advath wrote:...It holds the shoulders in front of the hands while swinging up on a horizontal bar, just like in the vault.
I would agree that when I vault, my shoulders are in front of my hands shortly after take off. What I have a problem with is the apparatus "holds the shoulders" there and in doing so, gives the user a support to work against that is not there in a real vault. If you did this exercise, you would definitely build up muscle structure in the torso, but that would happen with a lot of exercises.
I prefer to practice the whip swing to teach myself how to give my body the momentum to get my feet up to cover the pole, and then practice "Bubkas" (see http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4838) to build the strength and technique to finish the move to vertical. Of course, I am not yet successful in getting vertical, but I continue to train to achieve that position.
- master