PoleVaultPower.com

13'3 150 - grip 12'6 - run 71'6 - 6 lefts - weight 125 - height 5'9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pekgUZAi3Kg

little bend little penetration bigger pop up

14'3 130 - grip 13'0 -run 72' 0 - 6 lefts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4uPbLvbOIw

big bend little penetration no comment...

what do you think?

im really confused how to get a big pop up.. i realize my run and take off isnt the best but its the best i could do,, and my run changed today,, i felt like i strided out less though i still do to make me go under all the time but workin on it

If your takeoff is under, your swing is going to suffer. Work that takeoff to get it to a free takeoff, your swing will come together and you will be working towards the inversion phase. That's going to help you.

No! It's not the best you can do. You just need to work on those basics more until they become second nature. A couple of things I noticed is your pole carry is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to low. This kills any opportunity for a correct tall plant (never mind a free take off). Another thing I saw was your run and posture during the run really needs improvement. First issue, the pole carry. You should have your left hand pretty much right in front of your chest during the run. Right hand should be pretty much close to or a little bit in front of your right hip. This positioning allows for a tall plant where the right hand will come straight up past your ear and in front of your head. Picture if you had a baseball cap on when you are jumping, and stuck your thumb out during plant you'd hit the bill of the cap with your thumb and knock the cap off. Next, the run. Get that back straight and quit leaning over. You need more knees in the run also. A good exercise for this is find a slight to relatively somewhat steep hill and do a gazillion pole runs up that bugger. You can't do these unless your back is straight, you lift your knees and you carry the pole correctly. Hill pole runs also do miracles for runway speed. The jump starts at the top of the runway and finishes with your back in the pit. You said it yourself. Your plant and take off isn't very good. So, answer your own question by improving those aspects. Once you get better at those aspects of the jump, the rest will really start to fall in place. Good luck................
Later.....................Mike

playing the recordings slow mo on my camera to me it seems like im raising both arms as i plant i dont see how neither of them is a low pole carry,, if you show me a high pole carry that'd be nice..

oh and i defintely feel for the box before i plant, but not too sure how to not do that..

Here is a high pole carry (which probably helps him a lot for getting his awesome plant!)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P7I9Ie6y68k

sorry i really dont see the difference between the examples pole carry and mine.. my hands are a little lower than his and he runs from farther away so he keeps his arms up higher for longer.. correct me if i misunderstood

well granted I don't think your pole carry is too too low, but if you watch his last 3 steps and observe how the bottom arm stays at about the height of his chest maybe slightly lower for a split second, while your bottom arm stays around your stomach/hip area.

Your last 4 steps, or 2 lefts are very long and very slow! It is killing all your pole speed. Have you thought about moving up a foot or so and really trying to get your feet down as quick as possible and carrying your speed into your plant? This might also help scootch your step out a little bit, I know it worked for me!!

OK, look again. Is you left hand at or above your nipples anytime before your plant? No. Go pull up some Bubka video and watch how he carrys the pole. What I see is at about your 6 step the pole is almost parallel to the ground which slows you down, and you're sorta pushing the pole out towards the box. That slows you down too. Do what you feel is right for you but from what I've read, you've blown off two (or four if you count all three of mine) pretty good suggestions that will only help you reach your full potential. You've got a decent start but if you tweek the things that Bethel and I have said you might actually make a bar at where you've got those bungees at. You're also under (see the pole starting to bend before you leave the ground). DJ's mid mark chart and a good understanding of it can help with that. All of the things I have pointed out don't allow you to get into the right inverted position to take advantage of the "top". What you're doing is being done totally by your athleticism. Ad some technique and you'll be "smokin". The main thing we need you to do is efficiently get down the runway. Once you get that fixed, you won't be coming up short like I saw on the videos. The run up is where it all starts and as I said earlier, get that fixed and your heights will really shoot up. As before, good luck............Mike

i tried to work on the run but not too sure if it improved much, i still lower the pole too low but feeling wise i felt like i was running down faster (or it was just confidence).
and im working onthe mid mark thing though my step is still consistently under..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh3RwyAzhIU

also,,, i keep getting stuck in the L position,, i was told to swing wasnt strong enough to get there (esp for this jump since i bent my trail leg,,) but anways
the id hope i can get to l and not L but im not sure what exactly is causing it besides being under all the time

The run thing will take some time so be patient with it and don't stop doing the hill pole runs. All of the things we've pointed out are things I wish we could have addressed a couple of years ago, but seeing as we can't go back in time, we'll just continue to work with what we've got. The best thing is, is that now you are aware of definite things to do to better your jump. Once you get the run and take off better that will help to eliminate the L position that you are concerned about and get you more inverted. As agepit and altius are always saying, the vault is a series of events that are like a connected chain (or something to that effect). The more you strengthen each link from the top of the run way till you are on your back in the pit the easier the remaining links become to strengthen as you address each one. I haven't looked at your recent video yet because I wanted to respond to your post. I was pretty excited by what you wrote which told me you are progressing nicely towards the "getting it" part of this event. Keep it up..........Later.........Mike

I just saw the video and that jump looked better than the first two. Pole carry was better. You're still running a little "long" (knees are still a little low and not driving which I call "strong"). The hill runs will continually improve that and once that occurs, those steps will start to come out more. Nice job, keep working at it. Mike