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I just started working with one of my former HS vaulters who is a junior in college. He hasn't had much organized coaching the past two seasons and I was finally able to come back to work with him again. I thought I would throw this out there for some more additional critique.

Brief Stats:
height: 6-0
weight: 170
PR: 14-10 in HS

Pole is a 13-180 from 10 steps

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol1mdmrX9Mc

My biggest things I am working on:
1. His top arm at plant being bent and hand curling in.
2. He doesn't move the pole into the pit with his arms very well. His swing happens mostly with his lower body.
3. He gets a little stuck on his swing and doesn't cover the pole in time mostly due to the above.
4. His swaying of the arms when he runs.

Is 10 steps 10 steps or lefts? 10 lefts is WAY too much for this kid.

I would say that his plant is late, but I can't tell for sure due to the video quality... but he is definitely bending the pole pretty bad while he's still grounded. That would be my number one concern (if his plant is not late, that is).

It's tough to give good critiques when a vaulter uses such small poles. Is there any video of him on a bigger pole?

powerplant42 wrote:Is 10 steps 10 steps or lefts? 10 lefts is WAY too much for this kid.

I would say that his plant is late, but I can't tell for sure due to the video quality... but he is definitely bending the pole pretty bad while he's still grounded. That would be my number one concern (if his plant is not late, that is).

It's tough to give good critiques when a vaulter uses such small poles. Is there any video of him on a bigger pole?

This is 10 total steps. I don't have any current video of him on longer poles as this is pre-season and this is only the second vault session. I'm going to get him back to 12 steps and on 14 foot poles on Wednesday.

Edit: I uploaded a slow motion video and seems to look a lot better. Check the link above.

Posture, posture, posture.

This kid is doing things pretty well, but his posture on the runway makes everything worse than it should be.

Get him standing up better, keep the arms more still, and drop the pole a little sooner. No reason why he shouldn't be a successful vaulter.

Yes, get him to stop the pole pumping.

Barto wrote:Posture, posture, posture.

This kid is doing things pretty well, but his posture on the runway makes everything worse than it should be.

Get him standing up better, keep the arms more still, and drop the pole a little sooner. No reason why he shouldn't be a successful vaulter.

Thanks! I will work with him on his posture. If you can believe it we have reduced his arms swaying back and forth but it still needs attention.