PoleVaultPower.com

Well the title pretty much says it all. Yesterday was the prelims at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships and I was without a coach. Not only was I without a coach, I was without any poles. Luckally I knew someone who was going and they told me, in advance, that I could have access to any of their poles. I used the first pole that I pulled out of the bag, a 14'7 150 (I had never been on a 14'7, before this point). The results were actually pretty good. I gripped 13'3 (what I felt safe, for a new pole, despite the fact that I had never gripped that high before, in competition), and this was the result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hquJzRbMIq4

Jump 1: My step was about a foot under, and yet I was able to keep my jump 'together' for the most part (probably cause the pole was so soft). Taking off, so far under, is also probably why I went slightly side-to-the-bar.

Jump 2: Still about 6 inches under, but a cleaner jump than the last one. The standards were almost all the way back, and most of my height was still 'behind' the bar. I'M SO GLAD MY COACH TOLD ME THAT...{wink wink}

Jump 3: My step was nearly dead on, and the bottom part of my fault looked best and yet...I still can't figure out, why I bailed on this one...any ideas? It really had the making of being my cleanest vault, ever.

Jump 4: Pretty good step, and nice swing, yet I still kinda went side-to-the-bar and I think...what, my pocket knocked it off??? Yea, this vault really makes me hate my life...I didn't land too deep into the pit, so someone's coach just told me to puch the standards, all the way back (only 10 more cm).

Jump 5: Looked like a clean jump, yet I kinda 'shot out', maybe cause the pole was too soft? I don't really know. Plenty of height...behind the bar, and like that, my last high school-indoor season is over...

NOTES:
1) personally, I think this was some of my cleanest jumping
2) It wasn't a total loss cause at least I know I can get on 14'7-poles
3) As...dissapointed as I am about this, I woke up, this morning, and just wanted to Vault.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks. -Joe

6P! Glad to see that you're healthy and vaulting well again!

What did you need to make Finals? 14-0?

Your 13-0 and 13-6 clearances were impressive. You FLEW over those bars!

And oh so close on your 2nd and 3rd attempts at 14-0!

I'll take a closer look later, after I download your vids and look at them frame-by-frame with QuickTime.

Be happy! You're on you way to a good outdoor season!

Kirk

Hey 6P... I already knew what the outcome was because we were talking earlier today, but on your videos if you didn't say whether you made it or not before the jump, they would be MUCH more fun to watch!

For the one you bailed on, I have a theory... I think you might have pulled for whatever reason, I don't know, maybe the new pole and pressure (without much adrenaline yet?)... You might have just quit on it for no good reason. It happens.

Yeah, you probably should've gripped up to 13'5" or higher. You're really REALLY going far. ALMOST blowing through.

Oh, and your plant is LATE LATE LATE! It's part of the reason why you're under on some of them. Do you see this too, or am I going insane!?

What is your mid at? It seems that your last few steps are kinda slow and you are going under.

PP said move grip up, i wouldnt recomend that just because you are under and any higher will just make that worse, Just try stiffer poles.

Kirk: great to hear from you man, I'm sorry we haven't been in touch. I suppose that due to weather and health, I haven't had much of a strong practice-schedule to relay to everyone. It really was a messy, indoor-season. I really look forward to hearing your review thought!!

VP: I couldn't monitor my mid, without a coach. Also, I strive for a free take-off, but sadly, the only person that was around, to catch my step (an opponent's coach), told me that I was taking off, around 11' (which would be on, for me), however, the video tape reveals that i'm around 10'. Whether or not he's blind as a bat, or trying to make me perform poorly, I'll never know. But my point, is, that without a coach, being able to adjust my step, was impossible. Personally, if I could go back and do anything, i'd have focused on increasing the cadence of my feet (at the time, it was just on being tall, which was a good thing and made a huge difference in my vault as you can see), in the last 6 strides, and gone up 5 - 10 pounds in pole-rating.

{sigh} it just wasn't my lucky day, I suppose. I really do feel robbed. Had someone just told me, how much I had been blowing through that pole, I woulda gone up in rating, opposed to just moving the standards back...

6P: No ... great to hear from YOU man!

I might not get to your vids til the weekend, but don't worry, I will get to them!

I want to see you HIT THE SKY in your outdoor season!

Kirk

I'm seeing a late plant as well..

6P, looking at your vids in slo-mo with QuickTime ...

Comparing your takeoff point to the thick white mark on the runway, I agree that your first vault was ~1-0 under, your second was ~0-6 under, and your 3 attempts at 14-0 were "about right" ... relatively.

But I think your target takeoff ... for where you're at in working on your free takeoff this season ... could still move out a couple inches ... and still not feel too far out to you. i.e. even your last 3 jumps were a bit under, IMO.

Your plant on your 2nd attempt at 14-0 was late, but I thought it was OK in your last attempt.

