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Alright so i ve been trying to fix my jumps lately and today i worked on trying to get a free take off,

Here's the issue... whenever i run from 71'6" (6 lefts) holding 12'7''
my take off is on around 9'4

http://www.treemo.com/users/pacmin73/channel/

i realized from watching frame to frame on my camera taht my steps were under so in practice today i changed my step to 72'8 and i realized that my step changed to around 10'2,,,[according to the mid chart my take off should be 9'8]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y-DOZVA6oQc

the thing is,,, if i run from any closer than 72'6 my step looks under from what i see in my camera... but i wasnt sure so i thought i should ask

also,,, i was wondering if you have to somehow force your self to keep the trail leg straight... i do swing drills before i jump to sorta get it in my head but the petrov model is hard to do...

It seems like you curl up your trail leg pretty quickly. Make sure you stay long through the chord of the pole. Another thing, work on bringing your knees to your top hand and roll the hips up from there. the best thing to do is some bubkas on a high bar for your top form.

I paused your second video right at take off and can see your problem right away.

First off, i see improvement from your last video already. You are really accelerating much better into the box! But when you pause the video, your step where you FOOT is, is right now. But the rest of your body is angled toward the box, and your top hand is at least 8 inches in front of your take off hand.... which tells me you are trying to "feel" the box before you leave the ground. You are jumping IN to the box instead of UP at the plant. You really arent in terrible shape right now, i think your main focus running into the box should be trying to jump UP as much as possible, and keep your hands pushing up from the time you leave the ground until your hips start moving up the pole. Right now you jump IN, making you less tall as you could be at the plant, and your hands are pushing forward to help you swing. I see a lot of improvement, keep working on a free take off with a pop up, and get used to being off the ground before the pole tip hits the back. It is going to push you out of your comfort zone, so get on soft poles holding low to work on it. You will know when your take off is getting closer to what it should be, because your swing will feel twice as fast and you will roll right over the poles you are using right now. Stay tall and high, and jump UP into the vault. Everything goes up.

Everything goes up, INCLUDING YOUR EYES. You're currently looking at the box through your take-off, (notice how your head is angled down in either video,) and this could be something that causes you to take-off rather flat. This will DEFINITELY put you WAY out of your comfort zone, way more than a free take-off will, but it's essential to vaulting your highest.

O.K. so again we come back to the same sort of basic issues. I say you could jump 2 or 3 feet higher if you get a free take-off, don't let your right foot go too far out in front of you, swing long through the C-Pole, and look up through your vault. These are the reasons most of your vault looks forced and kind of slow after you take-off.

i thought that the second video i uploaded was a free take off? when i played that jump frame for frame i wasnt bending the pole on my takeoff,,, i was out according to the take off point im supposed to be at using the mid chart...

also,,, the last video,,, i finally kept my trail leg straight.. but i guess i wasnt able to get on a free take off on that jump,,, arg im trying... i feel like the poles im using are too soft or it doesnt give me enough penetration...

It is more important to accelerate and jump up into the vault than to get a free take off. If you dont do these things, the energy you gain from a free take off wont matter. Running fast and jumping tall comes first. Doing this during every jump should allow you to gradually get used to jumping farther and farther back. A big thing i noticed with your most recent jump is that your hips move forward prematurely. You are still in an inverted C while your hips are in front of the rest of your body. Try to stay tall and lead with your chest, looking with an upward angle. That should help keep your hips back until your swing comes underneath you. Once that happens, keep your hips moving up as much and as fast as you can, to the top of the pole. Hitting a more free take off and keeping your hips centered over your body until you swing should help you swing much faster and to the top of the pole. Just remember not to slow down or stop your swing at all until you come off the top of the pole, and you will feel some serious pop on top! Keep doing what you are doing, a free take off is something you can strive for, and should be, but at this point in the season i would focus on your hip position and movement during the swing.

wow yea you could improve alot if you would swing... there are some drills to help you out with this. basically grab a pretty small pole compared to what you full vault on. something that you can drive through on about 4 or 5 lefts. then when you go to do the drill u can continue to practice your free takeoff with it, but keep your hands high drive the knee all the way through and keep that trail leg back. as you progress through the drill you can start sweeping your trail leg in that swinging motion. but since your having problems keeping that leg straight you can train yourself to do so by, when sweeping that leg forwards and keeping the knee driven you can try to kick the mat right behind the box. that will keep the leg down..... now instead of typing all that and you reading it you can just watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-u71Jct ... re=related tell me what you think