PoleVaultPower.com

hey, this is my first time on forums, sorry that its me askin for help.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7M6NJxiucBM

This is a compilation of my jumps for this indoor season.
im a junior pr is 14'

in the first half of the videos im using a 13'6 155 holding around 13'3''
in the second half im using a 14'6 145 holding around 14'
all of my jumps are from 6 lefts
body weight: 130
height: 5'10''
age: 17

i got a lot questions and any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Are my arms too wide when i grip the pole?
Should my left arm be straighter when i plant?
When you swing up is your left leg supposed to stay straight the entire time or can you collapse it in, if so when?
What can i do to get a better push off and more extension off of my pole?
Do i do the double legged swing? how can i fix this?

sorry!! this is a lot to ask for but any help will be greatly appreciated. I have my states meet this week and im trying to recover from a strained quad, so im trying to mentally prepare my self since i can not practice :[.

please look at my vaults and tell me everything im doing wrong and what i should be doing!!

Thanks so much!

your arms did a bit wide, but that's usually vaulters preference. i like to keep both my elbows at 90 degrees when i vault. your left arm looked great. you dont want to lock it out, your natural arm bend that you have goin looks fantastic. when swinging the left leg, it shouldn't stay straight the entire time - you'll usually get a small natural bend out of it. but that depends on if you were taught petrov or tuck style. that, again, is vaulters preference. i believe there's a thread on here somewhere discussing pros and cons of petrov and tuck. you may wanna check that out. as for a better push off and more extension from the pole, idk much about that. all i can say is to let the pole help you. use the energy being given to you through the extension of the pole. i am seeing a bit of a double legged swing. when leaving the ground, you want to achieve the figure four position - that is, raise your right knee up. it will facilitate the drive aspect and put more energy into your vault. you can do many drills to help this. you can do a 2 or 3 left pole run, and when you "plant", drive your right knee up. i hope i helped.

Lets see.
About your grip, I wouldn't say that it is too wide. The one thing that you do with your bottom arm though that takes away a lot is you do not break it when you should. You get to the L position but after that you just sit and wait. You should be shooting your hips up and breaking in your left arm then to allow your hips to go along the pole. I didnt see it as much in the first meets videos but the second one definitely. You keep your arm straight and can never actually get upside down while the pole is unwinding. This alone takes away a lot from your jump.

About your left arm at takeoff. The biggest thing is not all about keeping it straight but keeping pressure on the pole. I actually used to block out and keep my arm straight but it does not give the best result. Make sure to keep pressure on the pole with your left arm but do not lock it out straight, it will slow you down in your vault. The important thing is to row with your arm and keep the pressure on the pole through the row, that will make a large difference.

About the double leg swing. You did seem to have a slight two legged swing in the second and third meets videos but not as much in the first. I do not think that is the largest problem for you right now. It does take away some speed from your swing not having your drive knee still there but you get to a good position at an L. And your left leg ideally should stay straight the whole way through the swing to put the most power but the way you swing your left leg is not bad at all, you never completely tuck it in.

Biggest thing to get a bigger extension is breaking your left arm at the right moment. You block it out and can never get inverted on the pole. If you break it as you drive your hips upwards you will get yourself inverted along the pole as it unwinds, allowing yourself to get as much energy out of the pole as you can.

http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20000922 ... rng_rl.mov
Heres a video of Bubka at 6.10m. Watch his arms as he vaults. His bottom arm is flexed but he keeps pressure and rows strongly to put energy into it. Also, once in the L position he breaks his left arm in to allow his hips to move upwards along the pole. That is the main problem in your vault keeping you from getting more more out of the poles.

I think everything here makes sense. Please correct me if there is something you feel is incorrect. The jumps still look good though. Good luck at your states meet!

CouraGe,

Despite some things that could be improved, I think your jump overall has alot of things that are going quite well.

It would help if the video happened a little closer to the pit, but from what I can see, here is my opinion.

Your run looks a bit hectic. I have always been a supporter of the idea of gradually accelerating and staying relaxed and tall the whole time. YouTube search for video of Tarasov and Bubka. Their runs were simply amazing and the model for anyone who wants to jump high. Also, look at the motion in their arms while running compared to yours. Their arms will have little or no front-to-back motion.

I feel like your takeoff could use improving (whose doesn't?) but overall, its not too bad. If you want some simple things to work on, the basic goal is to always get your right hand as high as possible at takeoff. This is not very hard, but having a good active jump-up at the plant at the same time is a bit harder. Try working on that. I would also suggest being more active with rolling the pole forward, which will help your top end, but this can only come when the takeoff is improved. And that comes from improving the run... So you know where to start!

PS... Tell Coach Mangan that Adam from VT says hello...

thanks a lot guys.

so i just realized it seems as if i get worse as my season progressed. The first meet in the video seemed like I was doing a lot of things right, like my left arm. But then as i got to later meets in the season, i started blocking with my left arm =\. Thanks a lot guys. If anyone else could critique me a bit more, id appreciate it.

P.S SlickVT, ill try and find Coach Mangan tomorrow at states