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"Right now, he's just so much better than anyone else," said Olson, who no-heighted Saturday. "We're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

Billy Olson commenting on how Bubka was outclassing himself and other former World Record Holders in 1984 at just Age 20.

"Some people make poems," he said. "And some people make films. Bubka vaults because it is the best way for him to explain himself. Even now he does not know what his capabilities are. Nobody knows, really." But everyone's starting to find out.

Vladimir Gheskin, a Soviet journalist-interpreter that accompanied the Soviet team when asked to describe Bubka.

And people still argue 25 years later about the best technique, best method, best model to vault. Amazing how it's taken most Americans 25 years to "go back to the drawing board" and most only after Alan Launder and Dave Butler have pushed the merits of the Petrov/Bubka Technical Model.

Great article: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm

Great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWGyzPNXI_U

hey

talking about going back... look at the diagram of the vault in the Linthorne paper....

Ganslen (1979) ..........wonder who that technique was from? looks pretty much like Lukyanenko from the 2008 Games?

dj

DJ, I was hoping YOU could tell ME who that was!

My best guess would be either Wolfgang Nordwig from the 1972 Olympics, or Tadeusz Ślusarski from the 1976 Olympics.

The best clues are from frames 6-7. Frame 6 could def be a Lukyanenko-style vaulter, but Frame 7 tells me that it's Nordwig, since he's LIFTING the lead leg back up, along with the trail leg.

If it was Ślusarski, his legs are closer together (actually more like Jason Colwick, but without the hyperextended C), and he SWINGS them up without much of a tuck.

Here's his vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sjz7EbM5s

If it's some other knee dropper, I'm not aware of him. (Not that I was even aware of Ślusarski until recently.)

We are, however, getting a bit off Lonestar's thread topic, and I think it's a good one. In addition to his point about Petrov v. Drive models, I question why PV hasn't advanced much at all in the past 25 years - regardless of model. These guys were hitting 19'+ way back then!

I was VERY interested in reading all about Billy Olsen and Joe Dial, as I had not watched them in their era. I know Dial was a drive vaulter, but what was Olson's technique? More like Tulley, or more like Dial? I can't find any vids of Olson.

And if you overlook the flaws in Frame 7 of the Ganslen pics (the tuck), you could even say we've come full circle with Hooker and Lukyanenko. And that's MORE LIKE THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!

Kirk

hey

i was leaning toward Ślusarski... and of course i have considered the pole "design" they were on.

but there is one jump of Slusarski.. i think from the left side of the runway/pit.... that had a lot of what Earl was doing from 1975 to 1977.. and what we see in Hooker and Lukyanenko from the Games footage i have from BBC.

i think, action/reaction... application of force... creates what we see and call style...

dj

I believe the drawing is an East German rendering of Nordwig's jump. It first appeared in the west in Schmolinsky's work. I have an old copy of the book somewhere around here that has it in it.

"A MAN CONVINCED AGAINST HIS WILL STAYS OF THE SAME OPINION STILL!"

Alan,

Are you getting my pm's? BTW, love the cartoon, can't believe how spot on it is.

phil

Thats doesnt just apply to americans vs other countries i assure you.

"Thats doesnt just apply to americans vs other countries i assure you."

Could you expand on that cryptic statement a little so we can understand what you are talking about.

There are plenty of american vault coaches that know their trade and try to explain the methods to their madness, and still some other american vault coaches are still very hesitant to try to understand. Im just saying that the cartoon applies to all levels in all aspects of vaulting in the world.

Agreed! However it probably applies to everything humans are involved with.