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I know with pole vault you are suposed to run as tall as possiable with a high knee drive the hole time. But my delima is that when I run tall I feel that when i try to really turn it over, my knees are really low and I max out my speed really fast. But I have noticed when doing sprinting drills that if i slighly lower my hips i can get my knees up alot better and feel like I have a whole nother gear in me. My question is, which would be best for pole vault? I feel like I am a lot faster when i drop my hips down a little bit to get my knees up, but i feel like it would make me a little shorter going down the runway.

here is a video of how I usualy run when pole vaulting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fddo-bTmKYE

If you run with low hips, you can get your knees up better. Sure, that makes sense biomechanically I suppose... your legs are already bent slightly, so they don't have to come up as far. High knees are important. High hips are more important. Yes, I would bet that it is difficult for you to do both, especially when striving for a high cadence. However, cadence is not very important until the last 3 lefts (when it should increase). If you are reaching maximum cadence a few steps into your run, where does that leave you? You will not be able to increase cadence during the plant. You will try to keep accelerating, and you may succeed... But at what cost? You will increase stride length, effectively lowering your hips. Put this with already low hips throughout the run, and you have a recipe for a very weak take-off. Do you know why it is beneficial to have high knees? I would just tell you, but I'd like you to think... What is biomechanically different about running with a pole (other than you can't use your arms)? How does this tie in with high knees? Think about stride cycle/running mechanics...

Better yet what causes high knees when you run with correct posture and pelvic alignment?






FLEXIBILITY


if your butt is tight (lol there are a ton of muscles that could be tight so the butt gets them all), hamstrings or anything else in the chain of events quess what your heel won't recover very high and thus your quad/knee won't come very high.

If you want to see your knees come up high work on flexibility. 2nd question is where does your foot go on heel recovery is it way behind you just off your butt or under you. If it is under you than your knees will be higher than the previous two.

Knee drive despite what everyone probably has told you in the past is an effect of something you did before it. NOT A GOAL. it is an outcome based off what you did while you were on the ground and as you got your foot off the ground.

Are you pushing or thinking to push way behind you... if so you will not have a natural knee drive you will need to force the knee drive to occur.

Concentrate on being tall with foot strikes directly under your COM you will be amazed what happens to both speed and turnover (which are related) as well as knee/quad height when you get your flexiblity up.

I would be careful with saying 'directly under the COM'... 'Just in front of it' would be much better to say.

Nope always under your COM...

The trick is with a pole in your hands during the carry where is your COM it changes because of the weight of the pole in your hands moves the COM slightly in front of your body depending on your pole carry, angle of carry and how heavy the pole is. However, foot strikes should still be directly beneath your COM....


I would be careful saying slightly in front of you.....


The correct statement is the Foot should strike directly under your COM with tall hips....

How do you 'pull through' if your feet are directly beneath your COM? (I really need to get my copy of BTB2 back... This is adressed directly.)

Hmm excellent question... I personally don't teach pull through but than again who am I.


To me it happens automatically... less time on the ground = faster speeds.

If you are carrying a pole your COM moves forward. Therefore your foot strike moves forward to match.

vaultman18 wrote:If you are carrying a pole your COM moves forward. Therefore your foot strike moves forward to match.

Agreed. But if you're using a high pole carry, and you're successful in making the pole somewhat weightless (i.e. no LEVERAGED weight), then your COM moves back, closer to where it would be if there was no pole.

That's one of the main advantages of the high pole carry. It allows you lean forwards more (or at least not lean backwards), because you don't have to compensate your COM for the leveraged weight of the pole as much.

Kirk

Even with a vertical carry it can't be inside you so there will be some shift ofthe COM into the plane infront of your body but not significantly.

From the hundreds of videos I have watched of people running and broken them down the average person strikes the ground about 1 feet infront of their COM on average some more and some less. Which than goest back to the point that the average person is how far under people. ABOUT 1 FOOT!!!!!!! I see a corelation here. If you train your brain that landing 1 foot in front of your COM during normal running is ok than why wouldn't it do the same thing at the plant.

This is way to far with or without a pole in your hands. Work on proper foot strikes under you COM and to do so you need to have tall hips and the sensation that your almost going to fall forward when you run. Till you get that your speed will never reach what it could be with or without a pole.

The running mechanics with rthe series of drills to teach correct running STYLE is presented in my DVD. I have abot 8 of them left. Email me at baggettpv@aol.com if your interested.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

Let's not all forget about what STYLE really means... I feel we have drifted a little bit.