum.

The impulse graph I produce off the springboard will be more positive and will look more like the

one seen here. This means that in competition I will have fewer deductions and I will have a better

chance of increasing my score on the vault helping to improve my overall score in the competition

and allow me to finish in a higher position.



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Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 2

B1: Self Analysis Handspring Half Twist Vault I am writing about a Handspring Vault with a half twist exit that I performed at the Northwest Vault

Finals 2011 in the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club.

Preparation In preparation for my vault I had to run towards the springboard. My run started on my right foot,

but I was too close to the vault at the start of my run preventing me from reach 7m/sec in my run-

up. I took a shorter run up than the normal 84 feet as I felt I would not be able to control the

momentum and power that this may generate and I would use up all of my energy on the run up

and not have anything else left for the performance of the handspring half twist vault so my run up

was approximately 55 feet long. When running up the runway my head was down and my

shoulders where hunched causing my upper body to be tense. As I approached the springboard I

had to shuffle my feet and take smaller steps in order for me to take off on my right foot for the

hurdle step onto the springboard and so I was not able to raise my knees high enough to generate

enough power or speed. This shuffling caused me to take my last step too close to the

springboard, at about a metre away, and it also caused my run to slow down. Whilst I was running

towards the vault my arms were swinging across my body and at a 50 degree angle rather than the

correct 45 degree angle – this affected the speed of my run up as my run up was not smooth.

Because my last step was too close I had to convert the power from my run upwards to stop me

from crashing into the vault. As I was jumping onto the springboard I swung my arms up in front of

me, but only so they were at a right angle to my body and I bent my knees. I made the same error

I always do when performing a vault I brought my arms up from down by my side instead of having

them come from just behind my hips as the swing forwards from behind by hips would have

enabled me to gain more momentum during takeoff. When I hit the springboard my toes were over

the edge of the board because of the last step being too close which caused my shoulders to drop

forwards and my hip angle to close. I also bent my legs as I hit which prevented me from

rebounding out of the springboard, so in my initial flight my shoulders and hips had closed angles

and almost as soon as my feet left the springboard my hands hit the vault.

Initial Flight and Vault Because of the way I hit the spring board in preparation, my initial flight onto the vault was

extremely low. As my feet left the springboard my arms were in front of me at a right angle which

meant that in my flight on to the vault my head stuck out and I made a pike shape. I gained rotation

from the pike shape so when my hands hit the vault my shoulders were closed and my hips were

closed but the majority of my body was over my hands. I had to then drive my heels over my head

so that I was in a handstand shape, but I still had a closed shoulder angle which caused me to start

a roll action over the vault and my arms started to bend. My feet continued over my head so that

my body was almost horizontal to the vault before I pushed off through my bent arms in order for

the flight off to occur.

Final Flight and Landing The roll when I was on the vault prevented me from gaining any height off the vault when I pushed

through my arms and caused my flight off to aim straight at the floor. When I pushed off through

my arms on the vault, my body moved into a straight shape and I pulled my right arm into my body

in order to initiate a turn to my left. However I pulled my arm in too slowly, which combined with the



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lack of height from my final flight off caused my body to not complete the full half turn, only a

quarter. I also bent my knees too much as I landed and fell sideways as my feet touched the floor,

back towards the vault. My knees and left arm hit the ground, causing me to lose a whole mark for

the fall. I also didn’t get credited the full difficulty of the vault as I didn’t complete the half turn,

instead I was only granted the difficulty of a handspring vault. Due to these deductions I was

unable to medal in the competition and as the vault was my first rotation in the competition I knew I

had to perform with very few errors on the other apparatus if I wanted my team to have a chance of

finishing in a medal position and I also went into the competition expecting to win an individual

medal. The problem was I had completed my worst apparatus first and this knocked my confidence

so I went onto the next rotation of the competition feeling de-motivated and feeling under pressure

to succeed because I didn’t want to let my team or coach down. My scores in the first rotation had

impacted heavily on our overall teams positioning as we were now in 6th place as a team at the end

of the first rotation.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 2 B2: Elite Performer Analysis Handspring Half Twist Vault I am comparing the handspring, half twisting vault I performed at the Northwest Vault finals 2011 at Liverpool to the same vault performed by Rebecca Tunney at the 2009 British Team

Championships in Guildford.

