Kinematic investigation of selected elements carried out on artistic gymnastic vault

Gymnastics is a very technical event in terms of both judging and the movements performed. In the artistic gymnastics branch, the jumping table device is among the compulsory competition equipment of both women and men. On the Jump table to perform handspring and handspring sw. with ¼ turn elements are considered as fundamentals to perform more complex elements with salto on vault. The aim of the current study was investigate handspring and handspring sw. with ¼ turn elements with kinematic methods. Sixteen male gymnasts juniors (n=9), pre juniors (n=7) participated in study. Anthropometric measurements, vertical jump and drop jump tests were applied. Moreover, for kinematic analysis a camera (120 frames per second) was used. Kinovea and Tracker softwares were used for two dimension video analysis. Witty (Microgate, Italy) photocells were used to measure last 10 meter approach run speed (V1, V2, V10). Categories for each element were analysed by independent samples Mann Whitney U test. Last 10 meter of approach run (Uberşlag; p=0,007; Handspring sw. with ¼ turn; p=0,039), first and second phase durations (respectively; p=0,015 and p=0,008) were found to be statistically significant between categories. For the Handspring sw. with ¼ turn element, a statistically significant difference was found between the first and second flight phase heights between the categories (respectively; p=0,013 and p=0,005). The performances of the gymnasts participating in the study were obtained by calculating the success scores of the jump they performed. Considering the results of the current study, it can be interpreted that gymnasts who have higher running speed in the last 10 meter of approach run and had shorter support time on the springboard performed elements with better performance. It is thought that coaches should include speed, explosive strength and arm strength exercises to affect vault performance of gymnasts and this will effect the performance in a positive way. Keywods: Training, Gymnastics, Kinematics, Technique.