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I have a habit of collapsing my arms ,anyone else have it?

If you have any tips or workout, anything at all, please post it need help bad.

just think about that only even if you cant finish the jump if you do it enough it will become natural then u could finish it after you get that

try to focus on pushing with your bottom arm and pulling with your top arm as you begin your jump. it will help keep your arm straight

Never, never, ever, ever pull down with your top arm. This only decreases your pole ground angle and will completely hinder every aspect of your jump after that. One of the main goals in PV is to roll the pole into the pit. Pulling down with the top arm will only give yourself shorter levers with which to achieve this goal along with killing your takeoff and overall penetration into the pit. To think about it another way, where is your goal and why would you want to produce motion that would counter act getting to your goal. If getting over the bar is your goal then you should do everything in your power to jump up, be as tall as possible at takeoff, plant high and swing long and straight. Any motion that is going in the opposite direction will seriously reduce the amount of energy you are able to input into the Pole. Not too mention possibly breaking a lot of poles.

Instead work on being as tall as possible at takeoff and jump the pole up with your arms extended above your head. This will also mean that you will need to monitor your takeoff foot. Most likely you are inside if you are having problems being tall and finishing the takeoff with extended arms. Work on developing your takeoff and many things will fix themselves.

when you plant if you do pull it down...pull it foward and try to get it to your right quad

The vault goes up, so what do you think you do with your right (top) hand?

Plant early and jump up with a tense body, also make sure you are not under.

Heres what my coach had me do - I can now keep my arms straight, I'm just scared to collapsse and invert now!

Anyways...Do like a 3, 4, or 5 step (nothign big) and just hold pretty low on the pole, like where you would practice inverts. Anyways, basically, just go to the pit, and keep your arms out. If you can keep them straight, move up 2 inches, and repeat. Do this until you need more speed, then move up a step...

And somewhere in there learn to time when you need to collapse the arm. Right now, I basically need to focus on knowing when to collapse...and get it on the inside, not on the outside of the pole.

Ming3, Pyro and jaxvaulter, you guys haven't gotten the book yet have you? Beginner to Bubka pretty much in the first chapter or two explains exactly what to do and how to do it to fix about every problem you have. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards. I have just completed Jan Johnson's Pole Vault Safety Cerification course and in it he has drills which promote good technique. These are designed to show a person who has never had a pole in their hands how to vault correctly. I've got 13 years of vaulting under my belt in my 54 years of being on this planet and I can tell you this, when I get to the point where I can practice regularly (it's still below freezing most days up here in Minnesota) I'm going right back to square one and do all of those exercises and re-learn this event if I have to. The stuff is all out there. So much is right here in this forum in fact that you can search and find. Study this and find your own answers first. Then ask the members here for verification. Don't get me wrong, the only dumb question is the one that was never asked so we're always here for all of you. Later.....Mike

jaxvaulter wrote:try to focus on pushing with your bottom arm and pulling with your top arm as you begin your jump. it will help keep your arm straight

As a wise person once said 'opinions are like - well noses - everyone has got one'. Problem is, the opinion captured in the quote above could kill you and anyone else who tries to vault that way.

I know there are not enough good coaches to go around the thousands of folk who want to jump higher in this country but there are oodles of DVDs and even books which can provide a better idea of how to vault than opinions of the kind quoted above. Sorry to hammer you jaxvaulter but this little bit of criticism here might just help save your life, IF you take it on board in your own vaulting!

listen to these guys who tell you in long paragraphs, they have been around longer and have read all thats out there.

none taken. thats how i learned to jump so that is probably why i can't clear 14' but i will do what i can to learn from everything that is on here and become a better vaulter