take-off point

[vault3rb0y]

I feel like mathematic equations are an excellent way to see just how much energy is leaked and where in the jump it is leaked. But i also feel like it boils down to a vaulters pole speed. The more energy lost at the plant, the slower your pole speed will be. Obviously, many other variables go into pole speed, just as he mentioned, but in essence, it seems logical to me, especially in the impact of the pole in the box, that the more leaked energy, the less pole speed you will see directly after the pole begins to bend. That is why in an ideal vault, if you can execute "perfectly", your horizontal and vertical velocities once you are in the air, should equal that of your take off velocity. Make sense or did i lose you?
What i am getting at is this-
It is easier to travel horizontally and maintain velocity that vertically, obviously because of gravity. So if your plant is "perfect", you only have about 12'6" feet to travel before you reach the vertical plane of the box. If you were able to swing well enough to load the pole even after you leave the ground, you can overcome amazing stiffnesses in a pole, because every pole would reach vertical so quickly. That, to me, gives you an impression of how important your hands are in maintaining your energy.

One interesting topic to me, however, is that he says the stiffer a pole, the more energy lost. What about the longer a pole? I always thought that was also more energy lost. So do you lose more energy raising your grip, or going up sticks? To me it seems that the better your plant is, the easier it is to raise the stiffness, because you conserve more energy. But to raise your grip, you must do one of two things- A.) raise your take off angle in order to raise your effective grip hieght at maximum bend, or B.) continue to add energy into the pole either with more take off velocity and a more powerful swing, to put enough energy into the pole to lower your effective grip hieght at maximum bend. I would like to hear what "yall" think about the pros and cons of the two.
Sorry for jumping around so much, but that post put a lot of interesting ideas in my head. Thanks!