Updated footage for you all

[joebro391]

hey guys, me again. finally got to vault again, after some bad raind-delays. i took into account all the advice that was given to me and came up with this:

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

POLE: 14' 155 (i weigh 129lbs)
GRIP: 13'3
RUN: 7 Lefts from 93'3
bungee/bar: 14'

i woulda had more jumps, but i was so pumped up with adrenaline that i was running myself under (MY STEP WENT FROM 89'6 TO 93'3!!!!!) so yea, i coulda done a MUCH BETTER job of keeping the knee up so...i'm tired, just critique haha. THANK YOU. -JOE

PS: sorry about the last few jumps, in the dark. all you can see is my little, chicken-wing flapping hahahahahaha (i don't know why that's so funny...maybe i should go to sleep) peace!

[powerplant42]

MUCH better drive-knee this time. Now you need to keep yourself from tucking and shooting!

[joebro391]

MUCH better drive-knee this time. Now you need to keep yourself from tucking and shooting!

thanks, but i still coulda held it much better. i think the fact that i kept running myself under is why that was happening so badly, this time. and yea, i'm trying to do the swing to invert

OOHH!!! ALSO!!, i gotta stop looking at the damn bar haha. just realized that i was doing that on some of these jumps

[KirkB]

Joebro,

I'll focus just on your first jump ...

I like your high pole carry.

Bottom elbow doesn't need to wobble as much, but this isn't a big deal. You have bigger fish to fry. But when you're doing pole runs on the track, just try for a little less wobble.

Leaning back on the plant - a couple steps out. Maybe you're dropping the pole too early? I dunno.

There's something wrong with your rhythm about 2 steps out. It's not in your penultimate step, where you would expect yourself to "gather" before takeoff. It's just before that. Kind of a hesitation of some sort. I can't quite put my finger on what you're doing there. Joebro, what are you doing there? Or is it just my imagination?

Under quite a bit on takeoff. What's your target, in relation to your top hand? Set a target, then just do it!

Becuz you were leaning back a few steps out, you were also leaning back when you planted your takeoff foot. You're probably on your heel there too, but I can't see from the vid. You need to be totally erect (maybe even a slight forwards lean), and stay on your toes. On your takeoff, your left heel should not touch the ground. i.e. You need to takeoff more like a long jumper and less like a high jumper.

I like the way you relax your bottom arm. After all the talk about "Semantics and the Bottom Arm", yours is fine!

I like the way you drive your lead knee up, and keep it up.

Trail leg should straighten more (finish the takeoff), and stay straightened thru the swing. It's becuz you're getting jerked off the ground (due to your takeoff being under) that your trail leg "collapses". Practice long jumping. Practice swinging on the highbar, then apply it to the vault. I saw a highbar at the end of the runway. Nice setup! You're lucky! Use it!

The pole got ahead of you. It started recoiling before you were ready for it to recoil. You need to stay behind it. The way to do that is to fix your plant, jump, swing - in that order.

You complain about looking at the bar. Don't worry about that. Just worry about swinging your legs and hips above your shoulders. When you do that, your shoulders and head will feel like they're "sinking", and you'll start forgetting about what your eyes are doing. If you get a better plant, jump, swing, your concern about looking at the bar will just disappear. Once you get your hips and legs up, your eyes will probably watch your legs shooting straight up. Whatever they do will be fine - don't worry about it.

Failry good recovery, and a nice extension - considering that you let the pole get ahead of you. But you see where your hips are below your shoulders, but your legs are somewhat straight above you? In sort of a tuck, but without the legs being tucked? That's not a feeling that you want to have. You're "stuck" in that position.

Instead, at that point in your vault, you want to feel your hips moving quickly upwards. Try the "Kip Cast Freehip" highbar drill here http://www.polevaultpower.com/media/video/skillsanddrills/ and you'll get the feel for what it should feel like on the pole. Your shoulders "sink" and your hips/legs "shoot skywards". Having said that, this won't happen overnight. But once you fix your plant, jump, swing (the bottom part of your vault), then it will all fall into place quite nicely.

Nice landing - well into the pit. That's far better than a stallout. Stay on the soft poles until you get your takeoff and swing ironed out.

I see tho that you landed way to the right. That's becuz you didn't have your top arm fully extended when the pole hit the box. And that happened becuz you were under. And that happened becuz you were leaning back (and probably overstriding on takeoff) ...

Your best bet is to work on these issues from the earliest to the latest, except don't worry about the elbow wobble. Start working on hitting your takeoff (further out). Then the plant. Then the takeoff. Then the swing. Once you get the bottom half of your vault going smoothly, the top half of your vault will just fall into place quite naturally. You already know how to extend quite well. That's all you need. So just work on the run and bottom half.

You have the talent to jump way, way higher than what you cleared in that first vault! Way higher. Just don't worry about the bar - work on your technique instead. I think you're doing that - keep it up!

p.s. Hey man, don't jump in the dark! Seriously, you need to stay healthy! And your best jumps were your early jumps. You need to work on your technique when you're fresh. When you're tired, you develop bad habits. You can run or do highbar work in the dark, but don't PV in the dark!

