December NSW Training Clinic 8 & 9 December 2007

The final NSW State Training clinic for 2007 was held at the Mittagong Gymnastics Hall on the 8 and 9 December. Vaulters were privileged to work with Jacqueline Helm, from Austria over the weekend. There was a diverse range of vaulters attending the clinic with ages from 7 to 25 from all over NSW and from Queensland, including five male vaulters. It was great to see everyone working so well together.  Barrels were brought to the gym to work on technical skills and team skills. We took advantage of the gym’s facilities for some specific skill work and some gymnastic training.

It was great to see all the vaulters attending and participating with enthusiasm. Jacqueline was very clear that saying ‘I can’t’ is a very big barrier to achieving skills, and was impressed to only hear it once or twice over the weekend. There were many great ideas for conditioning which vaulters should be able to take home and use. The coaches and lungers worked with Sarah Venamore, looking at many skills necessary to improve the sport as well as working toward gaining accreditation.

The clinic was a great way to end the first year of State training clinics. Looking forward to seeing everyone in 2008!

September NSW Training Clinic 22 September 2007

 Due to the continuing Equine Flu problems this clinic was run without horses. On the first day it was held at the National Equestrian Centre. On Sunday it was held at the lovely ‘Cochrane’s Garden’ where we were able to enjoy the sunshine! Saturday began with a discussion on training strategies while horse access may be limited. It is important to remember that the horse is a stage for our performance. We have so little time on the horse in a training session, you need to make the most of it.

We calculated that you probably only have 6-8 minutes of time on the horse in a training session, and even less canter time!  Therefore it is important to be in control and competent on the ground and on the barrel before we move to the horse. This ensures we are making the most of our training time as well as taking care of our horses backs and having our bodies able to achieve what we are trying to achieve. A few examples 

• If you want a good mill, you should be able to sit on the ground with your legs in front of you and lift your leg as high as you want it in the mill.
• If you can’t do your freestyle on the ground really well, it is unlikely to work really well on the barrel let alone the horse!

There are always tools around you to be able to train to achieve better performance. We discussed ways to incorporate strength and activity into daily life. Strength needs to be maintained as the body won’t maintain muscle that isn’t being used.

If you aren’t getting enough training into your week you won’t be able to maintain your strength, let alone improve it.  We watched some freestyles and talked briefly about scoring and attempted to do some judging. This is great for understanding what the judges are looking at and how we can maximise our scores.

On the barrel we worked on mounts and flanks. We also calculated that we needed to jump to 130cm to be able to get the mount at the height we want. Lots of training needed there!  Leg tension is very important to train, and can be done almost anywhere. Holding your leg as tight as possible for a minute with your leg really straight and toes really pointed will help to increase you leg tension and your awareness of how tight you legs need to be. We practiced landing from a height on to a mat. This is important to train in order to ensure that you muscles, tendons, joints and bones are all strong enough to land safely. Bones need strength too, and they take the longest to develop their strength. Having the strength in your legs is important so you can feel confident in landing from the horse, which in turn will give you more confidence on the horse. And we finished off with stretching.

Sunday began with a run around the local streets, followed by group stretching. We then worked on developing two freestyles, with four specific movements to include. The development of the freestyles showed how much all vaulters have improved over the year and that we are gaining better team skills from the clinics. All the vaulters worked well together and developed interesting freestyles with nice compositions.   Visualisation techniques were discussed and practiced. This is a great way to train without needing a horse or even floor space. Teaching your brain how to vault better and improve concentration will help your body perform better. Visualising internal viewpoint is harder than external viewpoint, though both have benefits.  We practiced some acrobatic movements on the ground and some really creative ideas came up.   On the barrel we also reinforced some of the mount and flank techniques from Saturday.  The importance of landing softly was highlighted over the entire weekend. It was agreed that in order to be able to land softly you need to have enough strength to control your own body.  We want to control all our landings on the horse so that we land as lightly as a packet of chips as opposed to a bag of oats (imagine a bag of oats falling on your back! and a bag of oats normally only weighs 20kg!).  As part of this idea, the vaulters divided into three groups to work out strength programs which they then carried out.   The weekend was very enjoyable and highlighted the amount we can learn about vaulting without our horsey teammate.   Thanks to everyone that came and participated so enthusiastically.  The next clinic is scheduled for the 8 and 9 December, again without horses if necessary.  This clinic will also include lunger and coach training.  More info to come!  Tristyn Lowe 

Photos to follow as soon as everyone comes back from hols !!!

Nationals/CVI* - 3rd, 4th & 5th October, 2008

As you are all aware we had to apply to host the CVI*, to EFA by 17th September, to enable them to forward the necessary paperwork and the non refundable ‘Calendar Fee’ by the end of the month. From the various responses received it has been decided that we should apply to host this event, especially as vaulters will be needing a major Championships by then, having missed out on the 2007 Nationals due to the EI. Another reason for consideration is that there are a number of Individual vaulters training for selection for the next WEG in 2010, together with a couple of teams who are seriously working towards representing Australia in Kentucky. As soon as we receive confirmation from EFA that we can go ahead we will advise you all.  I would then like to organize to hold a ‘face to face’ meeting with all clubs so we can ‘get the ball rolling’ as there will be a great deal to organize. I would ask you all to be thinking of whom you can ask for major sponsorship as we will need to apply for this as soon as we get the go ahead.

What is a CVI ?

This essentially means International Vaulting Competition. To attend for example the World Equestrian Games you need to have received a qualifying score at a CVI. Therefore hosting a CVI in Australia provides an invaluable opportunity for Australian Vaulters to achieve a qualifying score at home !!!!