"The primary concern was to add suspense to the event," said Jim Stephenson, head coach at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. "You can actually feel that tension in the air now with vault."

The idea of eliminating the second-chance vault first came up at the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches for Women meeting in 1999 and has gained mo

mentum since. The NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee voted to eliminate the second vault in June, and the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet approved the change for the 2001 season.

"It was a significant change," said Marie Robbins, chair of the Women's Gymnastics Committee and associate athletics director at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. "We wanted to make an informed decision that was best for the sport."

Robbins said at the USA Gymnastics and world meets, as in the Olympics, competitors still do two vaults, but those scores are averaged. She said the committee considered averaging the two scores instead of eliminating the second vault altogether, "but we were mindful of the additional risk to the student-athlete," Robbins said. "We would be asking gymnasts to stick two vaults rather than just one, which when factored in with the fact that collegiate gymnasts compete most every weekend between January and April presents a different physical demand."

Not only does the one vault-one score deviate from the traditional international competition standards, it also varies from the background of the student-athletes.

"I am an elite judge and a coach," said Ball State University head coach Mary Roth. "I look at it from both sides, and I'm thinking that these kids do two vaults all of their lives. Granted, college kids are better athletes than younger kids, but this is a huge change. It is radically different than age group, club and high-school gymnastics, which is where these kids have been."

Adjusting to change

"I think it is more exciting with only one chance," said Janessa Grieco, a sophomore at the University of Michigan. "It is definitely different. I used to go up for the first vault just thinking that I needed to land it. The second time I would be wanting to really stick it. This year, we just go out there and go for it."

Although Roth believes that the meets are more exciting because a vault score can make or break a team, audience appeal may not be a byproduct of the rules change.

She said if student-athletes are competing with less difficult vaults because of concern for the best possible score, audiences may prefer a return to the two-vault format.

"Especially in the Mid-American Conference, we are going to see a lot of kids do a less difficult vault, and it will keep them from trying a new vault that is more difficult," Roth said. "It is important that we stand up a vault. We can't risk a low score and risk losing the meet. That is the reality."

But Stephenson said he does not believe student-athletes are being more conservative this year in the wake of the change.

"I think one thing we were afraid of is that competitors might back off of the more difficult routines because they were worried about the score," he said. "We have had four meets so far this season, and I haven't noticed it to be a problem."

It may be a question of vault philosophy as much as the rules change.

"Last year, I did a 9.9 vault the first time and a 10.0 vault the second," Grieco said. "This year I have just been doing the 10.0 vault. I just think it is the philosophy of our coaching staff at Michigan that if you can do the harder vault, you do it. Obviously, if it was a risk of injury it would be different. Some schools might back off of a harder vault to get a better score, but that is a question of the philosophy of the school."

While a change in aggression for vault might be questionable, student-athletes must be more focused for the event since there are no second chances.

"Vault was a pretty easy event for me last year," said Ball State sophomore Amy Bodus. "I had a warm-up if I needed it, and it isn't that the vault is hard now. It is just mentally tough this year because you have to be focused."

Along with a change in attitude, some differences in training have been attempted to better prepare student-athletes for life without the mulligan.

"Before you would see most teams do an intrasquad in practice, meaning they would go through the lineup like a meet situation and try to hit every routine," Robbins said. "They would warm up and then make it a meet setting, but you would never see that for floor or vault. Now you are seeing teams practicing the vault as an intrasquad, too."

Although all coaches aren't on board with the idea, it would allow for experimentation and may lead to an enhanced vault in future meets.

"There have been a lot of e-mails flying around from gymnastics coaches, discussing whether or not we should do this," Roth said. "The majority of people think we need to be able to do this."

Even with two attempts per student-athlete, the vault has always been the shortest event, so exhibition rounds do not present a time problem. It may even eliminate the waiting created by the rules change.

"The judges' reaction was, 'Why are we doing this?' " Roth said. "Vault was always over 15 minutes earlier than bars anyway. Now, judges just have more time to sit."

Championships changes

The elimination of the mulligan seems to be a welcome change at the championship. The advantage that for a team that competed on vault first will be eliminated.

"My biggest concern was to get rid of the freebee," said Valorie Kondos Field, head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles. "I strongly believe that once you salute the judges that what you do next should count. At the Super Six, we draw the night before (to determine rotation during the championship). It used to be a huge psychological advantage to draw the vault first. I'm glad we've made a change."

Although the Bruins started on the balance beam in the team preliminaries last year en route to the national championship, Kondos Field said the advantage of knowing there is a chance to get rid of the jitters, get used to the crowd and have a fall that will not hurt the team scores was significant.

Although the vault format has changed for the season and team competition at the championship, the individual-vault champion will be determined by the average score of two vaults as it has in past years.

"It just seemed so strange to be changing the whole way we do an event," Bodus said. "I have been doing two vaults my whole life. It didn't really hit me until the first meet, and I realized that I only had one chance to prove myself to the judges.

"So far, I like it. If you're going to be a good team, you have to be able to go out there and hit. It determines whether you are a good team or not, and our team is doing well with it so far."