PoleVaultPower.com

hey board! im a junior and this coming spring will be my second season pole vaulting. last year was rather unsuccessful and frustrating and id really like to have a good season this year. basically my problem is b/c im so muscular, i weigh a lot and since i weigh a lot i have to use a bigger pole (i jumped on a 150 last year). the bigger poles are harder to bend and even though my legs are really strong i dont have as much upper body strength and i had a really hard time getting my pole to bend and b/c the pole wasnt bending i had no time to swing my legs up and turn and all that, since the bend is what buys you air time. so basically i would plant and have a very minimal amount of time to pull my legs up, get to vertical, and turn to go over the bar so i usually ended up crashing into the bar b/c i hadnt gotten my legs all the way up or i would go over kind of sideways w/ horrible form.
i guess im wonder what are some things i can do to help me a) bend my pole and b) get my legs up quicker
i know lifting and building upper body strength will help + core work so i have strong abs to pull my legs up...anything else?
thanks!

Go to advantageathletics.com and look at some of their drills that they have listed. The rope swing and the "Bubka" drills should help you with getting your hips up.

ur post reminds me how i felt from march through may. never get frustrated. frustration does nothing and only causes distress. what did u height?

More bend in pole= speed at takeoff+takeoff effeciency. And you dont want to swing your legs up faster you want to leave them back long as possible so the pole will move more + creating a faster swing through the middle....

KYLE ELLIS wrote:More bend in pole= speed at takeoff+takeoff effeciency. And you dont want to swing your legs up faster you want to leave them back long as possible so the pole will move more + creating a faster swing through the middle....

you also don't want the hips to swing too early too. keep your shoulders and hips in a vertical line coming off the ground http://www.stabhoch.com/bildserien/2004 ... dreihe.htm
see how far tim mack goes in before his hips pass his shoulders. he lifts his trail foot up bending at the knee to help him do this. he then drives his foot down to reach full extension of the body from top hand to his trail leg foot. this is how to swing fast...very fast. tim mack had the fastest swing at the olympic games according to research by dave johnston.

rundpxc06 wrote:hey board! im a junior and this coming spring will be my second season pole vaulting. last year was rather unsuccessful and frustrating and id really like to have a good season this year. basically my problem is b/c im so muscular, i weigh a lot and since i weigh a lot i have to use a bigger pole (i jumped on a 150 last year). the bigger poles are harder to bend and even though my legs are really strong i dont have as much upper body strength and i had a really hard time getting my pole to bend and b/c the pole wasnt bending i had no time to swing my legs up and turn and all that, since the bend is what buys you air time.

I see questions similar to yours frequently. I want to address some concepts you stated. If you learn that bending the pole is the RESULT of good technique, you will focus on learning technique and not bending the pole. As your technique improves you WILL start to bend the pole. Asking how to bend the pole is kind of like putting the cart before the horse. Also if you have good technique you don't need alot of strength and you'll need to use pole well above you're body wieght.

rundpxc06 wrote: so basically i would plant and have a very minimal amount of time to pull my legs up, get to vertical, and turn to go over the bar so i usually ended up crashing into the bar b/c i hadnt gotten my legs all the way up or i would go over kind of sideways w/ horrible form.

The drills already mentioned are great. The bread and butter drill for my begining vaulters is the pop up. I'm sure advantage athletics also has this drill on thier site. This drill helps you put the fundemntal skill together. The first thing I notice is you talk about pulling your legs up. The pop up will help you learn to swing your trail leg through not pull it up. It will also help to teach you how to jump of the ground with a high plant which is what really will ultimately lead to a bending the pole.

The other mis-conception I see is that bending the pole gives you more time to swing up. If you have more time to swing up on a bent pole you are bending the pole from improper technique and may cause pole breakage as a result. A vaulter that is bending the pole may have more time to swing b/c the improved technique allows him/her to hold higher therfore having more pole to move. But again it isn't because of bending the pole it because of better technique.

rundpxc06 wrote: i guess im wonder what are some things i can do to help me a) bend my pole and b) get my legs up quicker
i know lifting and building upper body strength will help + core work so i have strong abs to pull my legs up...anything else?
thanks!

here are some links to the pop up:

http://www.advantageathletics.com/polevault/popup.html


http://www.coacheseducation.com/polevault/john_mahr_apr_01.htm

http://www.texastrack.com/pole_vaulting_article.htm

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS REPLIED!!! everything being said is helpful and very encouraging to hear!
keep the suggestions coming please! ...happy vaulting!

I agree..technique is everything. I have been working my butt off with getting good technique and boy has it paid off. I've had a 2 feet pr within the past month :-)

I know that you're not supposed to vault on poles under your weight, but I had the same problem that you do. I weigh about 160, give or take 5 depending on the day (I'm not fat, just tall and kinda muscular )

Any way, this summer when I was learning how to bend, my coach put me on a 13' 115 holding at about 12'. When I could bend it, I moved on to a 125 (there wasn't a 120 available) and by the end of the summer I was able to bend a 13' 130 holding at the end.
I wasn't near breaking the pole and my coach knew my capabilities, so there wasn't a chance of injury due to the pole breaking.

I would not recommend doing this without supervision and before consulting a good coach because of the possibilty of breaking the pole.

As a backup for everyone that said technique is important, it is, and my coach thought that I could do that before I began to bend. I had to stiff pole until I learned to swing and turn and everything, which was frustrating, but helpful.

I'm also a girl, if that makes a difference
Sorry for it being so long . . .

i_heart_pv wrote:I've had a 2 feet pr within the past month

wow! thats awesome, its amazing how like learning one thing in your technique can make such major differences in your vault.

thank you for your feedback bball_luvr!! yeah there were a few practices when my coach let us jump on poles under our weight just so we could feel what its like to bend the pole, it was fun! CONGRATS ON YOUR PR!!! and i agree, im waiting to find that one thing thats holding back my vaulting....good luck! keep clearing those heights!