PoleVaultPower.com

Im lookin to start a discussion on this topic, its a major problem ive faced and am working to fix, looking to see if anyone of you guys with extensive resources have any specific articles on the topic:

today my coach pointed out a problem of my vault that in retrospect makes so much sense and i am angry that i have done it for so long, a large part due to an old coach of mine. my old coach used to say "get upside down right off the ground." I used to do that, and then I would wait forever upside down (i was also on soft poles.) what he explained i do is instead of jumping up, looking up, and keeping a big split (driving knee with trail leg back), as soon as i leave the ground, i look down for a bit, swing my trail leg right a way, causing a 'pivot / lever effect' that starts from my hips. instead of keeping a 'long swing', this would shorten it, making complete inversion much more difficult, as i would have to transition from my hips being the fulcrum to my shoulders being 'the fulcrum.' this would force me to muscle my way upside down which led to me having a hard time staying tight upside down with the pole and 'flagging' off of it. granted, a good vault will not be with a complete straight body; to me it seems you can describe it as a form of pike upside down from which you also kick up a little bit when pulling up the pole after getting inverted.

thoughts or articles?

There are great PV articles being put up on the USA PVEI website. Here are a couple that discuss the swing:

The Switch Point by Alan Roark
http://www.pvei.com/index.php?pagename= ... -roark.php

“Maximizing Energy in the Pole Vaultâ€Â

dude, don't complicate it..
run fast, then perfect plant: which simply,
is the very instant your foot leaves the ground would this happen,
pole disappears from hand, would you land on your feet or on your a**.. from what i've seen 99%+ would land on their a**.. even some elites don't have this down.. are the hips and shoulders perpendicular to the ground at that instant with the left arm bicep at your forhead, nice big reverse "C".. (gotta to be to the right of the vaulter, otherwise it's a "C") anyways.. what all this is about, is the top is just a natural extension to what happens off the ground.. hell, if you take off right, then it's just letting yourself swing.. most people force the swing.. hence: crap vaulting.. foot leaves the ground.. let it swing.. yay!! no more crap vaulting

hmm...didnt really seem to understand you much. the few instances after you take off there should be a strong effort to hold that C- keeping trail leg back while pushing up in order to continue to load the pole. if i let the swing come 'naturally' after what comes off the ground, the initial contact of the plant and the rapid deceleration of my top hand would cause the bottom part (my legs) to come off the ground and swing up. what ive been workin on at practice is holding this tall plant with big split longer. a conscious effort needs to be made to promote a strong plant with good plant, with a powerful motivated swing as well as strong down pressure. if a swing was easy as letting it 'come naturally' the difficulty of the polevault would be a whole different ball game.

that's just it.. it is easy when you understand the timing.. i can completetly invert and jump several feet over grip without much effort off the ground.. that's the beauty of the vault.. something will seem so difficult for so long.. then all of the sudden, you figure out the timing, or your figure out positioning, and all of the sudden... you're gripping higher on a stiffer pole PRing by feet instead of inches.. well.. untill you get to that level where inches make you dominate.. but, again.. i would still believe that you are inhibiting your swing

anything is easy once you understand it. well not necessarily anything but most things. diving, math, butterfly stroke among other things... the vault is easy to understand on paper, makes perfect sense. the hard part is translating it to real life which is why it takes years to learn. i understand the concept of the swing fine, im workin on changing my 'muscle memory' among other things.