Skill Explanation: Yurchenko Vault

This week I decided to do a skill explanation because I don't have any competitions, and I also just haven't done one in a while. This week's skill: Yurchenko Vault.

Event: Vault
Type: Umm, it's a vault?
Difficulty: Depends on what type of flip you do out of it. (B,C,D,E)


There are really only three vaults that are the basis for all of the other vaults. Front-handsprings, Tsukahara, and Yurchenkos, with handsprings the easiest and Yurchenkos the hardest. A Yurchenko is pretty much a roundoff back handspring onto the vault table. You run, put your hands on a thin little mat, do a roundoff and put your feet onto the springboard, go backwards and put your hands on the vault table, then do any number of flips and twists off. (All of it takes approximately 1.6 seconds not including the run.) The scary part of learning a Yurchenko is that you come into the vault backwards. The good part about Yurchankos is that if you do them right, you get a ton of power which is why most Elite and Olympic gymnasts compete these and not a Tsuk or something else.

If you have every watched gymnastics in the Olympics, then you have most likely seen a Yurchenko. After doing the entry onto the vault, you do some type of flip. Level 8s usually do a tuck, Level 9s a pike or layout, and level 10 a full. In the Olympics, gymnasts will do up to three twists and it is amazing.

I only do a pike flip off. I'm still working the lay in practice, but only compete a pike. Here's a picture of me in the middle of one during my vault in Phoenix. I know that I included this picture in the previous post but it fits this one, too.

Photo courtesy of: blpstudios

McKayla Maroney competed an outstanding Yurchenko with 2 1/2 twist at the 2012 Olympics. Everyone except the judges thinks that it was literally perfect. Click here to watch this amazing vault.

~Rose