Lucija Milčić1, Kamenka Živčić Marković1, Tomislav Krističević1, Miljan Grbović2, Aleksandra Aleksić-Veljković3 1University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology, Zagreb, Croatia 2University of Belgrade, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Belegrade, Serbia 3University of Niš, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Niš, Serbia Differences in vault jumps in women artistic gymnastics ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine the difference between vault jumps at old and new horse performed at the Olympic Games 2000. and Olympic Games 2016. in women artistic gymnastics. Research was conducted on a sample of 32 jumps. Sixteen jumps at apparatus (vault) finals competition were performed at the Olympic Games 2000. in Sydney, Australia. Other sixteen jumps were performed also in the vault finals, but at the Olympic Games 2016. in Rio, Brazil. Analyses of the vaults were done by video. Variables which are used was divid- ed in two parts: type of the jumps (2, 3, 4, 5) and rotation (180°, 360°, 540°, 720°, 900°). Type of jumps was: 2=Handsprings, 3=Tsukahara, 4=Yurchenko, 5= Half-turn entry. Differences between the Olympic Games in type of jumps and rotations were calculated by T-test for in- dependent samples and Mann-Whitney U Test for independent sample. Results of Mann- Whitney U Test have shown that at the level of statistical significance of p<,05 that there were differences between the Olympic Games in variable rotation. It seems that today´s vault is performed with much more rotation around longitudinal (LA) axis of the body, and around transversal it seems that they are the same despite the new vault table. Key words: handspring, Tsukahara, Yurchenko, vault table, horse table INTRODUCTION One of the most popular events on Olympic Games is artistic gymnastic. Competitions are held at Summer Olympic and gymnast team qualify by World competition one year before the Games. Women’s artistic gymnastics competition in the Olympic Games are divided into qualifications, team finals, all-around finals and apparatus finals. Olympic Games 2000. which was held in Sydney, Australia, was the last competition on “old horse”. Then new vault- ing “table” was first used at the World Championships in Ghent, Belgium 2001. (Irwin, & Kerwin, 2009). The new vaulting table slowly replaced “old” horse, but also a new approach to training for coaches. Place for hand contact on old horse was 150 cm and on the new table 250cm, which have increased approximately 40% (Sands, & McNeal, 2002). The main reason for the new vaulting table was the safety of the athletes and injury prevention, particularly 90 for the round-off vaults with a backwards flight to the vault table, (Yurchenko) because of a high risk of missing the old vaulting horse (Naundorf, Brehmer, Knoll, Bronst, & Wagner, 2008). The new apparatus is now the same for women and men, there is only a difference in the height of the table (1.25 m women, 1.35 m men) (Naundorf, Brehmer, Knoll, Bronst, & Wagner, 2008). This increase influences, especially on Yurchenko type of vaults. Gymnasts can be much more confident and aggressive and explosive in reaching the support phase of Yurchenko- style vaults (Irwin, & Kerwin, 2009). Tsukahara types of vault were more efficiency to per- form because of larger and flatter surface on the new vault table which allows the gymnast to place hands more unevenly and also the consequences of preflight errors are dramatical- ly reduced because the gymnast can correct some errors during the support phase (Sands, & McNeal, 2002). Handspring Front-Type Vaults on old horse provided a different area of hand placed in a forward-downward direction which facilitated rotation about her hands, where the new flatter surface has a different approach to hand support and require hand-surface friction to produce the forward-directed force (Sands, & McNeal, 2002). Handspring vaults have been investigated (Prassas, Kwon, Y. H., & Sands, W. A. 2006) more than Yurchenko and some other vaults (Brüggemann, 1984; Dillman et al., 1985; Kwon et al., 1990; Sprigings and Yeadon, 1997; Bohne et al., 2000; Takei et al., 2000; Koh et al., 2001; 2003). Another huge change happens in 2006 when gymnastic rules have been dramatically changed. Perfect 10 was replaced with an unlimited scoring system (Naundorf, Brehmer, Knoll, Bronst, & Wagner, 2008). The vaults are classified into the five groups. (FIG, 2017). Handspring vaults are belong in the first and second group of the vaults where the gymnast runs toward the vault, jumps onto the springboard with both feet (take off) and places both hands on the vault, then gymnast push off (repulsion) his hands, and in the second phase of the vault per- form usually an salto forward or backward with or without a turn. In 1950s the handsprings were the most difficult vaults, but in the late 1960s started to perform the handspring with full turn (or turn) and handspring and salto forward tucked vaults (Takei, 1998). Until 1992 the most difficult vault at international competitions were Cuervo vault (handspring with one-half turn and tucked salto backward), Lou Yun vault (hand spring and stretched salto forward with one and one-half turns), and Roche vault (hand spring and tucked double sal- to forward) are the most advanced variations of the handspring category performed in in- ternational competitions (Takei, 1998). The Yurchenko vault was first performed by Natalia Yurchenko at the 1982 World Cup. The vault started with run-up that leads into a round-off on the springboard, take off in the backward direction for a back-flip take-off (repulsion) with the horse (Koh, Jennings, Elliott, & Lloyd, 2003). The difficulty of the vault is increased by adding more rotations or salto in second flight (Kwon, 1996). The aim of this study was to determine the difference between vault jumps at old and new horse performed at the Olympic Games 2000. and Olympic Games 2016. in women artistic gymnastics. METHODS Research was conducted on a sample of 32 jumps. Jumps were performed by women. Sixteen jumps at apparatus (vault) finals competition were performed at the Olympic Games 2000. in Sydney, Australia. Other sixteen jumps were performed also in the vault finals, but at the GZS 2019 91 Olympic Games 2016. in Rio, Brazil. Analyses of the vaults were done by video. Variables which are used was divided in two parts: type of the jumps (2, 3, 4, 5) and rotation (180°, 360°, 540°, 720°, 900°). Type of jumps was: 2=Handsprings, 3=Tsukahara, 4=Yurchenko, 5= Half-turn entry. Statistica 12 was used for data analyses. Basic descriptive parameters, K-S test, frequency tables were calculated for all variables. Differences between Olympic Games in type of jumps and rotations were calculated by T-test for independent samples and Mann- Whitney U Test for independent sample. RESULTS Basic descriptive parameters, frequency tables of measured variables (type of the jump) are shown in the Table 1 and Table 2. In table 1. are shown frequency tables that at the Olympic Games 2000. Tsukahara (3) and Yurchenko (4) type of the jumps are performed 31,25%. Handsprings (2) and Half-turn entry (5) were performed 18,75%. Table 1 Frequency table: type of jump at 2000. Olympic Games Category Count Cumulative Count Percent of Valid Cumul % of Valid all% of Cases Cumulative All% of 2 3 3 18,75 18,8 18,75 18,8 3 5 8 31,25 50,0 31,25 50,0 4 5 13 31,25 81,3 31,25 81,3 5 3 16 18,75 100,0 18,75 100,0 Missing 0 16 0,00 0,00 100,0 In table 2. are shown frequency tables that at the Olympic Games 2016. Yurchenko (4) type of the jumps were performed 31,25%. Handsprings (2) and Half-turn entry (5) were performed 25,00%. Tsukahara (3) was performed 18,75%. Table 2 Frequency table: type of jump 2016. Olympic Games Category Count Cumulative Count Percent of Valid Cumul % of Valid all% of Cases Cumulative All% of 2 4 4 25,00 25,00 25,00 25,0 3 3 7 18,75 43,75 18,75 43,8 4 5 12 31,25 75,00 31,25 75,0 5 4 16 25,00 100,00 25,00 100,0 Missing 0 16 0,00 0,00 100,0 92 Results of t-test are shown in table 3. at the level of statistical significance of p<,05. There were no differences in variable type of the jump in 2000. and 2016. Olympic Games. Table 3 t-test independent by group: Group 1:2000, Group 2: 2016. Variable 2000 Mean Mean 2016 t-value df p Valid N 2000 Valid N 2016 Std. dev. 2000 Std. dev. 2016 F-ratio Variances p Variances type of jump 3,50 3,56 -0,16 30 0,87 16 16 1,03 1,15 1,25 0,68 Results of frequencies for variable rotation at the 2000. Olympic Games are shown in table 4. Variable 720° was represented at 37,25%. Variable 180° in 31,25%, variable 360° in 25% and 900° in 6,25%. Table 4 Frequency table for rotation - 2000. Olympic Games Category Count Cumulative Count Percent of Valid Cumul % of Valid all% of Cases Cumulative All% of 180° 5 5 31,25 31,3 31,25 31,3 360° 4 9 25,00 56,3 25,00 56,3 720° 6 15 37,50 93,8 37,50 93,8 900° 1 16 6,25 100,0 6,25 100,0 Missing 0 16 0,00 0,00 100,0 Results of frequencies for variable rotation at the 2016. Olympic Games are shown in table 5.