Development Characteristics of Today's World Men's Vault——With A Discussion on the Competitive Level of Chinese and Foreign Elite Male Vaulting Athletes

This paper regards the men's vault finalists of the 44th World Gymnastics Championship and London Olympic Games as the main research objects,and regards the men's vault finalists of the 12th National Sports as assistant research objects. By the methods of video observation,literature review,mathematical statistics and comparison method,this paper analyzed movement difficulty,movement form and movement quality in today's world men's vault and compared the competition level of the male elite vaulters athletes between China and other countries. Conclusions: 1) The average difficulty of world men's vault is close to 6 points in the Rio De Janeiro Olympic cycle,and movement difficulty has not reduced as the rule adjustment and athletes upgrade. There is no significant difference between the Chinese and foreign athletes in difficulty. The highest difficulty and average difficulty of athletes who won medals are expected to continue improving and Asian players have the advantage. 2) Most European and American athletes use many-circle somersaults action,Asian players prefer the many-circle turns action. Both of them learn from each other and have a balanced development. The only 20% usage round-off entry vault has a further room for improvement. Eighty percent of Chinese athletes choose the many-circle turns action,which movement type should be adjusted properly. 3) There are significant differences of movement quality between Chinese and foreign athletes. Chinese athletes are inferior in movement quality,and they have a large room to improve. The improvement mainly focuses on gesture and landing stability,and Chinese athletes should also improve the height of the second suspension. This study provides a theoretical support for Chinese men's gymnastics team to prepare for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games,and also it's significant for developing Chinese men'svault.