General Analysis

[Vault101 Boy]

Yea, my runs a bit shoddy, I'm aware about dorsiflexion and I'm trying to work on that in some of my practices but my focus has been mainly on fixing the take off. My 3 step does start with a left so its left(1st)-right(2nd)-left(jump). I like leading with my right but ive always done it with a left this close up so its not too bothersome to me.

My last practice was very productive, I finally have started applying pressure with the left arm and figured out how to "row" while maintaining the pressure. My takeoff is no longer severely under, its actually pretty on now (10'2-10'6). I began dropping the pole earlier and using the down force of the pole to get my hands up earlier, this seemed to put me in a decent take off position. My coach said, "with an early pole drop, you at least have a chance".

I worked on the free takeoff drills for about an hour, my grip is now 11'+ from 27 feet 3 step.
Instead of working back to the 5th left, we actually moved straight back to it. The reason: My coach prefers 5 lefts over anything shorter because he feels that you need 5 lefts to really pull off a vault (for me this is perfect because my most consistent run is from a 5th, i usually bust my a** on a 4th (not sure why), and my 3rd has a really bad, inconsistent run.) Trust me, I see the importance and necessity in short runs, but I feel most comfortable on a 5th and we felt that we had at least solved the lunging effect and free takeoff would be the by product of a better run that we would work on later.

Heres the video from this practice. 0:20 and 0:26 give a good idea at where my take off is. As i said the left arm has improved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4aQgjfK ... ideo_title

thanks again everyone!

[altius]

Sorry old son - but you asked for feedback. You do not have much of a chance of really improving your technique or your performance until you learn to control the last six steps. You are over striding badly and no matter when you drop the pole you are not going to jump effectively from this kind of run. Do 4 - 6 x 20/20 drills as part of every training session until you really can control your stride length.

Secondly you are picking up the left leg with a bent knee immediately after take - a big no no. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED 6 STEP/3 LEFT TAKE OFF DRILLS - first learning to finish the take off and to stay behind the pole and then learning to sweep the left leg forward as long and as straight as possible. Get out of your 10 step comfort zone!

Unless you resolve these critical issues you will make little technical progress.

[Vault101 Boy]

Can you explain what 20/20 drills are? About the 3 left drills, I'm all for them, but because of the off-season rules for high schoolers, i can only vault on sundays at a clinic for a limited amount of time. Its not that i dont want to do the drill work, its that i try to use that time to work on things that i cant do without a pit (the takeoff being the main thing as well as the row and left arm). If you could suggest some other drills to do and how I can do them correctly on the grass or track, I would be me most appreciative.

Thanks for the feedback though. I'm really trying to become more technical and see my height increase because of the hardwork, so your help is greatly appreciated.

[Vault101 Boy]

nevermind about 20/20 drills, i was curious and searched them and found the answer. If there are anymore drills yall might recommend that could fix any blatant problems please let me know.

Thanks

[Vault101 Boy]

Well I decided to revamp my 5th left approach, the more i thought about it, the likelier it seemed that I was consistently under because i was so far back that i was reaching. I moved my step up from 72'6(with spikes) to 69'6 (without spikes, i havent actually jumped with the new run yet). Basically, i figured that i probably had 6' strides on the old run then reached the last couple of steps to make up the difference. Ive been using 6 cones along a tape measurer, with one cone representing the takeoff (10'2) and each succeeding one representing a different step in my run (so the last 6 steps). I placed the last 4 cones with 5'6" between them and the first 2 are a little longer to account for the transition from my still lengthy backstride (I really can't make myself change this part, its pretty natural for me and I can tell whether or not the run will be on based my initial push). I've been nailing the last 4 cones every time, and the first 2 about 85% of the time. The closer my steps are together the easier i feel that it is to jump (vertically). Obviously this is because im not jumping out of a lunge position.

I'm having to take it easy right now though because our trainer looked at my left knee and said that i probably have an inflamed patella tendon right now. Hopefully I'll be 100% this weekend so i can vault and put up the videos.

Anyways thanks to ya'll for pressuring me about my abysmal run and last 2 steps. I feel like it is getting progressively better than what it was. Thanks again.