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Me working on hitting a close to free takeoff and then pulling like hell with my left arm. I think the results were pretty good. Thoughts?

Sorry about the quality, it was a widescreen HD video but the software I used to put the clips together killed the quality.

Info is in the description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2CEdnrL ... tube_gdata

how did you get a 13'6 195? I want one.

kcvault wrote:how did you get a 13'6 195? I want one.

If you call your favorite pole manufacturer they can usually make a pole stiffer or lighter than their standard fare. But expect to pay top dollar for a custom pole like that if they don't have any in stock.

Eliminate the forward shuffle of the left foot - look above the bottom hand - not at the pad -through the take off. Then try to come back even faster to cover the pole.

I'm not sure what you mean by forward shuffle of the left foot. Could you elaborate?

And the 13'6 195 was at the college I coach before I got there. They have some pretty crazy poles like 13' 190 and 13' 195 as well as a 16' 155, it's like picking up a piece of spaghetti.

At the beginning of the run up you should pin the left foot and run over it -do not skip or shuffle it forward even by a few inches - even in short approach work.

Nice work Walrus, looks great. Awesome inversion on these jumps, do you notice how easy the inversion phase feels when you cover the pole before the recoil?

The real trick is to replicate this on longer runs/poles with higher grips. I feel like I often block with the bottom arm and stop the natural swing (probably due to fear), once I get back to 7 lefts and achieve a free takeoff (about 12' for me)

Keep up the good work

Tom

Right on cue, here's last nights practice trying the same things from 8L. It was a little more difficult because my run was a bit all over the place, so I ended up inside and wasn't able to put as much thought into swinging long as I'd like (hence the tuck).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgDFtTvzB0w

P.S. My PR is 4.90, and I've only jumped that once this year. I'm not even doing the 6.40 model right (no free takeoff) and I'm still seeing huge improvements just from my swing. I'm a believer.

As long as you look forward at take off you will never be able to make a free upspringing take off. Also be careful about throing/dropping the head back in the inversion.

Now when you say don't look forward, is that because I am actually looking down? Looking at Bubka's 6.00m jump on the inside of the BtB2 cover he appears to be looking forward, or perhaps 5-10 degrees above horizontal. I always noticed, at least with the people I coach, that when they look up, at there left hand or higher at takeoff, they block with the left arm, and/or lean back excessively. My question is, what specifically do you recommend? My eyes are clearly looking at the box at takeoff, so I know that what I'm doing is incorrect, but I always thought that looking up (left hand or higher) would lead to equally significant problems.

Also, after just watching the video again, I imagine my eyes should move up tom my left had a lot sooner after takeoff then they do. Is that at all what you were talking about? Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and give me feedback by the way. I appreciate it!

In haste - You need to change your eye line if you want a free take off - certainly dont look at the box as you plant - as Bubka pointed out -the box never moves! Look just above the bottom hand would be a sound rule of thumb - this should not create other problems such as leaning back etc.