PoleVaultPower.com

For starters, i think i am taking off too far under, and i am having trouble getting inverted. I land on top of the bar almost every time.
Not too sure what i can do to fix it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvYH_u1qjo

OK number one, PUT THE TOP PAD ON YOUR PIT!!!!!!

It is SUPER DANGEROUS to vault like that. It would be very easy to land between the pieces of mat and get SEVERELY injured.

Second, once you are on a pit with a top pad, hold a foot lower on the pole and focus on keeping your top arm straight.

well it got ruined last year because of rats in our shed i believe.. and my school isn't too generous towards our track team. but thank you

You should not pole vault at your school until they get a new one or fix the old one. You can't improve in the pole vault with a broken leg or broken neck, things that could EASILY happen with no top pad. Go practice somewhere else or only vault in meets. You can still do sand vaulting at your school.

coming from a kid who landed between two back pads WITH a cover and still got injured....it isnt worth it! even with a top pad, landing between mats can still cause injury let alone without one. vault only at meets or come up with a solution but DONT jump without legal mats and a top pad!

Ditto on that. Safety first!!

Take the word of people who have seen pads move and injuries occur. Don't do it! Even on safe pads, accidents can happen. Gotta be smart!

okay so when i do practice on safe mats, isnt it different to keep your arm straight when the pole isnt bending from holding it that foot lower, then when it is bending? cause you aren't upside down like you are when it bends. Because i can hold it low and keep my arm straight every time, just not when i hold it any higher

Then you really need to keep holding low until you can inch your grip up and still keep that top arm straight.

If you're serious about learning how to vault correctly, start by doing some of these things:
- Vault safely, and for starters, you must have a common cover on your pit.
- Learn to swing to vertical, keeping your top arm straight at low grips and build on that.
- Watch every video you can watch of elite vaulters on youtube and analyse what they're doing.
- Read as much information as you can on the pole vault and get a better understanding of this event.
- At meets, watch the kids that jump high and try to emulate some of the basic things they're doing.
- Listen only to the people that know what they're talking about when it comes to the vault.
- Understand that there is no "quick fix" to anything in the pole vault and there is no substitute for doing it correctly. All of the make-up in the world isn't going to help Frankenstein win a beauty pageant.

hye

was that a right handed... right foot takeoff???!!! (opposed to a correct right hand-left foot)

dj

dj wrote:hye

was that a right handed... right foot takeoff???!!! (opposed to a correct right hand-left foot)

dj

I wondered that too... but no. Freezing the frame at takeoff you can see its the correct foot.

hye

you are correct... i missed it the first time....

looks like a decent takeoff.. but needs a shorter pole... so the left arm could have a better chance of "extending'

all fixable...

dj

My first meet being able to pole vault because the other meets didnt have officials for it. I know i still have to work on keeping my arms straight, one of my biggest things. And my leg swing looks pretty slow.. I've also been coming down really close to the bar, hardly avoiding it. Of course my pole knocked the bar down on this jump.. but that doesnt happen often.
Standards at 9'6
12' 150 pole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_7pm0RYajw