Topic: Kongs easier than monkeys?

[Redbeard The Pink]

Hello, humans!


First thread!


Anyways, has anybody besides me had an easier time with kong vaults than with monkey vaults? The difference between them is minimal, but the way I understand it the kong is more of a diving motion that starts further away from the obstacle.


Most of the sources I've checked out seem to insist that I should be learning monkey vaults and gradually working up to kongs, but for some reason I actually have an easier time getting my feet to clear if I do what I would consider to be a kong vault. Going more flat for the dive actually helps me get my hips up high enough to carry my feet over the object I'm planting on.


My understanding is that kongs are more for clearing things, while monkeys are more for launching yourself, so I'd like to be as versatile as I can with this vault, but I tend to catch a lot when I start closer and don't dive as much. Has anybody else had this issue, and if so what did you do to move past it?

[SebastianCannon]

I had a harder time with kong vaults. Monkey vaults were much easier for me when I started. However these vaults are nearly the same, a monkey vault is basically a kong vault over a shorter object.  If you have a taller object than I suppose a monkey vault would be easier, but in most cases a kong will achieve what a monkey can. I might have been vague on explaining this but I hope it helps.


My point     Kong>Monkey

[Jan-Su]

Interesting, Redbeard. I think what you call the monkey vault, I personally like to call the kong vault. And what you describe as the kong vault, I actually call it the dive kong, or the long kong.

I'm the opposite, though. I can only do shorter kongs for now. And I'm still trying to see if I can relearn the split takeoff first before adding speed and/or distance, as I detailed in one of my earlier threads. (Honestly, can spring get here any sooner? Can't wait to get to build my own vault box! ^.^)

[jordon.kell]

I actually learned to do the monkey vault while learning the kong vault. I was afraid to dive forward into the object ( I feared that I would clip my foot and fall forward ) and just kept doing the monkey.
I have had a recent injury though and have not trained for a few months, and when I started training again, I knew the kong but had to relearn the monkey vault.

[SteveZuelke]

I have been training for a couple years and mysteriously have always had an easier time with kongs than monkeys even though the monkey came naturally to be I was never able to clear obstacles with that motion, only the Kong. I have drilled both but Kong still comes easier to me and it is definitely my favorite vault by how it feels and looks