flex/pointed ankle

[dheldr01]

At take off and through the swing you have you toe pointed, but when do you flex the ankles and to push your heels up to prevent you from flopping down on the inversion? Or should you not flex your ankles?

[KirkB]

... when do you flex the ankles and to push your heels up to prevent you from flopping down on the inversion?

By "flexing your ankles", do you mean the opposite action of "pointing your toes"? If so ... or whatever you mean ... how would this help you "from flopping down on the inversion"?

DH, you've been asking lots of good questions recently, but on this one, you lost me.

Whatever you mean, I don't think there's much difference one way or the other how you point or "flex" your ankles after the swing ... it really doesn't matter.

Kirk

[dheldr01]

By flexing your ankles I do mean opposite of pointing your toes. A coach swore to me this was a technique introduced by petrov but I hadn't heard of it until my conversation with this coach/es. I thought I would bring it up on here.

The concept is push up through the top of the pole with your heels instead of your toes to help stay inverted

Anyone else ever hear of this?

[master]

By flexing your ankles I do mean opposite of pointing your toes. A coach swore to me this was a technique introduced by petrov but I hadn't heard of it until my conversation with this coach/es. I thought I would bring it up on here.

The concept is push up through the top of the pole with your heels instead of your toes to help stay inverted

Anyone else ever hear of this?

That action is called dorsi-flexing your ankles. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dorsiflexion)
I have heard that Bubka did this for that reason but I don't remember where. I had a discussion with some friends recently who questioned me about it but it took your post to make me look into it at least a little bit. The easiest way was to look at a video segment I isolated to show how/where Bubkas happen in a vault. I figured that would be where it would be important to do if it was going to be done. So go to this link and click on the video link. Then you and Kirk can debate it. Looking at the video answered it for me.
http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=4838

[dheldr01]

Once have watched video of Bubka doing this many of his world famous jumps as well. I need to revisit them and see exactly where he flexs his heel. I started coaching my athletes to flex the heel once the start the swing, but then realized how it shortens the length of the swing and causes a loss of energy from the swing. . .

But teaching to push up with the heels has shown improvement with teaching the inversion.

Yet, another coach from this area teaches pointed toes all the way and has never had an issue with athletes flopping down onto the crossbar.

????

[KirkB]

No need to debate it ... if it's good enough for Bubka, it's good enough for me.

However, I think this is a very, very minute detail ... can't see it being THAT important in the overall technical vault. But good catch ... I'd never heard of it or considered it myself. That's the only reason I was dubious about it.

Would I do that if I knew about it? I suppose I would TRY it ... but since I never had a problem in inverting and staying inverted, I don't see what problem it solves. But that's just me. YMMV.

BTW, you're right about pointing your trail leg toes on your downswing. It WILL add a couple cms to the length of your trail leg on your downswing ... but more importantly ... and this is hard to explain ... your muscles and tendons in your trail leg will feel more "stretched/taut" and in position to "fire" when the trail leg is pointed. Don't ask me for the science behind this opinion ... I'm just going by the feel of it.

Kirk