Preparation As mentioned earlier vaulting speeds (up to approximately 7 and 8m/sec for women) may be

directly related to the difficulty of the vault being performed. Vaulting speeds may be related to the

complexity of the gymnast’s pre-vaulting table. For example, running speeds for Yurchenko’s are

less than speeds for front handspring type of vaults. Speed tends to be slower in vaults where the

gymnast’s rotation reverses in after flight—such as in the Hecht vault. Rebecca began her vault at

the end of the runway approximately 82 feet or less from the table. She can choose the exact

distance of the run. The vault was set at 125cm high. In preparation for her vault Rebecca ran at

the vault starting on her right foot. She took eleven long strides and ran as fast as she could

(7m/sec) towards the springboard in order to gain as much power as possible out of the board. As

she was approaching the board she ran upright using her arms to gain speed (her elbows were

bent to a 90 degree angle moving parallel to each to each other) and she had a good lift of the

knee and her legs also moved parallel to each other. She took off on her right foot about 1.5

metres from the board. As she took off the floor she swung her arms above her head bringing them

from behind her hips (causing the springboard to depress more) and joined her feet together so

she was in a slightly leant back straight shape with a slightly closed hip angle, so her feet were in

front of her and she kept her head looking straight ahead. As she hit the board her body was

perfectly straight. She hit the board with straight legs and gained a large rebound due to the speed

she had gathered during the run. As she hit the springboard she leant backwards from a vertical

position and began pivoting over her feet until takeoff. She plantar-flexed her feet as they left the

springboard to gain more height and to extend her body as much as possible.

Initial Flight and Vault As her feet left the springboard her body remained in a straight shape, however in order to start

rotating forwards she lifted her legs up behind her by arching her lower back slightly. This action

caused her body to tip forwards until she was completely upside down and had rotated 180

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degrees. Because of her positioning on the board as she took off, she had a lot of height onto the

vault and showed a good initial flight, which involved showing the full rotation needed before her

hands touched the vault. Just before she hit the vault on her hands she straightened her body by

removing the arch in her lower back by tensing her abdominal muscles. This caused her to make

contact with the vault in a perfectly straight handstand shape with her head looking back towards

the start of the vault runway. She had completely open shoulders and hips and her arms and legs

were straight.

Final Flight and Landing Because Rebecca hit the vault in a handstand shape, she rebounded almost immediately off the

vault into the air. Due to the rotation she had gained in the initial flight her body continued to rotate

so her feet started to move towards the floor. During this time her body remained straight. As soon

as she left the vault she brought her right arm in straight across her body so she still had one arm

up. This action caused her to rotate around the vertical axis so that she was facing towards the

floor because her body was parallel to the landing deck, but her height was higher than that of the

vault. To stop the rotation around the vertical axis she increased her moment of inertia by bringing

her arms out from her body so they were straight out to the side. Throughout this process her body

continued to rotate so her feet were facing the floor and her body was upright. As she landed she

brought her arms back above her head and bent her knees to cushion her landing. She landed in a

straight line with the vault and took no steps, so her overall deductions were minimal and she when

on to win Gold in the competition for the Vault and also placed her team in a good position to win

the overall competition which they did go on to do. Rebecca’s success on vault will have raised the

confidence of her teammates as her scores heavily impacted on the teams overall position and

took the pressure off less experienced gymnasts within the team as they now had some room for

error (safety net) as they had gained a good lead in the competition and as a team they looked a

threat to their competitors.

Area of Assessment 2: Vaults Weakness 2 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness explained in B1

Social Inhibition The theoretical reason I have chosen to explain my weakness in my handspring vault with half twist exit that I performed at the Northwest Vault finals in 2011 in Liverpool is the topic of social

inhibition.

Social inhibition is shown in a decrease in performance caused by the presence of others during a

performance. Zajonc’s Model of social facilitation believes the presence of others can have a

positive or negative effect on the performer. Zajonc’s model splits ‘others’ into four distinct groups:

Co-actors – Others performing the same task but not in direct competition,

Competitive Co-actors – Others in direct competition with the performer e.g. other vault competitors in my group.

Audience – Those present at the event.

Social Reinforcers – Those with direct influence e.g. my coach.

The presence of an audience and competitive co-actors increased my arousal levels of the

performer making it more likely that their dominant response will occur. If a skill is simple and well



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learned more often than not the dominant response is the correct one. However if the skill is

complex the dominant response is more likely to be incorrect.

