The Tsukahara can refer to a specific vault and a family of vaults in

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), ...

. The first Tsukahara vault was performed by (and named after)

Mitsuo Tsukahara Mitsuo Tsukahara (塚原光男 ''Tsukahara Mitsuo'', born December 22, 1947) is a Japanese artistic gymnast. He was five times an Olympic Gold Medalist. He remained active in the sport after his retirement from competition. He served as vice pr ...

in 1972. A Tsukahara vault consists of a half turn off the springboard onto the vault table, then a push backwards, usually into a back salto or

layout In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement. Specifically, layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...

. In Japanese, this technique is known as a "Moonsault".''Sports Zenshū 3: Kikai Undō'', coauthored by

Masao Takemoto was a Japanese artistic gymnast who won two world titles and seven Olympic medals. At the 1952 Summer Olympics he won the silver medal in the vault with a score of 19.150, which was 0.050 short of the gold medal. Two years later he became worl ...

and Kazuo Abe, published in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Poplar Publishing is a Japanese publishing house founded in 1947 that publishes books, magazines and manga for Japanese children, the most famous of which is Pre Comic Bunbun. In 2004 it acquired control of the rival Jive. Some of the children's books published b ...

Variations

Any vault that has a handspring with 1/4 - 1/2 turn onto the vault table into a salto backwards is classified as a Tsukahara vault. Some variations on the Tsukahara vaults include: * Kim - Tsukahara tucked or stretched with full twist (360°) off * Zamolodchikova - Tsukahara stretched with a 2/1 turn (720°) off * Phelps - a half turn onto the vault table, followed by a half turn off and into a front layout.

References

{{reflist Vaults (gymnastics)