increase runway speed?

[zachwinters156]

I have been taking vaulting pretty seriously since June of last year and have improved from 10' 6" to 13' in that time. Right now im working on a 14' 150, weighing about 145. Im still gripping about a handhold down and feel like i can get on heavier 14s just by moving my grip up. Im not worried about this though. I've been trying to get to the point where i can move onto larger poles because i dont feel like i could clear more than 14' on a 14' pole. I am a fairly athletic person and feel like i can still be faster at takeoff but im worried that ill be too slow to move up to 15' poles. Any tips on how to get faster, in general, and how to translate that to the runway?

zach
I have videos on youtube if that helps.
http://www.youtube.com/user/zw5101?feature=mhum

[VaultPurple]

You look as if you are in the phase of your learning where you are catching on fast and are pretty athletic but you are still not 100% comfortable with running your full speed with a pole in your hand. But your run seems pretty controlled. One think I like to do when someone starts to get jumping higher and wants to move onto bigger poles is, instead of teaching them to run their max controlled speed, teach them to control their max speed.

One way to fix this (a lot easier if you have a bunch of poles, but doable without them). Start at 3 lefts and sprint as fast as you can and jump like you are long jumping and try and land as far back in the pit as possible. Keep moving your grip up with 3 lefts until you can not go any higher (don't land in the box or anything, just like the front of the coaches box). Once you have maxed out 3 lefts, move back to 4 and do the same thing where you are sprinting as fast as fast as you can. Then 5, 6, 7. We usually do this over a few week period, but you can use it at the start of practice or something since it is later in the season. But the Idea is to get used to running full speed from 3, then 4, 5, 6, 7 ect.. This way you will max out each grip. After they max out the 3 left run, I find most people move up about 6 inches in grip, per step they move back until about 6 lefts where it will be a little less.

Just make sure to still concentrate on high knees and really striking the ground with good form, but really aggressive and making sure to really be aggressive and get your feet moving fast up and down over the last 2 or 3 lefts (mainly when u move back to 5+).

I have been doing this with a group of guys and girls for about 4 weeks now and we are still only on 5 lefts, but almost all of them are gripping from 5 what they used to grip from 7 or 8.

[rainbowgirl28]

You should definitely be jumping at LEAST 14' on a 14' pole before you even think about going to a longer one. I would say aim to be on at least a 14'160-170 before going longer. When it is time to go longer, I strongly recommend going to 14'6 poles first if at all possible. It's a big jump from 14' to 15' poles.

[zachwinters156]

You should definitely be jumping at LEAST 14' on a 14' pole before you even think about going to a longer one. I would say aim to be on at least a 14'160-170 before going longer. When it is time to go longer, I strongly recommend going to 14'6 poles first if at all possible. It's a big jump from 14' to 15' poles.

Ive been told jumping from a 14' to a 15' is a huge gap from numerous coaches and that makes sense to me, but unfortunately my coach buys poles only 1 foot incriments(13',14',15' etc.) so he has all the poles id need, but only 14's or 15's which is a huge loss. I've been trying to get around to asking my school coach to see if we have any 14' 6"s in our district so if we thatd be great. Either way i was planning to be jumping on at least a 14' 160 before moving up because what i did to move from 13's to 14's i went from a 13' 165 to a 14' 145 holding in the same spot on both. This worked for me but hopefully i can maybe use some of the techniques in the post above to maximize my grip to maybe get on heavier poles than that.

[rainbowgirl28]

Yeah if you can't get your hands on any 14'6 poles, it's that much more important that you get on as stiff of a 14' pole as possible before moving up. Don't rush things! You've been improving rapidly, and are doing a lot of really good stuff, but remember that the rate of improvement will slow down as you get better.

[zachwinters156]

yeah unfortunately i've found that out. ill keep workin on it and see if i can find some 14 6s. thanks for the help.
zach

[Todd Haire]

I am pretty sure there is an article on the Neovault website where Dean Starkey reccomends pole runs be done on the track at maximum speed. You should check it out.
One of our local sprint gurus,(now deceased) would swear by sprinting up hills and steps to develope his speed; low 10s for
100m.
You should also become familiar with Jan Johnson's relative pole stiffness chart. Skyjumpers.com