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This is a video of a friend of mine. She is a junior in high school and her pr is 8' 6". She is running with a 11' 6" UCS spirit pole grippping about 10 inches from the top and is running 5 lefts. Unfortunately, I don't know where her 5 left mark is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V59K9sek9pk

anybody?

run.... faster.

Lower the grip 6 inches. Not bad off the ground. She just needs to grip lower or find a way to run faster. Don't move the run back any farther though.

deff need to lower grip like avc said. work on consistant strides while increasing speed. speed is key here. but not to worry there is always time to work on things other than just vaulting

I would focus on an acceleration, especially the last 6 steps. Practice this without a pole, maybe in a 6 step long jump contest for 5-8 reps as part of a warm up or after a vault session. Get her used to the feeling of needing to be quick, controlled, fast, and still explosive off the ground. If she carries that into the vault she will start progressing very quickly.

Pole carry is too far behind her which prevents her from making plant and take off go up and forwards. I like to see the right hand at or around the right hip. Have her do Isi's step and plant drill which is shown on Dave Butler's Reno video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8610699280052593028# . She's not bending the pole much which is good which in turn causes her to technically improve to make the heights. At this point I don't think the extra two lefts are doing anything more than making her run more. Some short pole three left work using DJ's chart for distance and grip will help her. Example have her start with her first left at 33 feet, grip at 9' 10" and a bar height at 8 feet. From there you move the start back a foot, grip up four inches, and bar up 6". Keep going like that as she progresses. She'll reach a "stall out" grip eventually and that's what she'll want to work at to get past. She will have to drive through the plant and take off to make the bars as the grip goes up. Bottom line is if she is an 8' 6" jumper at three lefts....who cares? These short run stiff pole exercises are invaluable as she progresses. I call it "jumping the chart" and it's part of what I coach. Must work because I have a 14 footer that when I started with him he was an 11 foot "pole sitter"(gripped 13 or 14 and could run fast enough to just jump, hang on and sit his way through an 11 foot jump. Give it a shot and if you need more clarification just ask or PM me. Later............Mike