New High School Girls Sophomore National Record

[higherflyer]

Sophomore Kaitlyn Merritt Jumps 13-8 at Arcadia Invitational.
New High School Girls Sophomore National Record, Arcadia meet record, California girls Sophomore record.
Orange County girls Record.

http://youtu.be/b_wfcOOk238

[Andy_C]

Congrats you guys! Great work!

-Andrew

[altius]

Agreed -great job - But is she taking off a little under???????

[rainbowgirl28]

Way to go!

[KirkB]

Agreed -great job - But is she taking off a little under???????

Maybe a tad under, but the nice thing about her vault is that it follows the Petrov Model quite well - there's no push with the bottom arm (even if under a bit), and her swing is nice, and continual (little or no pause in a tuck).

I'm more impressed with how well she's doing at such a young age than worrying about any minor technical flaws. Very, VERY impressive!

Kirk Bryde

[Andy_C]

Agreed -great job - But is she taking off a little under???????

Yeah, she took off a bit under on this video. But from what I've seen from her I don't think it's a regular problem, however that's from an outside observer's perspective. In other videos I've seen I think she's usually right on her toes or at toe-off right when the pole starts to bend. And from what I've seen the top hand is usually straight above or just in front of the take off foot. A very strong and aggressive position at take off seen here.

Kaitlyn Take-Off.png (255.74 KiB) Viewed 12930 times

I suspect she may have been more amped and was running a bit harder during this jump resulting in her being under. The last steps may also have been longer than intended, couldn't see but I didn't hear an increase in step cadence towards the end. Needs to work on consistency a bit, but that's going to be a problem that pretty much all young vaulters will have. They've done an incredible job with her and there's still plenty of room for technical improvements that they're going to be working hard on... But then that only means she has great potential for higher heights! Job's not done, but I don't think that's the prevailing thought when you're having a blast going to work!

Another article here:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-040 ... 484.column

-Andrew