- Admin
- #221
I actually disagree fairly strongly with you on this one, @ruby and @cats. Four points I’d like to offer:
- We’ve long had spotting on bars. While some coaches are a bit “extra”, generally speaking, it’s fine, right? Moving forward, Vault can be viewed similarly.
- Due to the 0 score on vault for assistance, the only benefit to the gymnast of a coach’s presence is safety, which I think we all agree on.
- While I see your point that the presence of a spotter could make athletes might feel safer to try vaults they should not really be doing, the risk of a 0 is a good counter-measure: if the coach helps the gymnast even a little, it’s a 0. That’s even harsher than on bars, where the rest of the score is not affected except the one element where help was given.
- I would offer that a coach CAN do several things to support safety. Certainly if she over-flips, that’s an easy spot — one hand on the back to slow down the impact and prevent an injury. If she lacks height /rotation, he can do a couple things, such as pressing her back on the second salto to add rotation. He could also put his arm under her at the end to slow down a crash. Many coaches have tons of experience with this sort of thing across the apparatus. I was never a particularly good spotter myself, but some of these things are standard things you do for double saltos, and even I could do them. LOL
Last edited: