PoleVaultPower.com

This man's jumps look so effortless! Expect to see big things this year! Very impressive!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baq5NNes7nU

Scott..
I agree. I think he has one of the fastest and most confident runs I've seen in a long, long time. Of course I haven't seen Hooker. For his smaller frame and relatively flat take-off angle, he is freaking bringing the heat and his pole ratio looks quite large......and from 10 lefts might I add. I would like to know his runway velocity. It reminds me of Scott Huffman, probably in the 9.8 to 9.9 m/s range. No doubt about it. He looks pretty stong and stayed really tight when those poles came uncorked. Really strong looking core. I wouldn't be suprised to see him go 5.90m soon. Nice vaulting. Good to see my man Brad Holtz make the big boy video with his double PR day.

Yes, I agree, i looked up some stats on him and according to EAA he is.

22 years old
176cm - about 5'8"
69kg - 152 lbs

Though i will say that as far as getting ripped off the ground, he does hit the positions well and moves the pole right off the ground. not as bad as it could be. Taking off at 15 on a what im assuming 5 meter pole is pretty incredible for a guy his size. I might be in more awww than most but to me it was AWESOME! He had close to a foot and a half easy on 18!

yeah I guess I miss spoke about getting "ripped". His step was surely waaay out there at 14'6 or 15 almost every jump. He just didn't seem to be changing his angle much @ take-off. Kind of flat I guess. But hey....a bunch of the top guys are vaulting that way now it seems.

tennpolevault wrote:yeah I guess I miss spoke about getting "ripped". His step was surely waaay out there at 14'6 or 15 almost every jump. He just didn't seem to be changing his angle much @ take-off. Kind of flat I guess. But hey....a bunch of the top guys are vaulting that way now it seems.

Shorter athletes will always appear to have a lower takeoff angle - even the ones taking off outside 14'.

always? I would disagree.

Okay, I'll bite. Name me a guy under 5'9" who jumped over 5.70 and didn't "appear" to have a low takeoff angle.

Denys Yurchenko.
1.75m
5.85m.

Yurchenko is more like 177 or 178, but that is short enough for discussion sake. And yes, I would say that his angle "appears" relatively low compared to other athletes who are in the 185+ category. Shorter guys appear flat even when they have a great takeoff.

Barto wrote:Yurchenko is more like 177 or 178, but that is short enough for discussion sake. And yes, I would say that his angle "appears" relatively low compared to other athletes who are in the 185+ category. Shorter guys appear flat even when they have a great takeoff.

I'm not taking sides here, I'm just confirming his stature from a fairly reliable site: http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/yu/denys-yurchenko-1.html

Denys Yurchenko
Full name: Denys Serhiyovych Yurchenko
Original name: Денис Сергійович Юрченко
Gender: Male
Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Born: January 27, 1978 in Donetsk, Donetsk, Ukraine
Affiliations: Dynamo Donetsk
Country: Ukraine
Sport: Athletics

And from a slightly LESS reliable source ("Who's Who in Pole Vaulting III"), his stats are:

YURCHENKO, DENIS. (UKR). Born: 27.01.1978. 1.73m. 70 kgs.

Although published in 2005, there's a possibility that the WWPV3 stats date back to when Yurchenko was a teenager.

Kirk

http://www.stabhoch.com/pages/20030828_ ... o_570.html

He looked pretty good at the 2003 world champs. I guess a flat take-off is all in the eye of the beholder. I personally would never tell my 5'9" vaulter that he is doomed to have a flat and low take-off. As far as "appearance", I guess we could never agree on such a subjective variable. Each individuals depth of experience and personal beliefs about the vault will influence they're opinion. I would agree that basic triangular geometry probably leads to a lower angular vector if the person is shorter and the step is farther out..........but I have seen guys who came off of the ground nice and clean and were shorter. Most of them probably were not 5.70 vaulters though.

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympic ... ukh-1.html

averbukh, is just an inch taller at 5'10"/178cm and i would never say he has a flat looking take off.

http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20020810 ... kh_580.mov