Open-tuck and layout yurchenkos to progressively elevated mats are good drills. The gymnast can add open-tuck twists to the feet and eventually to the back. Gymnasts should not attempt the second somersault until they can consistently land on their back on an elevated surface.
Before an athlete attempts any difficult yurchenko half-turn vault, they must master a consistent round-off half onto elevated mats. Observe in this back view how the half-turn is performed, anchoring the twist from the board. Take a final look at this back view of a yurchenko half-turn timer and notice how these type of skills require an early controlled twist without killing the turnover.
For the yurchenko half-on the shoulders are moved from a blocking position in front of the feet to slightly behind the feet. The gymnast is performing an early twist and a quick half turn to get a good amount of air off the table. The gymnast contacts the table with the hands ahead of the shoulders.
These are some helpful progressive skills to introduce yurchenko vaults. First the gymnast roundoffs to a higher mat. The roundoff should be landed with the center of mass in front of the feet. In the next step the gymnast practices roundoffs to rebound on a springboard. When they demonstrate consistent rebounds, the gymnast can begin practicing some tuck somersaults and eventually layouts and high whip backs.
Practicing yurchenko timers to stacked mats is a useful way to train different vaulting techniques without having to worry about injuries. As the gymnasts get better, they can raise the height to make the drill more challenging.
The Yurchenko layouts follow the same principles required for all other round-off entry vaults. The hurdle should move up and forward. This gymnast has some problems to refine during her round-off; a round-off flying phase that could be more hollow instead of piked.
Yurchenko layouts are commonly used by competitive gymnasts as warm-ups for more difficult yurchenko vaults involving multiple twists. Take a look at these varied yurchenko timers from different video angles.
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A low single rail is a very useful piece of equipment to master different technical aspects of several horizontal bar or uneven bar skills. The back bail is the beginning part of back giants. The drill is performed falling very stretched from the handstand and landing flat down on soft mats approximately at the same height as the low rail.
In the front bail drill to prepare the first part of the front giants the gymnasts bail down with the shoulders very stretched and the body straight aiming to land on the mat as flat as possible without any hips pike or shoulder angle.
This low single rail drill helps gymnasts understand how to cast to a handstand with straddled legs. Beginning from a hollow prone support the gymnast moves down to a tight arch, and from there quickly snaps the hips up, aiming to bring the body weight on top of the arm support without letting the legs come down too much.