5 Drills for Front Vaulting

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Vaulting can be pretty intimidating. Running up and jumping, reaching out to place your hands on an obstacle and swinging your legs over without bailing is not an easy place to start with this, physically, or psychologically.

The Front Vault, as we call it in MovNat Natural Movement, is also called the Kong Vault in Parkour. This vault requires very good mobility to bring the lower body between the arms and obstacle without clipping the feet or butt on the way through. Luckily, we can build this skill as a ground movement to develop confidence and competence before applying it in a riskier context.

As a rule of thumb if you can't do the front vault on the ground, you shouldn't try using it to get over an obstacle. This vault is easier and safer as a means to get onto an elevated surface, so that's a good place to progress before moving on to vaulting over a fence or something.

Exercise 1 involves a simple bodyweight transfer from the feet to the hands as you move between a deep knee bend and foot hand position.

Exercise 2 progresses to continue with the same drill, adding the element of hopping the feet off the ground. This is also a good drill if you're interested in developing your hand balancing skills.

Exercise 3 turns this into a locomotion by inching forward with every hop. Think "grazing bunny".

Exercise 4 involves swinging the legs through to a sitting position with the legs extended out in front of you.

Exercise 5 is the full Front Vault on the ground. From here you can start on the "balls" of your palm if you have the mobility to give your legs extra space to pass through. You can do this with your palms flat for an added challenge as that will make you depress your scapula and challenge your core stability and mobility to make it through.

Thank you and see you next time.