Progress Report

[vault3rb0y]

These are the jumps I took at the Akron Invite over the weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vxcvVhmQjk

Check out the previous meet as well, to see where I was two weeks earlier. My focus has been on cleaning up the take off to be more smooth off the ground, and to be further behind the pole at (and immediately following) pole impact. Let me know what you think!!

Grip: 14'6"
Pole(s): 15'6" 165-170 Carbon FX (170 @ 4.95 jumps)
Standards: 80 for all jumps till 4.95, then 65.
Take off: 11'6"

[VaultPurple]

How much do you weigh?

[altius]

1. Late plant -in part because the pole moves a long way out to the left before moving into position for take off. Certainly not centered above your head when your left foot is flat on the ground . So the pole is not in a good position and you are not ready to jump when the right foot touches.
2. Under - if you are looking for a free take off.
3. You must drive the shoulders under the hips a few hundredths of a second sooner.
4. You just drop off the pole at the top - once you are in a good position you must actively spiral upwards while interacting with the pole - pull turn push!
All IMHO of course.

[vault3rb0y]

VP: about 160

Altius, some of those points we have been addressing, so I will continue to work specifically on those. A clarification on two points, though:

"-Drive the shoulders under the hips.... sooner."

In reference to my take off position? I've never heard this said before so I'm excited to hear this tip, but could you clarify it for me?

"Actively Spiral upwards/interacting with the pole"

I have been having a hard time on these relatively softer poles to stay connected long enough to really move up the pole. I noticed this too, is there any cue you would use to help me stay connected longer? We haven't been addressing this issue much, because we felt that if we could clean my take off up and get on stiffer poles, it would take care of itself. But now it seems it's time to address it. Thanks a lot!

[VaultPurple]

Well I remember you saying something a while back about having some pretty good weight lifting maxes, especially in bench press. What I am thinking is that a 165 and 170 is no where stiff enough for you. If you were to really jump and drive your chest into the vault then you could be up on poles up in the 185+ range. It looks to me like you just kind of run really fast into the plant and never get your hands up real high so that the pole is just picking you up off of the ground instead of you hitting the plant hard and pushing it into the pit at the plant. You have to use your strengths to your advantage, so you really need to hit that plant hard and you will get on some massive poles.

[altius]

In some degree of haste - just beginning a book on the coaching of basketball!

AS I suggested you are a fraction late getting your shoulders under your hips so you dont get the vertical position as early as you could. The timing is difficult but crucial to aligning your whole body with the pole as it straightens. An earlier drive of the shoulders under the hips may also help you get the hips back further covering the pole. take a look at Bubka in the black an white sequence of his technique on the btb dvd.

Any time you are under it is very difficult - not impossible, but very difficult -to get a free take off. And you are under in part because of your late plant -your hands must be in position to take off BEFORE the right foot hits - they should not still be moving up at that point. But with the problems with the planting action earlier on this is virtually impossible = you must keep everything closer to the left side as you move the pole into position - you cannot allow both hands to sweep out the the left at this point as they appear to do in the jumps shown hear) and make sure that at the very least your left hand is just above the CENTRE of your head when the right foot is flat on the ground.

Re being under - From a purely theoretical perspective consider where you would need to leave the ground so that your take off forces would be at right angles to the pole at that instant. Extreme perhaps but aim for that in your sand pit work. How much long jumping do you do in your training - what is your comp pr in the LJ?

You are right - it would be easier to interact with the pole if it were stiffer and straightening faster -improving the plant/take off elements outlined above may enable you to use bigger sticks - but you cannot just give up on it as you appear to do. Try some stiff pole jumping from 6 steps trying to continually increase your pr -then swing and spiral up and over the bar - you will have to do a better job off the top if you want to improve -the swing can only take you so far - you must continue to exploit the energy of the swing at the top of the jump. MOVE THE POLE ALWAYS. VP

[vault3rb0y]

Awesome Ideas! I'm loving it.

Luckily, my coach has been echoing all of the tips you have suggested in all these areas:

1.) late plant
2.) Wide "roll" of my top (left) hand around my body during plant
3.) Under Take off
4.) poor angle with the pole at impact

We broke down my vault to 3 rights (6 steps) on Monday with flexible poles, working on all of these aspects. The biggest difficulty I found was to allow myself to be free off the ground, yet still be aggressively maintaining pressure with my hands. It seemed as though I would only be aggressive when i was ~10-15cm under, and when I hit my take off directly on (or even slightly out) I did not continue to press through with my hands. It did show significant improvements throughout the day, however. Tomorrow we plan on doing several 3's again, getting back to where we ended Monday, then go back to 8 rights for long run work. This is mostly driven by our championship in less than two weeks. My coach greatly admires your input and advice, and there is no doubt that if you have ideas for drills, he would allow me to do them and would help me with them.

In order for my forces to be at a 90 degree angle with the pole at take off, I would need the angle from my take off foot to my hand to be approximately 58 degrees behind vertical (if I can reach to 7' and am gripping 14'6"). This puts my take off step around 16! That is of course for my top hand. I understand what you are saying, though, and I will strive to be VERY far behind the pole in my sand-pit work.

I have been talking to my coaches, trying to convince them to let me long jump in the summer/fall to prep for the vault. I have not LJ'ed since I was 15, when I managed 20' even, and averaged 18's in most meets. I am now much more explosive, slightly faster, and about 10-15Ib heavier. If I had to guess, I think that I could jump low 21's.

I could ask my coaches about doing some LJ training. If you feel it would be greatly beneficial to me, I think they would consider it. The real issue is the overall volume of impact on my feet each week, and the toll it can take on my shins especially. It may help a lot, but the question is how much, if any, is too much? It's definitely something I would like to talk to my coaches about though, after our indoor season is over.

[altius]

Jump from a rubber covered and springy beat board.

[vault3rb0y]

How many steps should I use?

I can start doing this, but obviously this would increase my PR a little more than it actually is.

[altius]

10/12 jumps from six rights - but develop a comp run up and long jump in competition. But remember this is a means to an end - improving your vault take off.

[vault3rb0y]

I understand completely. My coaches definitely wouldn't let me do any long jumping unless they saw it as a means to an end as well. I will bring it up after our conference championship this weekend.

In the mean time, I don't have videos, but we worked a lot of 3-step vaults from stiff and flexible runs the past two weeks. The first day was exclusively 3 steps, then we did about half 3's and half 5's. It went well, and on my 3's I ended up leaving the ground from 11' gripping 13'3-13'6" which is slightly outside of vertical on my flexible vaults. I'm still having some trouble making my last 3 steps quick enough to really pop off the runway (long jump would certainly help with this mentality), but when I was able to get my steps down and jump up, I blew through. My 5's were significantly more under, around 11'4" gripping 14'2". As a consequence, my hips are coming through way too quickly.

This week, we tried going from 3's directly to 8's in practice but it felt too fast and out of control after two weeks of just 3's, so I had to go back to 5's and get a couple plants before I felt comfortable going right back to 8's. My step is a little better, but in comparison to my 3's, I have a long way to improve. I do feel MUCH tighter on top, however, because I feel like I am fully covering and extending up the pole now, even with my step 3-6" under. My last practice before our indoor championship is tomorrow, and my plan is to work on being further behind the pole at take off (aka get my step out to 12'6" instead of 12", gripping 14'6") and fully covering the pole. If this happens I feel that I will be right back at my PR and beyond very soon! Thanks and I will video-update you sometime next week!

Jason