Progression II

[crayford]

Well, if you remember my previous video, expect more of the same terrible trail leg but higher heights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oNxe_qV ... annel_page

Windsor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAv2W_ZQ ... annel_page

Grand Haven Beach Vault

Anything else I should be worried about?

[crayford]

No one cares to review either? :/

I challenge you, rip me a new one.

[vault3rb0y]

I could go through a list of things you could improve on your technique.... but all of them are going to be easier to do if you lower your grip on the pole you are on and go up in flex rather than weight until your technique improves. I wouldnt grip higher than 12'6" until you jump 13'. Here goes...

You have the speed to jump really high, but you need to plant a little earlier and higher, with the right grip on the right pole.

When you lower your grip, the whole vault is going to be easier to control. You will keep the pole moving forward easier, and it will give you a chance to swing to inversion. Right now it's just too much to handle. Just because you CAN hold a certain hieght doesnt mean you SHOULD. I would work stiff pole vaults, from just 3 right steps. You look strong, so swing long on a stiff pole and get all the way back, and try to at least jump your handhold- you can do it on a stiff vault. Then work that 3-step approach with a flexible pole, and work on covering the pole and getting in line with it. Dont even worry about turning- just land on your back holding onto the pole.

The easiest and best way to work on your inversion would be on a high bar, getting the core strength and swing speed to do bubkas. If you can do it on a high bar easily and not on a pole- that probably means you are over gripping. If you still have trouble with it, take some video and we'll help ya figure it out. Until you get your inversion moving at least in the right direction, you are going to plateau around 13'-14'. With your speed, i see you with the ability to go much much higher than that in a few years.

[KirkB]

Nice jumping, Crayford!

So your PR is 13-0 now, right? Update your profile!

I would comment on your technique, but 3P0 has just about covered it, so I don't have much to add. Keep training hard, and the PRs will come. You need to improve your swing. Learn how to swing on the highbar ... not on the pole. It's easier that way.

Kirk

[vault3rb0y]

Keep posting videos because obviously we havent covered EVERYTHING you could improve upon. I only talked about what i believe you can do to best help you RIGHT NOW... but as this improves you can continue to improve other aspects, i just dont want to overload you right now. So as you implement new things into your training, keep working, and getting better at it.... keep posting videos and we'll give you the next best thing to work on.

[crayford]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eb4afS6Zw

Those are my vaults at the last meet I'm going to 'til indoor season.

I'm running a 7 left approach at 91' on a 14'6" 160 pole gripping at about 13'6". I weigh 145 and am 5'10".


May the off-season workouts begin!

[crayford]

Any responses?

I know in the first vault I rowed with my bottom arm and stopped my swing.

In the second I'm not sure what exactly went wrong.

In the third I didn't rock back far enough.

Please?

It's only 3 vaults...

[Andy_C]

Hi Crayford,

Just looking at some things from your last video:

I'm noticing that you're running yourself under in every jump - you're always bending the pole before you leave the ground. When your take off foot hasn't left the ground the instant the tip of the pole hits the back of the box - you're under (assuming you have a decent plant). While it may seem completely unrelated to your swing, taking off under will actually reduce the quality of your swing drastically and it will also reduce your "time limit" to inverting. This is just one thing that's wrong but if you ask me it's also one of the most important. Not only will it help you with your swing and inversion but it will help you with so many other things with the vault.

How to fix taking off under:
You're in the off-season so you've got a lot of time I'm assuming. If you do - 6 step (3 lefts) straight pole jumps like what vault3rboy recommended; over and over and over and over. Stiff pole vaulting is also very good for helping with being under! The great thing about the stiff pole jump is that it is self-correcting in many ways, this means that it really makes your mistakes like taking off under really apparent. It's very difficult to take off under with a stiff pole because it doesn't "give" like a bending pole. The second the pole hits the back of the box and you're not off the ground already - you're going to feel it! I recommend starting from 2 steps then moving to 4 (2 lefts) and then 6 (3 lefts); making sure at each stage that you are taking off before the pole hits the back of the box. Start with a low grip - go about 5-6 hand grips above your standing grip for 2 steps. Increase your grip as you go back to 4 and 6 steps (2-3 hand grips per stage). Also increase your hand grip if you're going over too easy. (let me know if you don't understand what I mean by any of that)

