Drills for pole drop timing?

[champ606]

Hi, im a vaulter from a high school in Western Mass. and ive been having trouble actually jumping. my PR right now is 10'6", but my coach says i could clear 12', maybe 12'6" this year, and be a top contender at our Western Mass. championship meet. im not exactly sure what it is, but my coach and i think it might be the timing of my pole drop. I was wondering if there were any drills anyone knows of that can help my pole drop timing? i appreciate it, and thanks.

[KirkB]

... i'm not exactly sure what it is, but my coach and i think it might be the timing of my pole drop. ...

Before you go off doing a bunch of pole drop drills, maybe you should figure out "what it is" first.

Maybe compare your vids to others?

Kirk

[baggettpv]

Or read a book on what this thing is all about.

Rick Baggett
WSTC

[LHSpolevault]

Hey guys, I'm his coach and it's been a little baffling on our end trying to figure out what's wrong and what to do...

As of a few weeks ago he was jumping smoothly without any hesitation or problems. He was about 2" or so under at takeoff but it didn't seem to have too much of an affect on his jumps. We realized he need to move up to the next available pole (went from 12'130 to a 13'130 gripping the same height, which would make it a bit stiffer, as well as the pole being heavier). Since then, he's only been able to complete his jump maybe twice from his 5 left run.

When he runs through on his approaches he feels he's consistently too far under or the timing on his pole drop wasn't right. We've done multiple approach drills to dial in the accuracy of his run and every time we run his approach back from mark to mark he's on point with it. I feel it may be a mental block from getting him to go up on this new pole, but at the same time if he feels his pole drop isn't timed up well... then I think we may need work on that a little.

What we've done in our past couple meets to get him to jump was move his approach in to 4 lefts and have him grip down. It's worked fine and he's had 0 problems jumping and his takeoff is on, but whenever I move him back to 5 lefts he constantly runs through and won't give it a chance.

[KirkB]

... What we've done in our past couple meets to get him to jump was move his approach in to 4 lefts and have him grip down. It's worked fine and he's had 0 problems jumping and his takeoff is on, but whenever I move him back to 5 lefts he constantly runs through and won't give it a chance.

I assume he's using the same pole from 4 lefts and 5. What's he gripping for each run? If he's gripping the same, then he'll have a shorter chord from 5, meaning that he should be able to finish every attempt ... without fear of stalling. If anything, he might blow thru.

According to DJ's Mid Mark Chart, to clear 10-6, he should be gripping around 11-5. If he's gripping higher than that, then there's part of the problem ... maybe the biggest part of it. You've already discovered that things go better with a lower grip. Continue on that path.

If we can zero in on the parameters of each run length, then maybe we can figure this out. Do you notice any appreciable difference in his run, pole drop, and planting techniques between 4 and 5?

Meanwhile, keep his grip down. A game he could play is to lower the grip by 2 fingers each time he balks (or stalls out), and raise it by 1 finger each time he completes an attempt ... and lands in the PLZ. By continuing this game rigorously (no cheating!), he'll end up with the "right grip". Psychologically, he'll WANT to complete each attempt ... and STRIVE to do so!

Kirk

[LHSpolevault]

... What we've done in our past couple meets to get him to jump was move his approach in to 4 lefts and have him grip down. It's worked fine and he's had 0 problems jumping and his takeoff is on, but whenever I move him back to 5 lefts he constantly runs through and won't give it a chance.

I assume he's using the same pole from 4 lefts and 5. What's he gripping for each run? If he's gripping the same, then he'll have a shorter chord from 5, meaning that he should be able to finish every attempt ... without fear of stalling. If anything, he might blow thru.

According to DJ's Mid Mark Chart, to clear 10-6, he should be gripping around 11-5. If he's gripping higher than that, then there's part of the problem ... maybe the biggest part of it. You've already discovered that things go better with a lower grip. Continue on that path.

If we can zero in on the parameters of each run length, then maybe we can figure this out. Do you notice any appreciable difference in his run, pole drop, and planting techniques between 4 and 5?

Meanwhile, keep his grip down. A game he could play is to lower the grip by 2 fingers each time he balks (or stalls out), and raise it by 1 finger each time he completes an attempt ... and lands in the PLZ. By continuing this game rigorously (no cheating!), he'll end up with the "right grip". Psychologically, he'll WANT to complete each attempt ... and STRIVE to do so!

Kirk

He's gripping about 10'6" from 5L (We matched up his grip from the old pole, and went down 2".. he was gripping 10'8 when he Jumped 10'6). From 4L I dropped him down about 8" to make sure he was landing the PLZ. All I've seemed to notice thus far is that when he runs from 4L the pole doesn't stop moving once his drop begins, and from 5L he's had a small problem starting his drop early where he would hold it parallel to the runway for about 2-3 steps before planting and taking off. We did some approach work and tried to work on that timing, and ever since then we've had this problem.

We'll have plenty of one on one time this week at practice to gear up for our last chance meet (he's already qualified for championships, but the extra meet would benefit him if we can make progress this week, and test it in a competitive, but non-championship, environment). Thanks for the help, I'll give that 'game' a shot this week and see what we can do. I'll keep you updated.

[rainbowgirl28]

Where is his mid mark and where is he starting from for 4L and 5L? Maybe you just backed him up too far.

[KirkB]

... I'll give that 'game' a shot this week and see what we can do.

But if he's already gripping under 11-0, then his grip isn't too high, so I retract my advice about the 'game'.

As RG says, maybe experiment with his 5L run length.

Kirk

[LHSpolevault]

Where is his mid mark and where is he starting from for 4L and 5L? Maybe you just backed him up too far.

I don't have the measurement from his 4L, but the 5L he's been using since the beginning of the season is at 58'6". The mid that we took was at 28'. It wasn't his 6-stride mark, but rather where his 2nd left hit during his approach.

I've never used DJ's mid-mark chart before, and as I'm looking at it the mid should be counted from 6 STEPS out from the takeoff, correct? I feel I may a bit off on how I established the mid-mark.