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Can anyone give me some advice? I have a vaulter who is consistantly jumping 14'6 and has a lot of room for improvement, but his pole is unbending too fast. Because of this he dosent have time to get positioned correctly to shoot, pull, and turn. He has a decent takeoff, but it could be better. He loads the pole well and lands in the middle of the mats, vaulting at standards 22-25in. He is about 6'2 and 175lbs vaulting on a 15' 190 (flex 14.3). Any help would be appreciated.

hold the plant longer. Sounds like he is inverting too quickly or not holding on long enough, or both. Its probibly no the pole, i think its the vaulter...

he should hold his plant longer before inverting...he needs a nice, long swing with a good trail/drive leg...and he needs to hold on longer while he is inverted...

do you have videos of some vaults? It might be easier for someone to help if we see it.

I have to disagree with that last post. If the pole is unbending to sson that means the vaulter is not keeping constant pressure on the pole which means they are probably being passive in some phase. It is my belief that holding your plant would be a passive action. Most elite vaulters you see who look like they hold their plant are really being active through the takeoff with their trail leg and once they cant create any more force through their takeoff then they begin to swing. On a pole that big you cant be passive at any phase or you will not "catch it".... One question can the vaulter raise his grip any?

Would moving to a longer pole help this? We have a 15'7 190 flex 18.0 available.

Have you tried having him vault with his standards all the way back?

No, not on his competition poles. He vaults with standards all the way back on his short run pole. Would moving the standards all the way back on his big pole make him load the pole more during phase II and help with the pole not moving to verticle to quickly.

Well, I believe in vaulting with the standards all the way back. I feel if you move the pole correctly this is the best place for them when you max out the pole.

I agree with that last post. I experimented with moving my standards at 26-28 from the usual 20-24 and I was getting a much more complete action with my pull. With the standards too close I was ready to clear the bar when I still had energy in the pole.

He is swinging too slow and is staying behind the pole too long, which is making him fight to catch-up on top.

He is about 6'2 and 175lbs

I don't know, but I think you should send him to Arkansas for a season or two and maybe we can get this thing figured out!

Really though, it sounds like he's swinging well but not pulling in time to connect with the recoil of the pole. That's just my mental image from the info you gave. If he pulls soon enough, you won't have to put those standards all the way back. Without seeing a clip of him jump, it's hard to give a good analysis.

Often when im jumping, if you dont swing hard on the pole and invert all the way, it will just recoil shooting me at whatever angle my legs are at. Have him do a ton of pop ups without closing off, just work on swinging hard and fast and landing on your shoulders in the pit. Then when you go to your run have him swing back that far and that fast, it will load the pole a little more, hopefully just enough to send him up and not too much out. Just a thought, thats whats been helping me recently with the same problem. good luck!

By your first comment, I would look at the takeoff and last three contacts. Is he slowing down those three steps, is he reaching for his plant, is he slightly inside, is he running through the plant, and/or are his hands not getting up all the way. My guess it is either one of these (or a combination) that is allowing him to swing up fast enough, but not put all the pressure/ force into the pole so he can maximize the spring/ recoil action when he is inverted. His head my also be looking at his feet which will make it harder to get inverted.
It maybe something in his top end, but it is typically something done in the beginning that will cause problems later on.