drive leg

[dheldr01]

Where should your foot be in relative position of your swing leg at take off and through the swing?

I have been told 2 versions

1. Drive into the pole with your knee at take-off and keep your foot ahead of your swing leg with a flexed ankle pointing the toe towards the knee (or the same direction of the knee depending on how you word it I guess), but the foot should never fall/drag behind any part of the swing leg.

2. Drive the knee but keep your foot behind the swing leg making a spere with your drive leg. Kind of like a quad stretch.

Are either of these correct and why? Or am I going to be told a 3rd possibly a 4th version?

[powerplant42]

www.stabhochsprung.com

Find a good angle of a Bubka or Isinbayeva jump and tell me what motions you see going on with the drive-knee and drive-knee FOOT in relation to the take-off leg just after the penultimate (second to last step) all the way until you can notice a swing.

Do this well and you'll find your OWN 3rd method.

[KirkB]

The trail leg toes should be pointed as you swing. That's for a couple reasons ... finishing the takeoff means getting every last bit of energy out of your JUMP off the ground, which means that you have to flex your ankle as you leave the ground ... and you'll get more power out of your downswing with your foot and toes aligned with your leg.

As for the opposite (lead-knee driving) leg, I doubt that there's any benefit to which way your toes are pointed. In fact, if you're worrying about this tiny detail, you're missing some other much more important aspects of your vault.

As for where your driving leg foot should be positioned in relation to the trail leg, that's not something that you can even do ... even if you're focussing on that when you vault. The real question is whether you should strive to keep your lead knee up as high as possible, or let it drop a bit. Both are acceptable techniques ... altho I strove for keeping the lead knee up.

Focus on the 80% of your vault that will make the BIGGEST improvement to your PR.

Kirk

[powerplant42]

For what it's worth, Petrov has his athletes' drive-leg toes pointed up...

[dheldr01]

The only thing I have been thinking about the last month of jumping is making sure I am not under at take-off, but this element is one I have been focusing on during my high bar and ring drills to help my bodys muscle memory use the correct method. But I figured I should know what that is...

But it is not in my mind during my jumps at all

[powerplant42]

You have to practice it in the sand pit with a stiff pole... The take-off heel needs to come up under the glute and the knee needs to drive up high. Then the lower leg can be allowed to relax and fall away from the hamstring as you begin to swing. (Does that make sense?)