What should I be doing for more explosiveness?

[DodgePoint]

Hey everyone, I'm going into my final year as a pole Vaulter in high school and I was wondering what I could do to maximize my potential. I know the run is one of the most important parts, so what can I do to become faster? Also, what could I do to work on my form throughout the winter this year? Thank you!

[treykristianPV]

I'm not a expert on creating workouts to increase speed and form but I'll tell you what helped me a lot.

First of all, Lift. Lifting is vital in getting stronger, faster, and more explosive. concentrate on lifts that relate to pole vault and also lifts that focus on explosiveness and multiple muscle group training. For example, squats, Power Clean, and Hang Clean. If you want even more add a jerk to the end of the cleans to hit even more muscles. Remember though, when it comes to lifting focus on form first, then add weight.

Second, for speed, you'll want to do A LOT of sprint work and footwork. Focus on sprinting mechanics and since we have the luxury of carry a big stick, do A LOT of pole runs. And footwork is also a big part of getting your acceleration faster, so I would focus on ladder, dot, and any drill that makes you move your feet in a fast, explosive way.

Thirdly, for form, if you have the chance to vault indoors, well of course do it! Also having a coach to watch and tell you right after each vault is going to help. To help I would focus on three step drills where I'm focusing on one part of the vault at a time. For example: The Takeoff; then put that together with a Swing, so you're hitting The Takeoff and The Swing; and then add a inversion, so the whole thing would have The Takeoff, The Swing, and The Inversion, where you are getting your hips above your head and dropping your shoulders to get upside down.

If you can't get to vault indoors, find a highbar and do a lot of swinging and inversion drills on the highbar. Also floor exercises will help to. Watch videos of professional athletes who use the form you're trying to model after and make sure you get your coach on the same page where what you're going for is what he's looking for. I recommend the Petrov/Bubka method, I believe it's the most consistent method. But find the method YOU like and want to model yourself after.

To find drills and highbar examples just YouTube them. YouTube holds a lot of drills that would benefit to help with form.

Keep us updated on your progress! Hope this helps! It helped me!
- Trey

[powerplant42]

There's good news and bad news.

Bad news - Working out, even really really hard, is not going to do that much for you within a year for your vault. EVEN IF you were hitting the take-off at 11 meters per second (which nobody does), you would probably not be able to hit over 14' or so. That's because the main problem is not speed, strength, or explosiveness.

Good news - You almost certainly can work on some common technical faults that will greatly improve your jump. I remember seeing a vid from here once of a guy who went from 9' to 14' in 6 months... it can be done! (But that is extraordinary.) Focus on the basic things.

AND, focus on the fact that this is your last year jumping in high school! That's a big motivator.

[treykristianPV]

Bad news - Working out, even really really hard, is not going to do that much for you within a year for your vault. EVEN IF you were hitting the take-off at 11 meters per second (which nobody does), you would probably not be able to hit over 14' or so. That's because the main problem is not speed, strength, or explosiveness.

I know this, but the original question asked for what should be done to increase explosiveness and get faster. Considering this, I answered while providing information about improving form on the hint that form is most crucial. I say lift and workout because it makes jumping and getting forward moment easier being faster and able to jump better.

From my past experience I can say, Yes working on form helped me incredibly, but I would not be where I am at right now without lifting and working out.
-Trey

[DodgePoint]

Thanks for the input guys! I know I will have to focus a lot on form. But I am also in decent enough shape, but as just think it's myour speed down the runway that is holding me back. Strength wise I can bunch my bodyweight 22 times, and run a 12.5 100m. Is it worth putting more time into getting stronger or getting the former down?

[treykristianPV]

Always focus on form first. Everything else I've suggested has just helped me progress into how I do today. I'm 5'7.5" tall and weigh around 150 ish and I have a max bench of 205 lbs, repped 3 times, and I can Max squat over 300 (haven't max squatted in a while but I rep out 280). I have no idea my timed 100, but 12.5 Isn't bad, but it's not amazing.

Really when I train I like be to focus on these things in order:
Form,
Sprint speed and Jumping ability,
Endurance and lifting.

My practices take up to 3-4 hours sometimes. Here is my breakdown of those 3-4 hours in order of the list above. Now I'm giving you what I do, but not everybody is the same. Find what's comfortable for you, but also making you work at a hard effort.

Form is obvious, being crucial to the vault I work more in drills then actual full vaults on most days in practice. I normally do 3 step dills for close to an hour of the practice. Then I go and do high bar drills for 10-15 minutes, and floor exercise for another 10 minutes. After this I normally get about 5 full vaults in on jump days.

Sprint speed and jumping ability is the next part of my practice. Where I do the sprinting and jumping workout my coach has made for me that day. Taking close to 30-45 minutes of the practice. Mainly focusing on proper sprint mechanics. And for jumping ability, there is a number of things I work on to improve this ability.

Endurance and lifting I'll talk as individual things.

I haven't talked much about endurance because it's a separate type of training that your muscle go through, but at least three times a week you should try to get some endurance in. Just encase you have a really good day of jumping and you're taking 10+ jumps. I normally do the endurance part on my own and I have to find my own time to do this, normally hitting only 6-12miles a week.

Lifting is obvious to increase strength and explosiveness. I lift for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Doing the exercise the coaches have for me to do and doing more to do what I want to do. Focusing heavily on leg strength; shoulder and chest strength; and of course ALWAYS core.

This is the average practice, of course they're days where the workouts are harder, and some that are easier. You should talk with your coach (pole vault/head track coach/ whoever coaches you) about creating a workout plan that suits you and focuses on meeting your goals. From when I started doing workout plans and incorporating all of the above factors my junior year of high school I have noticed improvement in my strength, speed, form, and pole vaulting ability and mentality. Going into my sophomore year of University we'll see how it continues.

GOOD LUCK! I hope you do well this upcoming season and get what you're chasing afterwards.
- Trey

[DodgePoint]

Thank you for the in depth reply Trey! I will certainly try my best this season. I will let you know how things go when March comes around. That's when the season starts for us.