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I have a first year girl vaulter who rotates very badly after take off. Im talking 180 degrees when she inverts. When watching her from all angles it seems her trail leg sweeps right after she jumps. Her plant form and jumping form is very good except for the fact that she rotates around her pole. Any help in fixing this would be much appreciated.

I've observed that almost all of my first year kids that have that problem are pulling with their top arm because they feel like it makes them go higher....

bottom arm is probably locked or at least she is pushing with it.

try lowering her grip just maybe two to four fingers

ooh, and i forgot, make sure that when the lower arm collapses that it is coming inside of the pole like it is supposed to, not going outside (my coach reffers to this as chicken-winging)

When my kids do that, I try to get them to focus on their palms facing the back of the pit until the vault is over.

+1 on the pulling with top hand.

Man, when I stiff pole I do that, but bending I'm getting better at not doing it...

how about her speed? whenever im slower i tend to spin

i think that she may be pulling with her top arm. Her bottom arm collapses very nicely. She can get inverted smoothly and quickly and her front arm does go to the inside of the pole. Funny thing is that when she didnt get it on the inside, or "chicken winged" she wouldnt rotate as much but she couldnt get all the way inverted.

The kind of rotation that you have described can happen for a number of reasons. It is a tough fault to correct because it can happen after a seemingly good takeoff. One of the keys to fixing this is to look at her shoulders. Are they square with the back of the box? Are they level? Planting with one shoulder higher than or ahead of the other will usually lead to twisting.

If this is the case, try doing some drills with a very low grip just stiff poling into the pit. You will probably find that even from a few steps she is still twisting. Work on leveling her shoulders and squaring her up. Emphasize driving her lead knee up and her trail leg back. This helps with balance. When she can land in the pit on her rear with her feet facing directly toward the back of the pit she will be on the way to being cured.

Hope this helps. This problem has driven me insane more than once, and there are causes that these suggestions will not help.

do you have a video?