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My coach says that I need to work on having a high plant and jumping up instead of out at take off. What drills can I do besides box plants that can help me fix this problem?

Try grass vaulting.

Jump in a sand pit from 6 steps -keep moving you grip up until you almost stall - then try to take off up through the pole even stronger - then move your grip up a finger and repeat 10,100 times.

Barefoot wrote:Try grass vaulting.

grass vaulting worked well for me. just do 5-10 min of grass vaulting drills before each vault practice

Yeah. Grass vaulting while inching my top hand up each time helped a ton. And also as a future reference. Practicing the run with a heavy foam pit from the vaulting pit instead of the sliding box helped too.

my coach called grass vaulting "jump plants" for a reason.. they help

It's all in my pocket guid to pole vaulting.

Rick Baggett
WSTC

Jumping up at take off is more about having the proper body position at take then trying to jump up at take off. If you try to jump up at take off then there is a good chance you will over stride and sink into the last stride actually jumping in instead of up. Sand vaulting is good because there is no need to have your step at a certain place and therefor you are less likely to over-stride. The idea for the last step is to put the last foot down as quick as possible and try to make it to where you go straight up instead of traveling forward. Without a pole I like to take one step and jump up forcing myself to land in the same place I took off from I then progress to do this same thing from 1,2, and three lefts trying to land in the same spot I took off from when running full speed. What I have noticed is when thinking of it this way I a natural penultimate step happens, and not only my vault look better but my long jump has increased as well. The take off is all about how fast you can put your feet down and what position your body is in when you leave the ground.
--Kasey