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iv been vaulting for 2 years now, and am a soph,. i really started gettin serious bout it after frosh year, and work super hard to get better, weight-lift, run, do tons and tons of drills, and vault several hours a week w/ my coach. but it seems no matter how hard i work, im not gettin any better. im still only jumping like 9-6, 10', but iv been wormin my a** off for 2 years. its just doesnt seem to b doin nething, eventhough i know if you work hard u can get good, but im not. what am i missin that cud keep me from getting mich higher?? im just gettin real sick of this. did neone else ever go through this, and how did you get urself good?? anny help at all would be appreciated, cause i really want to be jumpin high next year.

Thanx~~

what are you having trouble with? if you can, have someone tape you vault, and look over it every 10 min. see what youre doing wrong and before your next vault, try to correct your mistake. take it one mistake at a time. you cant really correct ALL your mistakes at once , and be patient.

well, i can do everthing great in drill sna all, but when i try to put everything together, it just doesnt work out. i guess my biggese problem thats keepin me at like 10 rather than 13 or whatever, is that i dont get inverted or get my hips up. a few weeks ago at my last meet, my grip was at 12-0, and i jumped 9'. that shud give u a pretty good idea. but yet when i do drills and stuff, i can get perfectly inverted, it just wont all come togeether.....

i definitly feel your pain here! i'm a soph (almost a junior) and i am even worse. i understand what i need to do and i can do it in drills but when it comes to vaulting time i just can't seem to peice it all together. i'm holding ten on a 13'6 pole (im healing an injury so not enough speed to hold higher) and i'm only clearing 8'6 max. this is my second year and i haven't improved one bit. i'm just saying that you are not the only one who is working hard with no results.

well, id better start to improve soon neways. im gettin a real coach this summer, the best coach in my state, so well c what happens. neways, form-wise, holdin 10 and goin 8-6 isnt close to as bad as holdin 12 and goin 9-6. i need to get on a higher pole too, since the 12' one im on is way way over my weight, which i cant do until i fix my form ebuff to b jumpin at least my handgrip.

Who might this coach be?? and who's he coach for??

"Time to Break it Down for the Youngsters"
-Curtis Blow

First off let me tell you I feel your pain. As a kid, I jumped every day for 3 years (I'm talkin' 365 days a year ) and cleared 9'6". Then one day I accidentally figured a few things out and jumped 12'. A year after that I stumbled over 15' for the first time.

Secondly, I now know that most of my frustration could have been avoided with a little bit of coaching (I did not have that luxury). As a coach the first thing I will advise anyone struggling with technique is to shorten the run and drop the grip until you can vault efficiently. What does that mean? Here is the drill:

1. Drop your grip to 10' and bring your run in to 4 steps. Jump from that run and grip until you can clear 7'. If you have a hard time getting into the pit, take the bar down and just practice planting down the middle and supporting your weight on the pole. If you can get into the pit, but can't clear 7', then concentrate on a high plant and hard trail leg swing until you can consistently clear 7'.

2. Raise your grip 3" and the bar 6". Go through the same process as in step 1.

3. Back up your run to 6 steps. Raise your grip to 10'6 and the bar to 8'. Go through the same process as in steps 1 and 2 raising your grip 3" at a time and moving your run back 2 steps every time you raise your grip 6". This should put you running 8 steps gripping 11' bar height 9', 10 steps gripping 11'6 bar height 10', 12 steps gripping 12' bar height 11', and 14 steps gripping 12'6 bar height 12'.

4. Stay with a 14 step run and keep working your way through poles raising your grip. For every 3" you raise your grip, you should be able to jump 6" higher.

That is the basic procedure. The starting grip and bar height can be adjusted for very young vaulters (ie grip 8'6 bar height 4'), but the rest of the drill is the same. Work the grip up and run back while maintaining efficient technique.

Good luck!

Barto.

My coach is gonna be Oran Mitchell. i think hes a great coach, and ill b working w/ him. I dunt think he coaches "for" nebody. he has his own club and camps this summer, which im joining. PM me if u wanna know anything else