sooch90 wrote: Kirk, could you elaborate what you mean by "hanging by my top arm" and not "shrugging the shoulders"? How does this look like?
I've been looking for a high bar, and the only one I can think of is possible some monkey bars at a play ground near my campus? ... what would I do on some monkey bars? I think I need some direction on what a COMPLETE beginner on the gymnastics high bar should do on some monkey bars?
[sigh]
To me, this is an odd question. I guess it's because when I was in elementary school (Grades 1-6 in Canada), we had a set of monkey bars, and there was barely a school day that went by that I didn't do SOMETHING on them. I didn't consider it "training" ... it was just "playing".
And then after school, and on weekends at home ... long before I even thought about pole vaulting ... I would spend hours and hours climbing trees, swinging from ropes in our barn and across gulleys. We even had one of those kid's swing sets that had some rings on it. I was skinning the cat on those at a very young age.
I came up with all kinds of inventive tricks. For example, after watching the trapeze artists and acrobats at a circus in Vancouver, I taught myself to hang on the monkey bars by the back of my heels! When I first saw them do that, I thought it was impossible, so I tried it myself. Once you get the hang of it (nice pun, eh?
), it's really not that hard. Not that I'm suggesting that as a good PV drill ... I'm just suggesting to be creative. Just about ANYTHING you do on the highbar or monkey bars will be beneficial to PV!
Offhand ... there's 4 main purposes of using gymnastic apparatus for PV drills that come to mind ... in no particular order ... (1) get accustomed to the positions and motions that you must perform during a vault; (2) improve your strength and coordination to manipulate your body in these positions and motions; (3) conditioning your body by doing lots of reps of certain drills; and (4) improve your daringness / braveness in putting your body upside down without fear of falling.
Any and all drills that you do are bound to meet at least one ... if not more ... of these criteria.
On PVP, search for keywords "highbar", "monkey bars", "swing", and "drill".
Sooch, once your shoulders and arms become accustomed to hanging fully stretched on a bar (or rings or rope), your body will know what that feels like, and your body will tell you to emulate that with the pole. Good luck!
Kirk