My theory on why you bailed on your first 14-0 attempt is that your step was "on", but that surprised you (you weren't ready for it), so the vault didn't feel quite right to you. Also keep in mind that when you're "on" or "out" you need to have a tighter body (top arm, shoulder, and torso) so that you EFFICIENTLY absorb some of the impact when the pole hits the box. That's kinda the difference between letting the bottom arm COLLAPSE versus driving the lead knee and stretching into the C that Altius and I were bantering about the past couple days (on the One-arm drill thread). On ALL your jumps, you're letting your bottom arm collapse, rather than driving into a good elastic stretch ... staying "tight". The further out your takeoff is, the tighter you need to be ... and the better "body posture" you need (search for "kirk feofanova" about this). (When you're under, this flaw isn't as apparent.)

I also noticed that you were dropping your lead knee in your 13-6 clearance, and in your last 14-0 attempt ... but not so much in your other vaults. I don't think you should intentionally drop your lead knee, because you're having trouble swinging/bringing it back up, so you probably lack the swing speed and/or gut strength to do this. Although I know your abs are strong, they're probably just not strong enough for this specific vault part. Work on those on the highbar and rings.

The main SYMPTOM that I see in all your vaults ... even your makes ... is that you flag out. Why? Because you're getting jerked off the ground ... not getting much of a downswing ... and digressing from there.

Even on your near-makes, you could have saved the vaults if only you shot straight up instead of out ... towards the bar. How do you fix that? Well, you're flagging out because you're losing your momentum into the pit. I know it sounds ironic, because you APPEAR to be blowing thru on your last 2 jumps, but actually, you're just flagging out. Had you shot UP instead of OUT, you wouldn't have hit the bar like you did. You would have hit it on your way down.

You know that I don't usually recommend that you fix an upper vault part until you've fixed all the lower vault parts. In this case, I still don't recommend doing anything to fix your flagging out problem. I'm just mentioning that as a key indicator (a SYMPTOM) of the problem.

I could just blurt out how to fix this, but I want you to do a little contemplation about it first. So you tell me ... how do you think you can fix your problem of always flagging out?

I'll give you my recommendations in a day or 2, but since you've made such a BIG STINK about not having a coach at nationals, I want you to DEAL WITH IT by becoming your own coach ... and you can't do that unless you become more retrospective. Not that you're not retrospective already ... I like the way you analyze your own vaults ... I just want you to do more of that ... now that I've given you a few pointers.

Also, I don't know what your coaching situation is for the outdoor season, but please remember that it's YOUR PV CAREER ... you have PRIMARY responsibility for your own success! No offense to your coach, but he's just your helper. YOU'RE in charge! Don't whine about not having a coach to catch your step or advise you between every jump. Just learn to become more independent and self-analytical. I KNOW you can!

Kirk

Hey Kirk, good to hear from you. I agree with my steps, you know that I strive for a free-take off (not that i've been getting many of them lately), however, where I was taking off, felt right, so i didn't feel the need to move it. One coach even told me I was a bit out, however, I left my step where it was...or moved it back, 3 more inches, I can't remember, at the moment.

Upon further review of the vaults, primarilly, the misses at 14', I'd have to concur on your theory about the bail-out, as well as 'flagging out', being my problem. The reason why I think I was flagging out, (althought it's always been a real mind-boggeler to me), was because I didn't swing long enough, and therefore didn't swing into inversion. I also think I'm not 'coming back' enough, however, i think the lack of swing, or maybe my posture at take-off, is to blame.

On a side note, I've left my high school team (for lack of facilities and poles), and am now working, full time, with a private coach. I'll be with him, thursday and will let everyone know what type of workout regime, he puts me on, from now, until the summer. -6P

YO, 6P, you gotta come down here to MD this Summer for the clinci altius is putting on in my area!

joebro391 wrote: I left my step where it was...or moved it back, 3 more inches, I can't remember, at the moment.

I don't think you moved them back. At least it didn't appear that way on the vid (but maybe you did - the vid isn't THAT accurate). I think if you moved them back 3", your heel would have been on that white mark, and it wasn't. Or maybe you moved your STARTING POINT back 3", but you still STRETCHED your run to the same takeoff point. That's quite common. I guess DJ would ask "where was your mid-mark?", but I know you didn't have anyone spotting that.

joebro391 wrote: ... 'flagging out' ... reason ... was because I didn't swing long enough, and therefore didn't swing into inversion. I also think I'm not 'coming back' enough, however, i think the lack of swing, or maybe my posture at take-off, is to blame.

Yes ... but WHY? (I might keep asking "WHY?" until we get to the root cause!

Take another stab at the "right" answer. I will tell you ... but I want you to think about it a little longer ...

Kirk

With a 14'7" 155 you would have cleared 14 and with a 160 you could have cleared 14 6/15- even tho you were taking off under. Agree with PP -come to the Maryland clinic.