Kirk

[joebro391]

yea, thanks Kirk

on overstriding: i don't believe that i was over striding, as much as i was leaning back (cause my center of gravity to move back, which simulates a long last-step) i'll touch upon that in my next bullet.

about leaning back: yea, i agree with you on that. i started to notice it a bit on the last video and you just confirmed it. maybe i am dropping the pole a bit early, but i'm gonna do pole runs in a few minutes so i'll try and iron that out, there.

on keeping the leg long: yea, i know what you mean, i used to do taht pretty well, but recently, i got back in my old habbit of shooting, strait to my back (i think i may have been nervous and anxious considering i haven't been vaulting up to par, lately also) but i do understand you. i bent it on and shot right to my back, and i need to keep it long and swing it through, adding more energy to the system.

on being under: i wasn't doing that intentionally, i think i mentioned before that i was so pumped up that i was just running myself under, which is something i have to work on. my step went back, a little over 3 feet and it took me about 5 jumps to fix it. any tips on how to iron that out?? (and it's not my warm-up because i do a good warm-up, that loosens me up but doesn't tire me out either)

so i'm gonna go do some run and drills right now and i'll work on these things. thanks for all the help. -Joe

[powerplant42]

Re Tips on helping that 'under' issue out: Don't move your step back more than a few inches. Instead, get your feet down faster... If you've got the adrenaline to use longer stride length, you've got the adrenaline to use quicker strides. Simple MID science.

[KYLE ELLIS]

Re Tips on helping that 'under' issue out: Don't move your step back more than a few inches. Instead, get your feet down faster... If you've got the adrenaline to use longer stride length, you've got the adrenaline to use quicker strides. Simple MID science.

I would disagree with this. If you are feeling good and you have a boost of adrenaline you're step could move back a couple feet. It's not really if you have adrenaline to use longer strides, its if your running faster that means your stride length will increase... speed= stride length * stride frequency. So by not moving back far enough you would have to slow down to takeoff on. And taking off on isn't something someone can do in a day, you have to develop a feel (muscle memory) for taking off "on". Thats why mid-marks are important.

[powerplant42]

taking off on isn't something someone can do in a day, you have to develop a feel (muscle memory) for taking off "on".

YES!

It's not really if you have adrenaline to use longer strides, its if your running faster that means your stride length will increase... speed= stride length * stride frequency.

I don't understand this... if you can use longer strides due to adrenaline, why can't you pick up the cadence (almost) the same amount?

Joebro, next time you feel 'good', try both of these approaches (no pun intended). Try backing way up, and try backing up just a little bit and focussing on getting your feet down FAST. Come back with your results.

[joebro391]

Joebro, next time you feel 'good', try both of these approaches (no pun intended).

HAHAHA

But i'm leaning towards kyle's explanation on this. Now, to explain this to you PP, think about power. If you're legs are moving faster, you're going to cover more ground, respectively. think about this in a very exaggerated manner. pretend you were taking HUGE strides, but very slowly. even though you stride was wider, you still wouldn't cover as much ground, as the average 'proper' 7-step run, because your legs are turning over faster. so i feel that the reason why i was under, wasn't because my stride opened up, but because my legs were turning over faster and i was able to cover more ground. make sense?? haha

[KYLE ELLIS]

Yes you want a rhythm in the run, you want to push out of the back, and then be tall and quick at the end. But if you are moving faster then you will need to move your run back (because you're strides will be longer due to increased speed). The mid mark will prevent you from moving to far back and striding out. So what I am trying to say is that your rhythm shouldn't change, but your starting spot can. So powerplant instead of saying shorten up more at the end of you're run to result in taking off on; you should say something along the lines of "I think you should increase the tempo of your final steps".

[KirkB]

on being under: i wasn't doing that intentionally, … i was so pumped up that i was just running myself under ... my step went back, a little over 3 feet and it took me about 5 jumps to fix it. any tips on how to iron that out??

I don’t claim any expertise in the runup, so I’m going to leave that question for others to answer. But weren’t you under on every one of those vaults? Hard to tell in the dark! Ha! Ha!

Why didn’t you adjust after the first jump?

The only thing I can tell you comes from my own experience …

In my practices, if I was under, I just ran thru and tried again. If I happened to not notice that I was going to be under (not react in time to run thru), and got jerked back when the pole hit the box, then I usually just bailed.

If I didn’t hit my takeoff, then I didn’t jump, so I missed the joy of doing REAL VAULTING with GOOD TECHNIQUE. This was sufficient motivation for me to [eventually] usually hit my takeoff.

On the odd occasion where I tried to salvage a practice (or competition) vault when I was under (or had a late plant), bad things usually happened. It took me a few years to smarten up but I eventually learned that there was too much risk of injury in trying to finish a bad vault.

I also came to the realization that for practice vaults, I wasn’t going to learn anything from finishing a bad vault, because I would just pick up bad habits – and possibly injure myself. That’s why I just bailed if my step was “under” or if my plant was late.

By this process, I can honestly say that eventually, I hardly ever had a bad plant. And after adjusting for how I felt on any given day (and depending on the wind factor), I could adjust my steps accordingly, so that I would usually hit my target takeoff. If I had a bad day, I just NH’ed. That’s life in the real world of pole vaulting.

Having said all that, I’m no expert on the runup. I hope someone else can help you with this. Until you solve your takeoff point problem, it’s futile to work on anything else that occurs after that.

Kirk

[joebro391]

I don’t claim any expertise in the runup, so I’m going to leave that question for others to answer. But weren’t you under on every one of those vaults? Hard to tell in the dark! Ha! Ha!

well you see, i kepy moving my step back but i get running harder and harder so it kept moving back. so each jump, i was only under by a few inches

Why didn’t you adjust after the first jump?

well i wasn't under by 3 feet on the first jump so i moved it back about 6 inches on every run (except near the end). that' more of what i was asking about (technique about properly moving a step back?) haha. i just wouldn't have felt safe, moving my mark back, a foot and a half on single jump unless i was out that much. but seeing as how i was unable to predict that i was gonna blare down the runway even harder on the next jump, it was impossible to know in advance :-(

{sigh} so yea, trial and error )=

i did have jump where i was really under and bailed out, like you reccomend, i was just more under than these jumps. on those jumps, yea, i was like a full 6-12 inches under, at which point, i either ran through or got jerked back and didn't continue with the jump haha