Things to keep in mind when you're doing this straight pole drill:
Short last step - your last step needs to be as short but also as powerful as possible (ie. short but not "cutting out" the strength)
Stay behind the pole - staying behind it is the most effective way of delivering your energy from the runway into the vault
Don't pull/Don't row (when you try to swing to inversion) - big mistakes that will really show if you're doing them on stiff poles. Rowing can be due to an effort of trying to get inverted with a poor swing. Poor swings come about primarily due to three reasons; either you're not strong enough, you're not swinging properly (in your case, you're not dropping your shoulders down - this is your big technical flaw specifically for the swing) or you're out of position when you initiate the swing (this happens when you take off under and I think it's affecting your swing a lot)

Let me know if you have any questions about that, it's just the way I've been taught to fix taking off under. In my opinion, taking off under deserves the highest priority in the "to do list" for many people. Very few things will ever precede taking off under on that list and that only comes about if you're doing REALLY dangerous stuff. The reason for this is that being under is so difficult to fix once you keep advancing. It's a lot better to get it as early as possible before you get used to it. It's also one of the things that will tremendously help you with your vault, if you fix it you will notice the improvements immediately. The proper take off (on the spot or out/pre jump - if you can manage) will help you with:

your positioning for the swing - taking off under will advance your hips forward prematurely. This means you won't be able to bring your hips and swinging leg back far enough for a powerful swing. You're effectively doing just part of a swing in this position. You can make up for this with massive strength work but this is the more effective way of fixing it.

keeping your horizontal speed through the vault - this will help with penetration, although you're not feeling it now if you move up to bigger poles this will definitely help you out. Taking off under will transfer all your horizontal speed into vertical speed. Not a good thing considering that what goes straight up must come straight down... right over the plant box! Right now the pole you're using is bending enough to allow you through easily. A bigger, stiffer pole later on will not be so forgiving.

bend the pole at the right time - just remember, bending the pole too early = bad, bending the pole later = good! If you want me to explain, let me know (it's a pretty big explanation). Bending it early is a huge problem for everybody but trying to bend it later (this is to do with the prejump) is more concerned with fine tuning advanced technique. Basically, you'll want to initiate the bend of the pole as late as possible, while trying to bend it as much as possible while you're in the air (with a good swing). The general idea is to delay and prolong the bend in order to give you enough time to "beat" the pole and get ahead of the pole's recoil. This isn't something you should really be concerned with right now but for the sake of completion I'll throw it this little blurb. But if you ever catch yourself "running out of time" to get upside down when the pole is recoiling - this is what I'm talking about.

give you a better angle of attack at take off - the further out you take off, the pole to ground angle will be at take off (taking into account that you jump up vigorously at take off and don't take off flat). The bigger the angle the better, this is the reason underlying why taller people have an advantage at the pole vault over shorter people. At the same grip on the same pole, a taller person will have a higher pole to ground angle than a shorter person. In effect, the taller person can grip higher and still maintain the same pole to ground angle. It's all about the angle between the pole and the ground! The shorter person can make up for this disadvantage and even create their own advantage (depending on how good/brave/crazy they are) by pre-jumping!

making the most out of your pole - taking off under can "artificially" make the pole too soft, somewhat like taking off flat will - you will bend the pole more, but you won't be able to use that bend!

(I might be forgetting something, if I do please forgive me! It's 12am where I am and I need sleep!)

But as Kirk and vault3rboy pointed out, you should be doing lots of high bar drills as well. This will really help you with your swing technique. If you can, practice driving your shoulders down and punching your hips upwards at the same time. From your last video you're only trying to get your legs up. The thing is, you can bend your hip to bring your legs up but since your shoulders are connected to your hip via your torso, you also need to drive your shoulders down in order to elevate your hips! Otherwise you're just going to "sit" through your vault.

You've got other technical flaws as pointed out before but still, I think it's very much worthwhile to invest a lot of time into not taking off under.

-Andrew