I am having trouble planting a few steps too early. How is this fixed?
Go away from the pit onto the track or grass and do a lot of planting drills with your coach watching you, the more you do them correctly over here, the better it will carry over into your full approach.
Before you get into the inversion, you must know that you can't substitute anything into technique to make it easier. For example, tucking into a ball will make you be able to get inverted easier, but it's a bad habit and won't help in the long run. That being said, make sure that there's not something in the earlier stages of the vault that's stopping you from getting inverted. Have a nice high plant, steps are on, good speed into the run, nice straight trail leg, a good swing, and then the inversion should come naturally. What should help is setting a bungee at a height a few feet above my PR then trying to kick it. Once you're able to kick it, then move it up another six inches.
If you could upload a video of you vaulting then it would help so we can see better what you're doing and where you're at.