In the case of my vault the skill is quite complex as it involves moving many parts of my body at

once and being fully aware of my positioning. This meant that as my arousal levels increased my

dominant response was the incorrect one and I didn’t perform the skill to the best of my ability.

My arousal levels increased for a few reasons. Due to the nature of the competition there was an

extremely large audience as it was a Northwest based competition with competitors from three

different regions. I also knew that my vault judges had judged at international competitions so were

expecting high quality vaulting with few mistakes and they were very knowledgeable judges so I

experience evaluation apprehension. These both contributed massively to my high arousal levels. I

was also concerned about the standard of my competitive co-actors as I knew that some of them

had competed in very high level competitions and were likely to do well. I found it hard to ignore

the others around me and competitive co-actors (other gymnasts in the competition) as I was also

in front of my home crowd so my vault suffered as I had extremely high arousal levels that resulted

in my incorrect response due to anxiety levels increasing. Because I couldn’t concentrate properly

on performing the vault due to my high arousal levels I started too close to the springboard in my

run and couldn’t choose a way of correcting my run in time, before hitting the springboard. This

resulted in my feet being over the edge of the board when I hit it, which in turn meant that I couldn’t

correct my vault so my overall performance was extremely weak. My high arousal and poor run as

a result, caused me to lose over 4 marks in total and I finished in last place.

Area of Assessment 2: Vault Weakness 2 C2: Corrective Measure - Improving Selective Attention

The corrective measure I am going to put in place to correct the skill and theory as explained in B1

and C1 are ways of improving selective attention. By doing this I will be able to ignore irrelevant

cues and concentrate solely on my performance and not those around me thus eliminating the

issue of social inhibition. There are many ways to improve selective attention; mental rehearsal,

ignoring irrelevant cues, concentrating on relevant cues and physical practice.

I will improve my selective attention through different methods of practicing. I will start to mentally

rehearse my vault before I perform it in training. This will help me to picture the correct way to

perform my vault, and help to correct my dominant response. By mentally rehearsing my vault I will

have a constant reminder of how it should be performed and I won’t worry about performing it as I

know it can be done. Throughout training sessions my coach will slowly introduce an audience to

my vaults. Initially she will introduce my fellow gymnasts as I am comfortable around them and

they see me in training, so I will find it easy to ignore them. The aim of introducing an audience is

to allow me to ignore irrelevant cues when I am about to vault. Once I find it easy to vault in front of

gymnasts, my coach will start to introduce parents and other coaches in the gym to watch my

vaults. This will again allow me to ignore the irrelevant cue of the audience as well as getting use

to performing in front of knowledgeable coaches to overcome evaluation apprehension as I am

aware that the coaches are a lot more knowledgeable than me. By practicing in front of them at

training will enable me to get use to blocking them out and focusing on what is important e.g. my

own performances. In competition settings in gymnastics there is a lot of noise and loud noises can

occur randomly depending on what is happening on the other pieces of apparatus. This can be

very off-putting and can raise my arousal levels. To overcome this, I will practice with music on

load in the background and we will make the audience as noisy as possible so I can learn to ignore



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it and focus only on my vault, not on irrelevant cues. We will continue with this practice until I am

happy performing in front of larger audiences within the gym. This means that when we move to a

competition setting I will be able to selectively attend to the vault and not be anxious about the

audience. This will keep my arousal levels at the optimal level for performance.

All this practice at ignoring audience will be extremely beneficial in competition setting as I will only

concentrate on the vault, not others around me. So hopefully in my next competition I will not get

too aroused and my dominant response will be the correct one, so my vault performance will

increase significantly.

Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 1 B1: Self Analysis Choosing the Correct Vault Tariff I am writing about a mistake that I made at a recent preliminary competition in an attempt to qualify

for the Northwest Vault finals held at Rochdale Gymnastics Club. In all gymnastic events you have

a difficulty score as well as an execution score and there are generally two ways in which to use

this system. You are granted your difficulty score based on how high a tariff your skills are and you

do not have that taken away from you. Your execution score is marked out of ten, with mistakes in

skills causing marks to be taken away from your execution score. The two ways in which to

manipulate this system are to go for difficult skills and hope for a higher difficulty, but the possibility

of a lower execution score or you can go for low difficulty, but hope that your execution score will

be very high. Both methods are effective, however in different competitions, different situations

occur and what worked in a previous one may not work in your next one. I chose to perform two

vaults with a low difficulty in anticipation of getting high execution scores as in a previous

competition this technique had worked for me and I qualified in third place for the final. After

discussions with my coach we decided that these two vaults were the best ones for me to perform

as we knew that I could perform them with high levels of accuracy, without losing marks for

execution.

