PoleVaultPower.com

This is my third practice back since summer. It felt much better than the previous practice, and I was told that it looked like my run-up was better and ore controlled than the previous practice. Most of the jumps were similar to these two and these had the best camera angles.

http://media.putfile.com/Indoor-Pole-Vaulting

What I see:
Still not inverting
Still not keeping straight (or even close to straight) arms at the plant
Otherwise a good takeoff, a little out maybe
lead knee should stay at 90' and perpendicular to trail leg longer
led knee should also drive more
turn should be a little earlier
swing should cover pole better
flagging out at the top
Coming up short

Did I miss anything? How can I fix these things?

It's comin! I'm real excited to see what the good coaches tell you. What I am seeing is that you've come a long way from last years video's where you were looking at the bar and "sittin" on the pole (see your avitar). Keep pluggin' away and do what these guys tell you, you'll get there. The top looks a little screwey and that probably comes from things early in the jump. I'm sure there will be plenty of good coaching comments to come on this thread. Later.....Mike

Well i dont claim to be a good coach, but with the things you mentioned being wrong, i do have some ideas to fix them. The main two problems i see are the arms not up at the plant, and not holding a split position on the swing.

For the first problem, short run without swinging, and bring your hands up a step earlier than you normally do. It shouldnt be much of a problem taking off with the right hand position if you do that, but to keep good position, you need to keep a little more pressure into the back of the box with the top hand. Letting the hands come over the head is good, but it looks like you are letting them get crushed as soon as you take off. If you use your shoulders to keep your top hand from going too far behind you, the bottom arm shouldnt collapse so much. If the bottom arm is still too bent, the best thing to do is take the pole into the box and just build motor reflexes by getting into good hand position and visualizing that during the jump. Do that like 100 times, then when you go back to your short run it should feel only slightly different.

For the second issue, a swinging bubka should help a lot. Basically imagine that as soon as your take off, that drive knee is what leads your hips to go up. So take off with the drive knee, and then as your trail leg swings dont concentrate so much on that (because your trail leg looks awesome right now). Instead think about bringing that drive knee all the way to your chest before extending it. You can practice this right on your bed, this is my favorite thing to do when i cant sleep . Just lay down, and put your hands over your head. then imagine you take off and bring your drive knee up into the air, then swing your trail leg- keeping the distance between both legs the same. Your drive knee will come to your chest at about the same time your trail leg is vertical. Once your leg is vertical, extend your drive leg. Its a lot simpler than it sounds, but doing that to build motor reflexes will also help keep your drive knee up. good luck and keep the updates comin!

Your last step is dead. Your lead foot is too far behind your take off foot when it hits the ground. This is one of the main reasons that causes your arms to cullaps. Your top hand is getting too far behind your head at take off. You're not using your last step. It just hits the ground and you drag your top hand behind you. Sure you lead knee comes up but look where that foot is. It's still under you butt.

Your last step has to be active. You should feel the take off foot applying force upward and oh so slightly forward through the top hand. Your lead foot shoud be in front of you take off leg before your take off foot leaves the ground.

Look at Denis' feet in the first few pictures in
http://www.advantageathletics.com/UI/Se ... hotoid=246

The coaching tip I like to give vaulters that take off like this is, "Use your last step."

Do a 2 left approach on an unbending pole. See how high you can hold on it and still get into the pit (past the standards). If you can make 5' above your standing grip (top hand reach heighth with the pole next to you) that will take care of some of the takeoff issues you have. When you do this it will free up your swing which will take care of some of the issues with the rest of the jump. Most, if not all, novice PV'ers have a basic lack of takeoff skill in this vein. All vaulters should be able to get into the pit with a straight pole from 3 lefts holding where their bottom hand is on a full approach and a high grip (Petrov, in Reno and other correspondence). I once saw Kory Tarpenning jump on a 14' pole from a short approach not bending it and moving easily into the pit.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC