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For my whole vaulting career I have had some little problems that I have over came with work, but I have a serious problem that is keeping me from raising my handhold and jumping higher. I stride out far on my very last stride my penultimate step is a huge stride. I have tried a couple of drills but if anyone can help with striding problems info is appreciated.

To show how bad it has been I have jumped holding 14'8 on a 15' 170 and i took off from 8'6", not good on the shoulders.

well i was thinking i was having that same problem...but you made me feel a whole lot better. One of the things that has always worked with me is not necessarily thinking about being quick with your feet, but instead being quick with your hands. As everyone knows, when you run your arms and legs move together. Its the same in the vault. You WILL NOT put your last step down until your hands are completely above your head. So if you think about moving your hands up quicker than usual, your last step should also quicken with out any effort. However, I don't think it'll make up 4 feet in your run to get your step where it needs to be, but it'll for sure help.

I had never thought of that before. I have a few kids that are striding out their last few steps. I think I'll take a look at that tomorrow and see if we can get that plant up sooner. Good point.

Striding out in the last step, being under all the time and going to your back right off the ground often is because of sprint mechanics on the runway before the plant. If a vaulter is pushing too long on each stride the hips are pulled back and the back foot kicks up too high behind the hips. This puts the body in a forward tilt position. In order to get out of this position the feet have to pull forward more dramatically, the hip flexors have to work harder to keep the knees up because the feet want to snap down to get past the hips and the hips have to rotate to get in a position to let all of the above to happen. What happens instead of the feet and all this rotation stopping under the body is everything is over shot, and the vaulter strides out, steps under and goes to their back right off the ground.

To fix all this see http://www.advantageathletics.com/sprin ... _form.html . This will help you in your sprint mechanics on the runway. As the vaulter lowers the pole tip the turnover of the feet need to be more in front of the vaulter’s hips and less behind. The feet begin to “pawâ€Â

Great explanation Advath!!! One more thing you should think of when having trouble striding out is: Just before takeoff-- think about jumping the pole to vertical without bending the pole; keep the right arm as long as possible. Too many people focus on bending the crap out of the pole, this sometimes lowers your hips and puts you on your heels. By focusing on jumping up-- your hips will be taller and your last 2 strides shorter.
I struggled with the same thing for years (At Reno in 1999 I held 15'4"; jumped 5.40; and took off at 10'6") and it hurts. But, by changing the way I approached the jump (Thanks to a bit of advice by coach Curran--which he probably does not remember) I started jumping up; got my step out to 12'6" and jumped 5.50 a couple of times. Try it out.
-CPvault

Come on guys. I think you are all right, but vaulters have a hard time fixing habits. Especially one like this. Taking off out is one of the hardest things to just make yourself do. When I came to college, I had a long last step, and the farthest out I had ever taken off was about 11'. The coach here utilized a little thing called a pacifier. Yeah, just like a baby. A small flat pad, or a towel, or shirt will work. If you want to take off from say 12' then put it at 11'. You can practice this from shorts, with a closer take off, just to get the feeling of getting your foot down. Eventually, you can use this on every vault in practice, for some reason, it just makes you put your foot down. Am I not right in saying habits cannot be fixed easily without tricking your little mind into doing things? Give it a shot. Like I said I took off no farther out that 11' in high school. I've tricked my mind into liking to take off between 12'6'' and 13'6''. It works for all our guys and gals. Give it a shot. It's simple.

JOMRUS told me about the tool he mentions. The first day we used it, we saw dramatic improvement in step placement. We used it on slide box and it has transfered well to the real thing. Seems that the biggest problem is making that step "feel" right. Give it a try.