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This is me vaulting from 6 lefts this summer. My main focus this summer was jumping up at take off and getting my feet down, as a result I had some of my best 6 left jumps. Still a lot of work to do but I am pretty happy with my summer jumping overall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4-qjGC_3VA
--Kasey

In haste - but three points. Your grip is at least 6 inches too wide - will prevent a free take off. You are throwing your head back instead of drving head and shoulders to the pad as a unit. On some jums you tend to shorten the left leg swing a tad early. I am sure with time we can find a few more things you can look at - perhaps the last six steps -which are stil not tight enough.

Thank you for the advice. I completely agree with you on all three points. I always have my best jumps when I can manage to narrow my grip and remember not to throw my head. I have been slowly narrowing it for the last year but this is a slow process because every time I don't have confidence it widens involuntarily. I will continue to work on the last six steps as well.

I Have been able to get a couple of free take offs or at least close to free this summer but the wide grip blocks the benefit of the free take off a little bit. Also because of the wide grip I have to hit a very far out step to do it. Here is a video of my free take offs or take off attempts this summer I think the last five are all free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZhx4aHQYps

Nice!

Doug Balcomb
PV Coach NZ

Every year you post videos and they get slightly better technique wise and your step is looking good now, but your major mistakes seem to stay the same. The largest being that massive wide grip. And you keep saying you are slowly moving it together, but it still looks like it has not changed too much.

Just a idea. Have you thought about in the fall when you begin training, just do everything with the standard grip width of your forearm and hand. Do grass vaulting like this, sand vaulting like this, straight pole vaulting like this, do ll your pole runs like this, do all your pole carry drills like this, do all your plant drills like this. Keep it like that from all your short runs for like a month or two. Then when you start moving your step back after just making yourself keep that grip for two months or so, it will feel more natural.

You can't just wait till your running full speed on a bent pole and pull your hands in a foot closer and expect it to feel normal. But if you pretend like you have never pole vaulted when you start and slowly build up it will work. When I am coaching I start everyone off in September as if they do not know anything about pole vaulting, weather they vault 0' or 17'. This makes you concentrate on all the little details you may have started to forget or not emphasize on since you first learned how to pole vault.

Just a thought - do all short approach run vaults sand/grass/box with a grip of 6" or less - even with the hands touching.

altius wrote:Just a thought - do all short approach run vaults sand/grass/box with a grip of 6" or less - even with the hands touching.

Can you go deeper into this please. I had someone ask me the other day if a closer grip when straight poling would be more beneficial because of the bigger angle with the low grip it would keep the hand from being so far in front of them.

Every year you post videos and they get slightly better technique wise and your step is looking good now, but your major mistakes seem to stay the same. The largest being that massive wide grip. And you keep saying you are slowly moving it together, but it still looks like it has not changed too much.

I definitely see your point and I do all of my drills with a super narrow grip but I can not bring myself to leave the ground with one. However I have managed to narrow it a bit from two years ago. These are pic of two years ago on a day were my grip was more narrow then normal for that time. So I am making progress but it is hard for me not to revert back to it because most the time I am not even conscious of it I will widen it as I run down the runway. I have managed to narrow it a little more the last couple practices and will post video in about four weeks.

Just a idea. Have you thought about in the fall when you begin training, just do everything with the standard grip width of your forearm and hand. Do grass vaulting like this, sand vaulting like this, straight pole vaulting like this, do ll your pole runs like this, do all your pole carry drills like this, do all your plant drills like this. Keep it like that from all your short runs for like a month or two. Then when you start moving your step back after just making yourself keep that grip for two months or so, it will feel more natural.

Theoretically this makes a lot of since and I actually start the first two or three months every year like this and always feel it is going to work. This year I was thinking of never vaulting from less then 5 lefts except for straight pole drills. I think the added reps on bigger poles will help me to be more comfortable with the poles and allow me to narrow my grip. I can take 1000 reps on a 15 ft 180 with a narrow grip and think nothing of it this is not difficult for me. But when I pick up a 16ft 190 with a narrow grip I feel extreme anxiety, I cant help but visualize the pole getting ripped out of my hands or twisting hard at take off. This is something that never happens to me with smaller poles but as soon as I get to my 16 ft poles I have this problem.

http://www.myspace.com/kaseykckc/photos/48379947#{%22ImageId%22%3A48379965}
http://www.myspace.com/kaseykckc/photos/48379947#{%22ImageId%22%3A48379947}

Just a thought - do all short approach run vaults sand/grass/box with a grip of 6" or less - even with the hands touching.

Thanks I will start doing my drills no wider then 6 inches and hopefully it will help me to be more confident with the narrow grip.