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I'm not sure if this is something that is thought of as bad technique or not, but I think that the reason that I'm having trouble getting inverted is that I concentrate on the bar and my feet just drop right down to it. First off, does this even sound like a reason why I'm not getting inverted? and if so, is it just a mental thing? or are there drills I can do to help fix this? Thakns

I found that was a big reason i wasn't gettin inverted. So my coach made me put a bunge about 3 feet above a cross bar and stare at that so my back would be to the cross bar. After that, i learned to stare at the top of my pole, and imagine a cylinder (i learned that one from Jan's camp) that i had to shot myself through.

i can relate! my vaults seem to be fine when i'm not trying to clear anything but when the cross bar goes up, everything seems to fall apart. we watch video of ourselves vaulting with the crossbar and you can see that our eyes are staring right at the crossbar. shooting for a high bungee is a good thing to do. sometimes our coach will even put up two bungees, a couple feet apart, so you aim for the high one and try to clear the lower one. it's pretty helpful but i'm still working on forgetting about the crossbar...

I found jumpin in a indoor venue is easier because u can just look at the rafters or something. Outdoors its kinda hard to kick for clouds cause they seem to move around too much, lol

CHC04Vault wrote:After that, i learned to stare at the top of my pole, and imagine a cylinder (i learned that one from Jan's camp) that i had to shot myself through.

thats such a good idea, i never thought of looking at the top of my pole, i usually look at the bar, which is prolly really bad.

I heard this phrase from Bubba sparks.

" to hit a baseball what do you have to do, look at it.
" To hit a golf ball what do you have to do? look at it.

" TO HIT A CROSSBAR WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO....?"

some people think its good to look at the bar to know where you are- i for one, don't like that, but that's just me.

Looking at the bar makes at almost impossible for me to get properly inverted. But that continues to be a difficult habit for me to break. If you want to see an extreme example of not looking at the bar, just watch the two videos of Tommy Skipper posted on the site. I am trying to learn to look up between my two hands at the moment of the plant and then hold that head position (relative to my torso) through the rock back and turn. Unfortunately I haven't been very successful achieving that goal.

master wrote:Looking at the bar makes at almost impossible for me to get properly inverted. But that continues to be a difficult habit for me to break. If you want to see an extreme example of not looking at the bar, just watch the two videos of Tommy Skipper posted on the site. I am trying to learn to look up between my two hands at the moment of the plant and then hold that head position (relative to my torso) through the rock back and turn. Unfortunately I haven't been very successful achieving that goal.

Just for the record, you do NOT want to throw your head back like Tommy Skipper does

Just to understand, would keeping your head in it's normal (as it is when your are not vaulting) position relative to your torso be bad? Would you consider that "throwing your head back"?

if you are looking at ur feet good, if u are lookin at where ur steps are 12 strides back...bad.

master wrote:Just to understand, would keeping your head in it's normal (as it is when your are not vaulting) position relative to your torso be bad? Would you consider that "throwing your head back"?

Your picture = fine
Tommy Skipper = looks like he is going to snap his neck off!

the problem with looking at the bar is that the instant you see it going down below your feet, you think you're in the clear and then you try to clear the height. I found it best to completely ignore the bar, act as if it isn't even there, just work on thinking about what you should be doing next and not what the final outcome has to go over. If you do your technique right, then you have nothing to worry about when it comes to the bar.