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Hi, this is a video of me and my teammate jumping (I'm in the green, he's in the yellow).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzSJJ1mieE

We're both juniors in high school. He is about 160 lb 5'10" and holding 12'6 on a 13'7" 160 and I am 5'5" 120 and holding 12'6 on a 13' 145
I think the bungee is at 11'6" but then it moves up to 13' on the last jump.

Any advice before our first meet would be really appreciated.

Yellow could use some work with sprint mechanics. Hes jogging into the pit at the same speed the whole time. You should almost be sprinting your last 3 strides.

Green could use some acceleration into the box and a little more angle off the ground, but looks pretty darn good! Maybe grip down 3 inches to build more consistency with your jump before raising your grip in the meet.

Both of you should focus on accelerating your last 3 strides and hitting your take off as high and as hard as you can.

actually, it was a pretty windy morning, so we were on our light poles and not running as hard. But I agree, even on the good days we could still use a little more speed.

Its always tough with the wind. I just see you both have the ability to run a lot faster, so pole runs and take off drills will help a ton at this point in the season.

One thing that i noticed is that both of you, but primarily the kid in yellow could work on, is keeping your lower arm straight and extending through your take off. You both have them bent which is preventing your pole from loading up, which will hinder your ability to get on larger poles. Even if they aren't completely straight, keep pressure on the pole as long as possible, don't let them collapse so soon.

Leggless wrote:One thing that i noticed is that both of you, but primarily the kid in yellow could work on, is keeping your lower arm straight and extending through your take off. You both have them bent which is preventing your pole from loading up, which will hinder your ability to get on larger poles. Even if they aren't completely straight, keep pressure on the pole as long as possible, don't let them collapse so soon.

I take it, that you do not adhere to the Petrov/Bubka model.....

Pushing with the lower hand is not the way to go, and definately leads to more problems than it solves. Loading the poles is a matter of using the right pole, and a proper technique. It's not a matter of force applied at the wrong moment.

There is no reason to go macho and select a pole that is too stiff, and circumvent this by pushing with the lower hand.

Kid in green shows great potential. Very agile and coordinated. Narrow down grip by a hand. It's a bit to wide. Posture on the runway needs improving (but as you say, is the wind not helping here). Runway speed needs to be increased.

Kid in yellow is also very agile, but definately not as coordinated, but that can be improved. Don't let legs become separated and use the twist in order to turn. Instead, focus on what should happen before the inversion to improve that. This will allow a more coordinated inversion and turn, and will help build more height than any feverish attempt to squeeze out a few inches by kicking with the legs. Narrow down grip.

Forgot to add: The best of luck in your upcoming meet