My first vault had a 2.4 difficulty tariff so my highest possible score was 12.400. This vault was a

handspring vault and I had very few technical faults in the performance of it. I lost 0.6 overall from

my execution because of closed hip and shoulder angles; my hips were closed at a 45 degree

angle and my arms were out in front of me as I took off the spring board, so I was left with a final

score of 11.800. My second vault had a slightly higher difficulty at 2.8 as it had a half twist exit.

Again I lost 0.6 from my execution score for bending my arms slightly as they hit the vault, causing

me to not gain as much height as the judges wanted and from having a closed hip angle, and was

left with an overall score of 12.200. My vault scores were averaged to gain a score to be submitted

for the final of 12.000. My choice of using easier tariff vaults did not pay off even though I had high

execution scores as other competitors used more difficult vaults with tariffs ranging from 3.0 to 4.0.

Their execution scores were lower than mine, but because of the higher difficulty of vault they

qualified above me leaving me in ninth place just outside qualification for the final, as only the top

eight go through.



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Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 1 B2: Elite Performer Analysis Choosing the Correct Vault Tariff I am comparing my vault tactic to one chosen by Mckayla Maroney at the 2011 World Artistic

Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, during the Vault final.

As I explained in the previous section, gymnastics scoring is based on a two part system, which

includes execution and difficulty. Your execution score is marked by deducting points for errors

from a score of 10.000 and your difficulty score is awarded based on the difficulty of the skills you

are performing. In the case of vault, different entries onto the vault and increasing the number of

twists and somersaults increase the difficulty score awarded. During the vault final at the 2011

artistic gymnastics world championships, Mckayla Maroney chose to perform two vaults of varying

tariffs. One vault was more difficult than any other vaults performed by the other competitors in the

final with a tariff of 6.500 and the other was more similar to the level of the other competitors with a

tariff of 5.600.

For her first vault Mckayla performed a vault with a difficulty of 6.500 which was 0.200 higher than

any other vaults performed in the competitions. She took a risk when choosing to perform a vault of

such a high tariff as her execution score could have suffered as a result. However because she

had practiced the vault often and she knew she could perform it well her risk paid off leaving her

with only 0.700 marks deducted from her execution score. She was left with a score of 15.800 for

her first vault which was 0.700 marks ahead of her closest competitor. This left her with a

significant advantage going into the second half of the final.

Mckayla chose to perform a vault with an easier tariff for her second vault. The difficulty she chose

was 5.600 which was 0.200 lower than the highest difficulty vault performed in this round. She

hoped that because she chose a lower difficulty her execution score would be higher. In the

second round the other finalists went for higher difficulty vaults than in the previous round, however

their execution scores suffered greatly and ended up being far lower than previously. Mckayla got

an execution score of 9.200 which was 0.300 ahead of the rest of the field, giving her a score of

14.800.

Overall the combination of one difficult vault and one simpler vault paid off as she was awarded an

overall score of 15.300 which was 0.600 ahead of Oksana Chusovitina, who came second.

Because of the tactic she applied she became World Champion in her first year of senior

competition.



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Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 1 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness explained in B1 Learning Plateaus The theoretical reasons I have chosen to explain my weakness in my strategy chosen for the North West vault final qualifiers at Rochdale gymnastics club is the AS topic of learning plateaus.

A learning plateau is a period of time during which there is no change in performance and a

levelling off is displayed on your performance curve. They occur when the learner stops

progressing and it is not evident that any improvement in skill level is occurring.

In the vaulting competition in which I competed before the Northwest qualifiers the tactic I put in

place had worked as the rest of the field of competition were working at my difficulty level. Before

that competition I began at a very slow rate showing no improvement in my vault for the first couple

of weeks but then eventually after working hard in training my vaults began to improve significantly

with a rapid increase in skill. However after that competition I could not improve my vaulting skill

level therefore I hit a plateau in my performance. Hence I displayed an s-shaped performance

curve.

My vault difficulty remained too low as I was not ready to improve my vaults and I was receiving

poor and incorrect feedback from my coach on how to improve. Unfortunately the higher difficulty

vaults take more time to learn as they are more complex, but I didn’t have enough time between

competitions to progress to the next level and be able to perform higher tariff vaults so I hit a

performance plateau. I was also receiving poor coaching as my coach didn’t know how to tell me to

improve and didn’t give me the correct feedback as it was at the wrong time and the wrong sort.

My coach was giving me negative feedback regularly when I was training and she was expecting

me to be able to feel what went wrong by using intrinsic feedback. This method was ok with the

vaults I could already perform as I can perform them without much concentration as they are well

learned, but when learning new vaults you essentially go back to the cognitive stage of learning so

this type of feedback doesn’t work well as it de-motivated me and reduced my levels of confidence.

Because I couldn’t get my new vaults it meant that I had to complete the lower tariff ones that had

worked well for me previously. This tactic didn’t work because between competitions the rest of the

competitors had gone away and learnt higher tariff vaults and I was left behind on difficulty score.

My weakness in strategy was caused by hitting a learning plateau in my performance progression.

TRIALS

Plateau that occurred



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Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 1 C2: Corrective Measures Feedback The corrective measure I am going to put in place to overcome my learning plateau in vault tariffs

is to change the type of feedback I will be receiving from my coach in training when I am trying to

learn more difficult vaults. When a coach uses the correct type of feedback then this can help an

gymnast to improve their skill level much more easily and possibly even overcome a plateau as it

can be very constructive and motivating.

Feedback is the information received by a performer during and after the performance of a

movement, both from within and externally. There are many different forms of feedback and each

has appropriate situations in which they can be used at different learning stages. The different

forms are; terminal, concurrent, positive, negative, intrinsic, extrinsic, knowledge of performance

and knowledge of results.

To overcome my learning plateau I will go back to the cognitive stage of learning and receive

feedback in the forms of positive, terminal and extrinsic feedback and knowledge of results. Positive Feedback – This is the praise and acknowledgement of a correct or successful action.

When I am trying to learn more difficult vaults my coach will praise me when I do things correctly in

an attempt to reinforce the action and to motivate me to be able to reproduce it in the future. By

doing this she will reinforce the correct actions and I will be less likely to make mistakes in those

areas. For example when performing a half on half off vault, if I push my shoulder backwards on

entry and place my hands correctly on the vault she will praise me on it and draw attention away

from any mistakes I made during the action.

Terminal Feedback – This is where the information about the performance is received after the

completion of the movement. My coach will ensure that as I am learning almost all the feedback

she gives me will be once I have landed and finished my vault. This will make sure that I am fully

concentrating on my vault and am not distracted by any feedback she may give me when I am mid

performance. It will also ensure that I fully understand what I have to do to improve.

Knowledge of Results – This is feedback in the form of information about how successful the vault

was in accomplishing the task. This feedback will come from me when I see how I land the vault

and how it feels when I perform it. The knowledge of the result will be whether I land it correctly or

not and from this I can see where I might have to make it improvements. It’s a basic form that will

help me to know if I am doing the vault right or not.

Once I have received these forms of feedback my vaults will start to improve so that I can move on

to other forms of feedback. The one that will be most helpful is knowledge of performance. This will

come from my coach telling me how well I executed the skill and how close to the perfect vault it

was. This will help me significantly in making vital improvements to my vault before I complete it.



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By using these different forms of feedback I should be able to overcome my learning plateau and

at the next competition I can use more difficult vaults with a higher tariff. I will also have practiced

them a lot which will mean I will be more likely to have a high execution score as well, which will

help me move on from the qualifiers and through to the final with a much higher chance of winning.

Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 2 B1: Self Analysis Floor Routine Layout I once competed in a floor final at a North West competition. It was required that I had 3 tumbles in

the routine, as well as a spin, leaps and jumps. Floor routines in women’s artistic gymnastics must

be performed to music, and must include dance with different pathways and levels, covering the

whole floor space. You can be awarded artistry marks for performing the dance elements well, and

for interpreting the music style correctly. The layout of a floor routine is essential in making sure

you perform it to the best of your ability.

The floor in a gymnastics competition has 40 by 40 foot boundaries which I must stay within. For

this competition I was given a new floor routine with new, faster music. This meant that the dance

was faster and more complicated in order to gain artistry marks. I had not practiced the routine as

often as I should and found myself getting tired towards the end of the routine.

