Getting inverted

[vaultman18]

Great post Alan!

[altius]

And perhaps appropriately, the Last Post! Just a little more drama RBG.

[euroeva]

my coach has always said blocking is good. at least for the first part when you're not swinging, you're just like flying there. then when you have to invert i think you start to lessen the resistance of the bottom arm. The hard thing, at least for me is the 2nd part, becasue I've become so used to blocking. as for drills I would do the inversion drill. You have a small pole, or a broom stick and you are laying on your back. You do the roll and pop yourself up. I'm not very good at explaining but maybe your coach knows what I am talking about.
Good luck

[Tim McMichael]

Finally - inversion has little to do with the ability to do sit ups /half levers etc. it is about technique and timing in the first two phases of the vault.

I completely agree. I think it is a vault killing misconception to think of the swing as a power crunch with the abs. The abs are not activators or initiators; they are stabilizing muscles that support what the rest of the body is doing. Tensing the abs during the swing will only slow it down. For a right hander, you can think of the strength requirements as a line that runs diagonally through the body from the knuckles of the right hand all the way through to the toes of the left foot. You can also think of this line as zig-zagging through the body. The big muscles of the upper back, the hip flexor and quads, and the top of the left foot are all explosively active. The rest of the muscles are passive.

Imagine hanging from a high bar. If you try to swing your hips to your hands using nothing but your “core,â€Â

[jcoover]

[quote]Imagine hanging from a high bar. If you try to swing your hips to your hands using nothing but your “core,â€Â

[KirkB]

Why do you think you should be "inverted"?

It is very difficult (almost impossible) to grip less than 12'6" and achieve "inversion" without doing some very bad things technically.

Work on jumping off the ground and swinging your feet above your hands i.e. "cover the pole". Doing this correctly will not lead to "inversion" unless you are very short or gripping above 12'-13'.

In my opinion the pursuit of "getting vertical" or "inverting" is the biggest problem with developing vaulters in N. America. Watch the following vaults. After takeoff you swing your feet to your top hand with as much force as possible. If you get them there with enough force then you will fly off the top of the pole. If you do not swing to that position, but rather get there by any other means, you will not come off with much force. In other words, DO NOT TRY TO DO ANYTHING BESIDES SWING! Any pulling, pushing, rowing, twisting, wiggleing, flopping, or humping actions will only take away from your swing.

http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20000929_Hysong_590.mov
http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20010809_Markov_595.mov
http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20060212_Pyrek_476.mov
http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/19920713_Bubka_611.mov

I'm not sure Pyrek is not the best technician in the world. She just has no blow.

This is a really interesting thread, and I'd like to keep it going. It's too bad it got clipped when Becca converted to phpBB.

Barto, I'm very impressed with your vision of what a good swing should consist of, and I see a consistently good pattern to your posts here and recently re technique and pole technology. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SWING!!!

I guess I like your way of thinking because you seem to be agreeing with me that THERE IS NO ROCKBACK OR TUCK!

Since this is on the Beginners forum, I will confine my comments to technique for rookies ...

As explained by you and by Launder in BTB2, you're better off using a fairly stiff pole and SWINGING THRU, than using a soft one and "getting stuck in the dreaded 'V'".

The 'V' that I'm referring to is where you get stuck with your hips low but your feet high - a kind of ROCKBACK with no continuous swinging movement thru to your INVERTED (upside down) position.

If you get stuck in this 'V', you never get INVERTED, and so you either flop over the bar (if it's low enough), or hit it on the way up.

A continous swing fixes this problem. Get the continuous swing FIRST, THEN start inching up your grip.

Kirk

[marshall]

first off, you shouldn't be able to look back at the runway on any vault. chin tucked and looking at your feet.


i kind of have the same problem, i get fully inverted on pop ups but i struggle with it on vaults near my PR. i haven't put it all otgether but what coaches tell me:

1. bottom arm is tucked inside the pole and should release pressure after your rockback

2. make sure your center of gravity is in your shoulders, not in your hips, during the rockback

3. swing your legs up to the top of the pole, almost behind it

[powerplant42]

. bottom arm is tucked inside the pole and should release pressure after your rockback

!?

2. make sure your center of gravity is in your shoulders, not in your hips, during the rockback

What exactly does that mean? How can an athlete even possibly THINK of trying to decipher what that means during a practice session and 'do' it?

3. swing your legs up to the top of the pole, almost behind it

I would say, swing your entire body like on a high bar... 'legs' insinuates only using abdominal strength, which is, of course, WRONG!