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hey, first post here...go figure.

i'm interested to see to what degree others feel that "being comfortable" plays in their jumps. for instance, i know vaulters, myself included, that can put off correcting or even ignore counter productive habits because they feel that it can take away from their pyscological comfort. in my case, "comfort" has always played a big role. after having a succesful and very productive few weeks of summer practice i just lost "it" (whatever you to call "it"). i had been working on my swing and plant from a five left run (my usual is seven) and then when i tried to move back and work these new things into my normal jump..."it" was just gone. i was out of my comfort zone and it was like when i tried to move back to seven lefts, some mental que was not going off telling me that i was ready to plant.

the mental que that i'm talking about is the one that tells you "ok, i'm about to stick this". i feel this is a very important and under discussed part of the jump. everyone kept telling me "jump, everything was right," but i just didn't feel it. as a result i didn't jump for most of two months. something had changed and my old run wasn't cutting it. so i did pole runs...alot of pole runs, and when it came time to vault again this winter i had developed a a shuffle step that helped me settle back into my comfort zone.

even though i've read about the negative affects that a shuffle can have on a vaulter's run, it's been the only way that i have felt comfortable on the run way for the past few weeks. its affect on my run has been positive (consistenly "on" take-off step, more speed, better pole drop) in my opinion because comfort it gives. do you feel that there can sometimes be a trade off like that - one in which a vaulter can keep less technically efficent habit in exchange for the psycological comfort that he/she gains?

and also, what makes you feel comfortable? are you funny about the way the pole feels in your hand, how the tape is rolled or anything like that? i know sometimes before i jump i can find my mark almost exactly by just feeling for it with my toe (within a few inches of where i know it should be, not just blindly guessing). i just want to see what everyone else thinks.

I think it all comes back to your muscle memory. The more you do a certain task, the more it becomes second nature and you begin to do it without thinking. So say you do that on small poles when you begin pole vaulting. Then you start doing things more aggressively and better, and you go up poles, or are forced to jump a different (hopefully better) way. Now, all of a sudden you are nervous about the jump. The dont feel comfortable, so your instinct is to go back to what has worked before, and trust your jumps from the past to work in the future. The biggest comfort of all- TAKING OFF UNDER. You get so comfortable, that when you raise your grip 6 inches you feel like you are under but you are truly on.

I think the only way to overcome to comfort issue is to accept the fact that every jump might not go the same, and trust the science behind what you are doing to produce good jumps. The problem is that when things go differently in a jump, a lot of people bail. Use mental preparation to imagine the change you are making in your jump.

When i need to change something in my jump, but it is pushing me out of my comfort zone, i will take the time in between practices to review what is going to change and how it is going to feel to do it the right way. Even doing that will begin to build new dendrites of muscle memory in your brain, so when you go out to the next practice you are a little more prepared (pretty cool stuff!). Then at the practice, you should be reviewing it in your mind constantly. Then from first jump to last, force yourself to do it that different way. Thats the way i try to deal with getting out of my comfort zone. I think its a pretty important thing to do almost every practice you have.

What a great answer to the question, thanks. You really broke that down well.

vault3rb0y wrote:The biggest comfort of all- TAKING OFF UNDER. You get so comfortable, that when you raise your grip 6 inches you feel like you are under but you are truly on.

???

Wouldnt raising your grip and not moving your step from being under make you more under? I agree with that it is more comfortable to take off slightly under, but I think you have it backwards...

Please explain?

Sorry i meant to say

You get so comfortable, that when you move your step back 6 inches you feel like you are outside but you are truly on.

something along those lines was what i was going for. Pretty much, you get too comfortable with being under, and any combination of holding higher is going to make you feel even more under. Even when you move your step back to make your step "On", you end up striding out to hit your comfort zone. The solution is short runs and learning to be free before the pole hits the back, and trusting the physics. Or so i hope thats the solution, otherwise im on the wrong path!

I think this is a good reason to train in the off season.

While you are competing regularly, any big changes to your technique will seem "uncomfortable". I know it was tough to get out of a bad habit when I needed to be clearing bars. There were plenty of meets where I went back to my comfort zone (pulled that favorite pole out of the bag or worse, strided out that last step) because I didn't feel confident in the new skills I had trained during the week.

Sports psychologists will tell you that it's all in your head, and they're probably right. Doesn't mean it's easy to fix. Vault3rb0y was on to something with the mental preparation. Still, it takes plenty of physical preparation too. If you are trying to make big changes to improve your vault mid season, you may seem to lose some height at a meet one week to get those dividends back at the following one. If comfort is an issue, I say tackle the big stuff in the off season and try to just steadily better your technique when bars are involved.


Oh, and what makes me comfortable: Fresh Tape that gives me a nice soft grip. No scratches on the pole, too.

Man you hit it dead on. Im realizing this first hand... that changing your comfort zone is NOT an easy thing to do after too many reps of doing it the wrong way. I am currently not allowed (by myself or my coach) to take vaults from 5 or 7 steps until i am consistently hitting a free takeoff with my 3 or 4 step approach, which is a very small run. Im two weeks into attempting to break my comfort zone, and i would say the hardest part is not doing it right ONCE... it is doing it right until you dont realize you are doing it right, and doing it enough so that in a meet on 7 steps you dont revert. And so far most difficult, is doing it when you dont feel 100% on the runway to begin with. This aspect of vaulting really interests me though, so ill let ya know how this turns out in a few weeks!