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I'm a Junior Vaulter and my Highest vault is 10'3" and this is my second year
my coach says that i lock my lower arm and i don't get my swing in and i know it all the time but i don't know how to keep my lower arm from locking so i can pull it towards my body. what can i do to make it so i pull my arm in?
when i vaulted the 10' i was sitting over the bar so i know that i can go much further.

Im assuming that you lock your bottom arm out in an attempt to bend the pole and get into the pit (correct me if im wrong in this assumption). Instead of pushing out with the bottom arm towards the pit, concentrate on pushing up with both hands at the takeoff. This will not only solve your problem of blocking out, but should also allow you penetrate deeper into the pit (or get on bigger poles) by improving your takeoff position and angle.

Yes you are correct with trying to get into the pit because i have been thrown back past the mats once last week and once today

Right now i am on a 13'6" Mystic Carbon Fiber Pole and i'm hold only a foot from the top the pole is rated 140lb and I weight about 125lb but i can bend the pole much more then our 160lb PVer.

My coach Tried giving me a 14'3" pole that was much softer but i couldn't penetrate

Also i have let go of the carbon fiber twice while vaulting and both times it hit my in the knee should I be worried about serious injury if it still hurts after a week and a half?

Sounds like the main thing you need to work on right now is the plant. You have to fix things in the order which they occur in the vault or else it will be counter productive. You must plant correctly in order to give yourself a chance to start swinging.

The problem with planting is that once you get rejected by a pole it becomes a mental block. You think that you can't get on the pole, when in reality it is just that you "forget" to plant it. The best way I have found to fix this is do some stuff with a short run (4 lefts or so) on a pole that is pretty easy to bend. A 12'6 or 13' pole rated somewhere around 125 lbs. would probably good for you. Start with your grip low (you should almost be straight poling) and slowly move it up until you start to get a bend. Keep doing this until you are gripping as high as you can safely get into the pit from 4. Just focus on getting the plant as high as possible and jumping high off the ground. You should feel the bottom hand following the pole upwards as it bends. After a few of these you can gain the confidence to plant well on a bigger pole from a full run.

"Never let go of the pole because the pole is your friend" (not really sure what to say about your pain from the pole recoil, I let go of the pole once earlier this year and ended up with a bruise on my thigh that lasted about a week, but no serious injury. If it keeps hurting though you should probably get it checked out)

tyvm i'll try that tom. see if it helps

i had the same left arm problem...it seemed to be fixed by focusing on driving up through my hands, rather than forward, always putting force up until the row...then in my head, while in the air, i would say to myself swing, and id pull my arm through the pocket untill i was almost completely beyond the pole (as i was swinging) and it let me gain more penetration and a more powerful swing through to rockback

When I try to make my left arm "row" I get thrown to the back of the pit and not even go vertical but I still havn't tried to Pole vault today will ask my coach if she can video tape me and let me break it down

dont think about rowing with your left arm... the entire swinging action should revolve around your right shoulder (since your a right handed vaulter) if you concentrate on rowing with both arms, your left arm will stay locked out and prevent your shoulders from dropping

Yeah so i totally couldn't even jump today because of shin splints (sp) and my hand slipped from the pole and it flew 20 ft in the air... not hurt too bad...

so i think I'm just going to sit back for a while and watch our German exchange vaulter get his PR