The skills in my routine were as follows; change leg split leap, 360 cat leap, jump 1 ½, 360 spin,

round-off tuck back somersault, handspring to two feet and Front somersault. The error in my tactic

was in which order I put the skills. I needed more energy to perform the tumbles in my routine, so it

would have made sense to perform them at the start; however it is a requirement to finish with an

acrobatic element. This meant that my tumbles had to spread out through my routine. I chose to

put my round- off tuck back somersault first, my handspring in the middle and my front somersault

last. This proved to be an error as I needed more energy to perform my front somersault than my

other tumbles.

Rapid

improvement

PERFORMANCE

Period of rapid

improvement



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My routine was more advanced than at previous competitions, and my training hours were not

enough for me to practice my routine fully, without running out of energy at the end of it. At this

competition I performed my routine well and gained the artistry marks for the dance in my routine,

however, because of the lack of practice in training I fell over at the end of my somersault, so I lost

a whole mark. This mistake, due to poor construction and layout of my routine caused me to come

in 8th place as I lost 2.500 marks on skills alone in the routine, plus a whole mark for the fall,

leaving me with overall deductions of 3.500 and a score of 6.500.

Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 2 B2: Elite Performer Analysis Floor Routine Layout I am comparing the layout of my floor routine at a North West floor final to Lauren Mitchells 2010

world championship floor routine. At international competitions on floor at elite level, FIG ruling

states that a routine on floor must finish with a double somersault or a twisting somersault. This

means that routines cannot finish on a non acrobatic skill e.g. a leap series or spin. A number of

other tumbles must also be included leading gymnasts to be tired at the end of routines, due to the

amount of physical activity. Most elite gymnasts at international level competitions will choose to do

a double back somersault in various different shapes as it is relatively easy compared to a twisting

somersault and requires less energy.

In the case of Lauren Mitchell’s routine, she had four complicated tumbles that require a lot of skill

and energy to perform. She arranged her tumbles in a manner that allowed her to do her harder

tumbles at the start of her routine and her easiest tumble at the end whilst staying within the FIG

ruling that you must finish with a double back somersault. Her first tumble was relatively easy as it

was a round-off, flick into a double Arabian somersault and she did it almost as soon as the music

started so she didn’t tire herself out with dance before it. Her second tumble was almost straight

afterwards with dance being in the corner she had just landed in. Her second tumble was quite

complicated so it made sense for to do it at the start of her routine. This tumble was a round-off,

flick, full twist into double back somersault in pike. She then changed the tempo of her routine so

she could slow down and gain her breath back for the rest of her routine. In this time she

performed some dance elements of her routine and gained marks for artistry. Her third tumble was

a round-off, flick, 1 and a half

twisting straight back somersault,

into a straight front somersault.

This tumble was sandwiched

between two slow tempo parts of

her routine so she could again

gain her breath back before her

final tumble; round-off, flick,

double back somersault in pike.

The red arrows represent areas of

dance and the black arrows are

her tumbles in the order they went in.

She knew that at the end of the

routine she would be tired

because of all the dance and other



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difficult elements included, so she chose to put this tumble last as it was easier than the others and

required less energy to perform. Because she chose to do this her final tumble was performed with

high precision and with few deductions. She also gained marks for artistry as her dance fitted well

with the music but was tactical as it didn’t waste too much of her energy. She had a difficulty of

5.900 and an execution score of 8.933 leaving her with an overall score of 14.833, which was good

enough for her to win gold.

Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 2 C1: Theoretical reason for my weakness explained in B1 Anaerobic Respiration The theoretical reason I have chosen to explain my weakness in B1 (my floor routine layout) is the

topic of anaerobic respiration and consequently the idea of lactic acid accumulation in my muscles

and lactate tolerance.

Anaerobic respiration occurs when initial ATP stores have been used to produce energy for

movement and there isn’t enough oxygen present in my cells to respire aerobically. It is an

essential process in resynthesising ATP as that is the only source of energy available to muscle

cells.

Aerobic respiration doesn’t occur until you have been exercising for at least three minutes at low

intensity, but under high intensity it occurs after one. A floor routine in gymnastics is 90 seconds

long and it has varying intensity, though it is mostly low which means that it uses the anaerobic

system to resynthesise ATP to produce energy. The product of anaerobic respiration is lactic acid

which can build up and cause muscle fatigue, making it difficult to continue exercising at that

intensity.

