GiVaulter09 wrote: ... So then it came to the third attempt, and since we really didn't have a pole to go up to I was really forced to increase grip. The next pole we have would have been a 5m 185lbs and that would be a 20lbs jump with a foot higher sail piece.
Adam, nice to hear of your progress. I think you were smart to not use it ... it's too much of a increment all at once. You'll probably need that one early next year tho, if you keep progressing as you did this year!
GiVaulter09 wrote: ... Oh and by the way my standards were at 80 for all of these.
GiVaulter09 wrote: ... So for the third attempt I raised my grip to 14'9. ... So I raised my grip to 14'11 really finished take-off well and swung decently. I realized that the pole was a lot softer gripping this high and it felt like an eternity. But I pretty much sat on it and just flagged out. So I went into the third attempt with a little more confidence in knowing what was gonna happen. So I tried to hit the same take-off and swung trying to keep moving on the pole and not sit. And I popped over it pretty easily.
GiVaulter09 wrote: ... 15'6 went pretty well. My second attempt was the closest. I just nicked off on the way up because I didn't get back enough.
GiVaulter09 wrote: ... So my question is even though I didn't have a choice was moving up grip and better choice then moving up to a bigger pole? It seems that a bigger pole would just make the problem worse. Although I know that moving up grip does make things harder as well. It just felt like a totally different vault when I was gripping higher. Like I had so much more time. I wish I had film of the competition but I don't. There was a photographer who took a lot of pictures so I'll take a look at those and see if they are any help.
Adam, as you say, your 14-11 grip will make the whole vault feel slower ... giving you more time to invert. Next year, you'll be gripping even higher than that ... no doubt.
The last meet of the year isn't the time to use a pole 20 pounds heavier than you've ever used, so that was good.
Instead of raising your grip, you could have shortened your run by a couple steps, and then psyched yourself up to accelerate faster than you normally run ... especially the last couple strides. That might have worked better than raising grip, but that's hindsight.
Your 15-0 with a 14-11 grip is only a 9" pushoff. That's not much. Next year, you should strive to get a pushoff of 2-3 feet! In other words, don't be too anxious to raise grip ... even if it's to soften the feel of the pole. Your lack of a decent pushoff is sufficient evidence to me that you still have a long way to go to improve your technique. That's actually a good thing ... that you're already clearing 15-1 and getting close to 15-6 with "poor" technique. It shows that you have lots of upside potential.
Using Brad Walker as an example, in the USATF, he did 5.75 from a short run. His reasons for doing this were different than your dilemma, but he chose to shorten his run rather than to raise his grip. It's a good option when you don't have enough poles in your bag.
You could have done the same, but it's too late to worry about that now. But keep that in mind during next season. Instead of raising your grip, keep getting on heavier poles as your technique improves. The grip-raising will come later. Don't try to raise it too soon, or your technique will suffer.
Don't take these numbers literally, but as a rough guess, I'd say that you should keep your grip no higher than 14-8 until you clear about 16-0. That's a 24" pushoff. After that, you should strive for improving your grip, but NEVER at the expense of reducing your pushoff. For example, to clear 5.00 (16-5), you should grip no higher than 15-0 or so. Keep in mind that these are all rough numbers, and your milage will vary. Just make sure your bars increase as fast ... or faster ... than your grip ... and ALWAYS with at least a 2 foot pushoff.
What are you going to be doing between now and next season? Just curious. Good luck!
Kirk
Get on the highbar to fix this. You need to straighten out your trail leg, and swing it DOWN (the downswing), before you pass the chord and start tucking. In fact, as you begin to do this right, you'll find less and less need to tuck at all.