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Last week at our conference meet, I got inverted on my first few vaults. Like I know I was because I felt the pole shoot me straight up (something I'm not used to). My coach always tells me that once you get inverted, you dont really forget how to get in that position. All of last week I havne't gotten upside down again yet. Any ideas on what I'd be doing wrong or did my coach just give me some bad info?

I wouldn't say your coach gave you bad advice, but it doesn't seem to suit you. Whenever you have a problem reproducing, go back to the basics. think what you were doing even as far as a month ago to work learning to invert. go back through all the steps and you ight find you forgot a part. Also, you don't have the same pressure and energy level in pratice as you do in a meet, so keep that in mind

OK sounds good. The only part that upset me is that I wasn't thinking about doing something specific during my vaults. it just happened..haha

That's omething I used to do alot. I would think way too much and it would screw up my vault. Just let it flow, trust me it works!

DONT THINK. JUST DO IT! (thats what i always try to remember b4 i jump)

This may sound like vault blasphemy, but why do you want to get inverted?

I would offer that it is much more important to concentrate on swinging than trying to perform some sort of gymnastic gyration and get "upside down". Most people who get inverted do so at the expense of keeping preasure against the pole - not a good trade off.

Don't try to get inverted, just swing up. When you do that well, you will be as inverted as you need to be.

Very seldom is it a good idea to go straight up on a pole. Swing up, rotate around the top hand and release up and out over the bar. That is what happens when real people vault. If you are not jumping 17' plus, then you are probably coming off the pole at a 30 degree+ angle. Hardly vertical.

Concentrate on the basics, getting inverted is not one of them.

Barto.

Um...why not get inverted? Getting inverted would make everything much easier for me. I'm not talking like exactly hugging the pole, just generally near it where i could feel some force pushing me up. a swing up and pike just doesn't do it. I could probably go 13'6 or 14 on a 15' pole w/o inverting, but if i shot straight up, it could be a lot higher.

Its all about how you get there...............if the only thing your worried about is looks...........then just get inverted, the reality is you get there by swinging not just getting there by any means. The point is technique. There are lots of ways to get inverted, not all of them are good or productive to your vault..............if you want to jump high you get inverted by swinging so you keep down pressure on a big pole so it throws you real high. I you only focus on getting inverted (not how you get there) then you could run into trouble.............

Make note of any changes you have made.

Areas to look at are:
1. Did your handgrip go up? This could change the timing of the pole swing.
2. Did you lengthen the run? This would rush the vault if you had increased the run momentum and not the grip or a stiffer pole.
3. Has your confidence level gone up? With more confidence you may need to move to a stiffer pole.
4. Is the box at the meets deeper or shallower?
5. Was there a tail wind and now there is none? This would create changes also.
6. Think back this will help you to piece together what change you might need to reverse to get the swing back into your vault!!!

Good Luck