The anaerobic respiration system produces lactate

through glycolysis of glucose. Glycogen is broken

down from carbohydrates into glucose, which is

then converted to pyruvic acid. This process

provides energy for ATP resynthesis. The pyruvic

acid is then broken down into lactic acid in the

absence of oxygen. The lactic acid then starts to

accumulate in the blood and muscles.

Because a floor routine is short and below three

minutes and because it is of medium intensity,

lactate starts to build up causing muscle fatigue. I

have a low lactate tolerance which means my body

can’t withstand the effects of the accumulation of lactic acid in my muscles and blood stream to

high levels. Lactate tolerance can vary from athlete to athlete. In the competition the build up of

lactic acid caused my muscles to start fatiguing towards the end of my routine, making it extremely

difficult for me to complete my routine to a high level of skill and precision. All of the skills in my

routine I could complete in practice without problem, but once in routine form it became harder. I

was left too tired to perform my tumbles to the best of my ability. I also have a low lactate

threshold, which meant that lactate started to accumulate in my muscles early on in the exercise



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and OBLA started to occur. OBLA is the onset of blood lactacid accumulation and is the point at

which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood. This occurred because my body couldn’t

physically process the amount of lactic acid that I produced through anaerobic respiration. I

couldn’t complete my routine to a high standard as once eight seconds had passed I was

producing energy solely through the anaerobic respiration system. This caused me to fall out of my

somersault at the end of my routine as muscle fatigue had started to set in because of the

accumulation of lactic acid in my muscles. The other skills in my routine also suffered because of

this, losing me vital marks in competition.

Area of Assessment 3: Tactics and Strategies Weakness 2 C2: Corrective measures Interval Training The corrective measure I am going to put in place to overcome my weakness in B1 – by correcting

the reasons explained in C1 – will be to use the AS topic of Methods of Training to undergo an

Interval training programme.

The aim of this will be to increase my lactate tolerance and lactate threshold as interval training is a

type of training that improves anaerobic fitness. It stresses the body’s ability to withstand lactic

acid. It does this as it involves alternating periods of intense exercise and periods of recovery so

the body is exposed to large amounts of lactic acid. It is important that the rest periods are short so

that full recovery cannot occur, this way the body can adapt and improve its ability to withstand

lactic acid.

To improve my own ability to withstand lactic acid I will devise an interval training programme with

my coach that will work in conjunction with my normal training regime. I will be training by doing

long sprints on the treadmill. The sprints are going to be as fast as possible and for roughly 45

seconds. A training session is going to consist of a 5 minute warm up jog on the treadmill, then go

into alternating periods of 45 second sprints and then 45 seconds of rest. The rest will be this

length to make sure EPOC doesn’t occur – this is Excessive Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption,

better known as recovery, and it starts to remove lactic acid from the muscles 2-3 minutes after the

rest period begins. The aim of the interval training is to increase my body’s tolerance for lactate

and if I go over 45 seconds of rest this won’t happen as the lactic acid will start to be removed from

my muscles. For this reason my rest periods will be this long in order to keep the lactic acid in my

muscles. In each session I will do 5 sprints and rests one after another and I will do 3 sets of this

with rest time in between. The training programme will work alongside my normal training regime

over a six week period before the next competition and will consist of 2-3 training sessions a week.



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Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Week 1 Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics

Week 2 Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Interval

Week 3 Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics

Week 4 Interval Gymnastics Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Interval

Week 5 Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Gymnastics Interval

Week 6 Interval Gymnastics Interval Gymnastics Competition

This will build my lactate tolerance and increase my lactate threshold before OBLA sets in, helping

me to prevent muscle fatigue. Because the training programme is going to be six weeks long I

should start to see an improvement in my training prior to the competition as practicing my routine

will become easier and my performance will start to increase. By the next competition I will be able

to perform my routine without experiencing muscle fatigue and will therefore be able to perform all

my skills and tumbles precisely and land them without fault. The tactic of floor routine layout will not

be as much of an issue as I will be able to perform my skills in any order as I will be able to

withstand the lactic acid build up that is brought about by anaerobic respiration. This means I will

get better marks as I will have more energy in my routine. My artistry score will remain high, but my

execution score will improve too, leaving me with a higher score overall and a much higher chance

of placing better in the competition.

a-level pe exemplar unit 04 - coursework - sections b and

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