Again... Last Saturday

[TylerPorter11]

Here is a short video of me last Saturday on the same pole...

I dropped my fist again one fist down

Told my mom to get a better angle also...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWf9YxU21c

[powerplant42]

Almost all of your mistakes are very reactive.

Your run was not pictured, but let's assume that it's fine.

The beginning of you plant is slightly late, but what is more important is how low the bottom hand drops... It must stay high, never dropping below the bottom of the sternum. This causes you to run under, which in turn causes your trail-leg to break (to 'save' your vault), which causes you to tuck and shoot.

A slightly heavier pole would not hurt (figuratively). But until you fix your plant/take-off problem I would recommend against it.

[TylerPorter11]

So what you're saying is...

Use a free take off and try to push the pole to vertical with my bottom hand? Then that will change everything in my vault?

[KirkB]

... Use a free take off and try to push the pole to vertical with my bottom hand? Then that will change everything in my vault?

Yes, use a free takeoff, but no, don't "push the pole to vertical with my bottom hand".

Looking only at your 13-6 clearance ...

In the frame where both your thighs are together (as you're just lifting up your lead leg knee), you pole is already beginning to bend. This is bad, unless you're purposely trying to load the pole before takeoff. If you're trying to follow the Petrov model, then ... as you say ... you should definitely strive for a free takeoff ... so your pole shouldn't bend until after you leave the ground.

If you move your takeoff out, remember that you will have to jump INTO your takeoff before the pole hits the box. Don't do this all at once. Move it out gradually, as you become comfortable with it. If you try to progress too quickly, you might have to start the progression all over again ... to gain your self-confidence in taking off more "out". Just move it out an inch or two at a time ... over several days or even weeks.

In terms of bottom arm placement and movement, it's not actually too bad (i.e. it's not blocking), as you have a nice narrow grip, and your bottom arm elbow flexes OK.

You're hidden from view during your C and during most of your downswing (ask you mom to move, or ask the guy in the way to move - the plant/takeoff/C/downswing are the most important parts of the vault to capture on vid), so it's hard to tell, but the fact that you have a long trail leg when you pass the chord tells me that you're downswinging quite nicely ... as well as you can given that you're under and given that you're loading the pole. In other words, I think your downswing can become quite powerful as soon as you fix up the mistakes in the plant and takeoff.

After you pass the chord, you recover quite nicely from the mistakes in the bottom half your vault by tucking (which quickens your rotation). I do NOT advise that you do this in a NORMAL vault, but if that's what you need to do to recover from poor technique in the lower half, then so be it. Please don't even try to focus on fixing the top half of your vault until you get the bottom half fixed.

Personally, I don't see TOO MUCH wrong with your plant, but then again, I'm no expert in that. Perhaps some other COACH can catch any flaws there?

It does look like you're stretching out on your last step too much, so that should be really easy to fix ... just shorten your last step!

Easier said than done tho, so you need to take it a step at a time by (a) deciding that you want your target technique to include a free takeoff; (b) doing various drills to get used to how that feels; (c) get used to more of a forwards body angle (better body posture - search for "body posture") on takeoff (you're leaning back, due to your takeoff being in); (d) jumping UP and INTO the pole ... before the pole picks you up off the ground (a result of your flaw of loading it before takeoff); (e) FINISHING your takeoff (search for those key words to see what that means).

Normally, I also advise vaulters to improve your downswing too, but in your case, it's not your weakest link ... it will be fine as long as you're not under.

Re "pushing the pole to vertical with my bottom hand", this is just wrong. Please search for other "bottom hand" threads ... this has been discussed quite thoroughly recently ... and you won't find anywhere that anyone says that the pole "gets to vertical" by "pushing with the bottom hand". On the contrary, its likely to stall you out. Those are 2 unrelated concepts, so you're totally confused about that.

You're actually getting your pole to vertical quite nicely (blowing thru on a soft pole - except on your 13-0 which you should just ignore), and from what I can see, I don't think you're pushing too hard with the bottom hand, so neither of these concepts are anything that you need to worry about at the moment.

Just focus on your "weakest links" and progress from there.

Kirk