Let me get this straight. It was only last week that many of you mocking me here were trying to determine what in fact a "Tap" even was? Then after you got that half figured out , you were trying to determine whether there was a "tapping action", similar to what a gymnast does, available in the vault and whether or not Bubka made use of this? Many concluded that there was (Except Kirk, but he's always closed minded,behind the curve (unstudied) and ignorant (To many ways to name) to anything new, especially if he was not the first to point it out. Who cares? Next month he will be sounding like me. ) and that's great! But now, Altius, Kirk and Eric are now all suddenly such apparent experts on the tap, that they are able to tell me what is not a TAP? My question for you newly founded tap experts is, which one? There are so many types of taps in gymnastics , the Soviet, Chinese, Markelov and Yamakawi tap, just to name a few. The Soviet tap starts from the hollow position and goes to the arched position. The Chinese tap starts in the arched position and goes to the Hollow position. The Markelov is a tap motion while swinging backward in an arched position were the vaulter straightens out at the top of the swing to generate power and height for a release move or dismount.The Yamawaki , A high bar release move first done by Japanese gymnast, Kyoji Yamawaki also involves swinging backward and it involves going from an arch to a reverse foot tap and then back to an arch (double arch) for release or dismount. So you see a tap is merely a way of generating energy into the swing from a arched or hollow position of the body (coil) whether swinging forward or backward and has evolved as a way to quickly accelerate the speed and power of the swing especially into release moves and dismounts!
You can generate energy into the swing while going into the coil or coming out of it. Believe it or not, the spine has the capacity to coil or uncoil in either direction. It can also generate great energy in either direction during this uncoiling process through the use of the abdomen, back and shoulder muscles. When Bubka is in the Inverse-C position at the top of his swing prior to flyaway, is he not effectively in a coiled arched position? Could not the way Bubks comes out of his Inverse-C considered a form of a tapping motion? I merely raised the question? Here is what I had to say about it under my Agenda 21 thread under additional ways to add energy to the vault:
After Bubka breaks at the hips and his whip foot shin comes to the top of the pole and he is maintaining pressure on the poles fulcrum (Top hand. Just as he always does from Inverse-C through active-I through L to rock back to invert-I. If he did not the pole would uncoil faster) in that leaned back position (Spine bent) he has additional opportunities to add additional vertical energy to the flyaway and fully exploits them by doing the following:
1) He makes sure his head and shoulders drop back together behind the top arm (ephasis) (The chord of the pole) to serve as a counterweight to help bring the hips and legs up. see saw effect. This also improves his inverted position.
2) As the whip leg meets meets the drive knee from this rocked back position (Spine bent) he forcefully extends the drive leg (Straightens it out) heal skyward along with the whip heal through the hip (powerful muscle group). This adds great inertia to the upward propulsion of the hips and legs.
3) At the same time he forcefully extends the hips (Spine bent) upward by straightening out his spine through the use of his abdomen and back muscles (Also powerful muscle groups) and extends the hip ALL the way to the top arm (It can go no further and he makes FULL use of that range of motion!).
4) Finally he makes full use of the muscles around both shoulders (The last axis of rotation) to straighten the body up along the pole and to bring the hip to his top arm elbow.
ALL 4 OF THESE ACTIONS ALL ADD ADDITIONAL VERTICAL ENERGY TO ONE INTEGRATED SYSTEM AND MUST NOT BE OVERLOOKED!
check it out for yourself (Frames: 10-12)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UwBaf8f98