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HI I AM A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR VAULTER MY BEST VAULT IN A MEET IS 12'6 AND AT PRACTICE 13'6 AND IN THE START OF MY NEW YEAR I'M LOOKING TO GET 14


RIGHT NOW I'M JUST AT MY SECOND PRACTICE WITH MY REAL COACH AND I'VE GOT MOST OF MY VAULT DOWN BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO GET MY FULL ROCK BACK DOWN TO WHERE I'M GETTING ALL THE WAY BACK

CAN I GET SOME TIPS ON WHAT TO THINK ABOUT WHILE IN THE AIR I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM ROCKING BACK, DOING 3 STEPPERS AND STUFF BUT WHEN I GET ON MY FULL RUNS I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF A PROBLEM GETTING ALL THE WAY BACK SO JUST THROW SO TIPS OUT THERE PLEASE

I find that it's good to keep your neck really still and try to be able to look behing yourself at the runway when you swing. also, shooting your hips up and keeping your legs close to the pole will get a better swing. Another thing is when you swing up, let yourbottom arm pass on the inside of the pole. this will help you rock back by not having your swing stop by the pole hitting yoru armpit. that's all i can think of. hope it helps

don't know if you always use a bungee or a crossbar when doing your full approach jumps, but I usually don't let mt kids jump at a bar in practice too often. Its amazing how much your vault changes when there is a bar up. Even when we have a bar up, i tell my kids to pretend its not there.

ashcraftpv wrote:...Its amazing how much your vault changes when there is a bar up. Even when we have a bar up, i tell my kids to pretend its not there.

I've heard this a lot, and it still doesn't make sense to me. If your vault changes with a bar up, why would you practice without a bar? Are you going to some special meet that doesn't use bars? It seems like practicing without a bar wouldn't help you vault better becuase if you can't replicate whatever you are practicing in a meet situation- then what good is it doing you?

I'm confused, could someone explain this? Thanks

vaulting with a bar at practice is annoying because

A.) if you knock it off you're going to have to get back up and set the bar again and if you're jumping over heights of 10 ft it is hard work to get the bar back up

B.) bungey developes a bit of muscle memory, kids tend to be afraid of bars because they tend to hurt more than bungeys, also shooting up for the bungey is good practice

C.) bungeys are cheaper than bars so if you break a bungey during practice you can always just tie it together again

You can strengthen the muscles that do the rockback action by doing the drills on http://www.advantageathletics.com/polev ... kback.html

Peepers PV wrote:I've heard this a lot, and it still doesn't make sense to me. If your vault changes with a bar up, why would you practice without a bar? Are you going to some special meet that doesn't use bars? It seems like practicing without a bar wouldn't help you vault better becuase if you can't replicate whatever you are practicing in a meet situation- then what good is it doing you?

I'm confused, could someone explain this? Thanks

because beginners usually tend to try to just jump the bar and not complete a full vault. It gives them a visual point to jump to, so they tend to poke their feet at the bar or drop their feet and flag out over the bungie. I feel that the vault can best be learned by kids without that visual point of reference,

That all makes sense, and we used to use some bungee, but what it comes down to is that come meet time, a bar will be up. I figure you might at well take some jumps at it to be able to forget about it during the meets.

I made 16-6 PR, because I practiced with a bar the whole week before even just jumping at 15-6 at one of the practices to see how many times i could jump it, in a row, and then just until i got tired. It helps, I dislike practice with a bungee because i find that it does very little and makes you lazy going over the bar.

I've studied on this quite a bit. The most well-respected elite coach in this country told me you should practice with the bar 100% of the time, because you don't learn how to negotiate a bar if you practice with a bungee. IMO, bungees make you sloppy and lazy - people always say "I cleared such and such" when their meet pr is like 3 feet lower. It's easy to stick your toe over the thing and call it a make, but it doesn't make you good at clearing bars. I DO use high bungees like 3' higher than the bar we're trying to clear to give my vaulters a target to drive their heels up to and get them to line up and go up the pole better, and it can work very well. Bars are a pain to put up - it takes a whopping 10 seconds if you have a decent bar-jack, and yes, they do break if you land on them, particularly if you land on your feet on them, which you should never do anyway. You can fix broken crossbars for practice purposes though. My 2 cents.

KA

i like the way that Lonestar put it and if you are afraid of jumping with a bar up then this probably isn't the sport for you.

Also on the reason that bars are hard to keep putting up...If you do it it more you get better at it. OR I gives you incentive to not hit it, but this does not mean bail out because you know your going to miss it. You should finish any jump you can