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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nzTcUQjsDE

Here's a video of my last practice. My problem is that i start turning to the bar too early. Any advice how to improve that, is welcome.
Thanks.

Well thats part of the problem. your run is great. (for the most part) very tall very powerful and it sets you up to really jump up at the takeoff. The transition in the plant is good all of your steps are close to directly underneath your hips and i dont see you striding very much. You also plant early and in good position.

However with all this positive you dont actually do anything with it. The point of that tall run with a good acceleration build is to not force your hips low in accelerating to the box. This gives you a higher cg and allows you to jump up onto the pole and utilize a much higher bend in the pole. Unfortunately your under and getting ripped off the ground!

Utilize that run and jump up onto the pole. the negatives of what ive mentioned right now include an initial low bend and poor penetration. Bad hip position angle leading into the swing and overall just a lower bend and less penetration than your capable of.

This is actually really good news because you can really get on much larger pole and its inherent that you can create much more pole speed than im seeing here. But thats the first part of the problem.


The second portion is more a less what you were focusing on. The REAL problem here is that during your takeoff phase your hips get sucked forwards to early and are in poor position for the swing. that coupled with a bit of pulling with the bottom arm (your left arm) is creating that low bend.

As far as your turning to early problem. Focus on rowing that left arm straight up and then out. What i mean by this is not to pull on your left arm during the swing but to instead push the pole to vertical with pole hands at all times until your completely vertical this will certainly improve your penetration and bend placement within the pole.


Secondly KEEP SWINGING. i realize that your a tuck vaulter but your simply stopping to early. Continue the swing back a bit farther, then as you initiate your tuck focus on coming back behind the pole. Your simply just not getting back far enough thats why your inverting to early and in then turning to early.


So in summary

Dont pull with the left arm, push the pole to vertical and focus on rowing that left arm into the proper position.
Secondly continue the swing until your back behind the pole and then begin to invert you may do this by finding visual cues, Either by keeping your head neutral and looking back at the runway before you invert or by simply visually finding your top hand which will allow you to see if your legs have gotten back far enough yet.

Those two things will fix the problem you were concerned with. However keep in mind the other major problems i saw. Penetration and takeoff.

You can work on those things separately. You look like you have a really great potential for the vault. Great body to be successful. tall. fast. in the right positions during the run and have good gymnastic ability lets use those things!

I dont think there is to much wrong with the timing of your turn - however if you want to turn a fraction later I suggest you simply practice with the bar 30cms higher -I think you will find that simple chance will produce the result you want.

However I am very interested in the way you use your left arm at and after take off - what is your/your coaches philosophy about that??

Thank you LHSvaulter, i got lot's of thought from your post. I am actually trying to get rid of the tuck. My old coach who i worked for 10 years told me to tuck, but after doing some research i think i should try to swing more like tarassov. I have managed to build up decent run-up but i can't make the most out of my take-off...i have a lot work to do there.

I used to step more under, it has improved little by little, but still not good.

At take-off i try to push my left arm up, i try to develop as big angle between the left arm and chest, as possible. I have tried to take-off with bent left arm but i just can't figure it out. Straigth arm seems more logical to me. After take-off it try to feel like i'm on a high bar. Maybe that's the reason why my hips go so much forward. But with my arms i try to swing like on a bar. My philosophy is pretty muc like the main principles in B2B, but i havenõt figured it all out yet....but mainly i try to take elements from Tarasov.

Thats good. I mean the main things are that your recognizing a lot of these things and working on them. how do you actually fix them though? usually little cues, visual cues, physical cues or timing cues. What i mean by this is physically finding certain stages of the vault with your eyes and head positioning. physical cues could be continuing to swing until you feel your shin hit the top of the pole and not stopping before then. and timing cues can be anything like acceleration marks etc down the runway.

just think of what your trying to accomplish technique wise and then try and apply a certain cue to help you move through the progression. Im liking the jumps though!

I try to analyze my jumps by watching and comparing them to elite vaulters. And when i find the mistake i try to visualize the right movement in my head and then repetitions, repetitions and more repititons through easier exercises to harder ones. So tomorrow when i planned to do 12 steps jumps i will do different plant and swing-up exercises instead. And film them....i think i figured out the right movement in my head so tomorrow i see if i can do it.

But thanks to you and Altius. I'll but and update video as soon as i get some thing right.

I think you have a very nice looking run but could be more aggressiveness. Everything in your vault is clean and controlled but I have a feeling you are capable of running faster and swinging more off the end of the pole instead of just swinging to vertical and waiting on the pole to do the rest of the work.

In your comment above you said you worked with a coach for 10 years, but you have college vaulter listed as experience. Where do you vault at?

You will appreciate that to give advice -even comment - after watching a few jumps and without any idea of an athletes parameters - is black magic coaching. However you indicated that you wanted help so this is my best guess - for what it is worth.

Apart from needing a more aggressive run and take off -which you may or may not be physically capable of doing - your biggest problem is in the way you aggressively drive your left arm into the pole. This means that rotation occurs around the left shoulder and not the right hand, and so dramatically shortens your swing and with it the chance to add energy to the pole - hence the need for an early tuck -which further reduces the energy you can put into the system. I suggest that you reconsider your use of Tarasov as a model -although tall like you - and although a great athlete, he had some technical issues which prevented him from reaching his full potential (I realise that this is a strange statement given his achievements but it is my opinion) In part because I do not believe he used his left arm well and finished up with real problems in the later part of the inversion.

Suggest you go back to Bubka as your model and especially consider the way he used his left arm - take a look at the black and white clip of him in the BTBdvd. That is probably the best example that has ever been captured on film. You might also take a look at Isinbayeva on that same dvd because she never seems to straighten her left arm at or after take off.

My congratulations to your coach - pretty open minded and with your best interests at heart

I worked with my first coach for 10 years, but he didn't teach me the right technique right away, it has taken me a lot of time to analyze this sport myself.
Right now the guy who is my coach was actually a 110m hurdler runner, and soon i will be training alone because he will go living in the USA. So that's why i try to get ideas from everywhere i can.
And i'm from Estonia...don't know if anybody has ever heard about this country Valeri Bukrejev was from Estonia also

Thanks again for the tips, i will try to use my left hand differently today, will see what happens.

"i will try to use my left hand differently today, will see what happens."

This will not be quick fix!!!! How much stiff pole vaulting do you do over bars?

I haven't done stiff vaulting over bar. I do swing-ups with stiff poles. Today i had some improvements but they were small, some things got easier some not.
It will be longer proccess but i think i'm moving to right direction.

Suggest you include regular stiff pole sessions -aiming for PR in your training. Bubka often did 30 minutes stiff pole take offs gradually increasing grip height and then 30 minutes clearing bars with stiff pole. This will help you to learn not to push with the left arm, However as I have indicated elsewhere including btb the key is the position of the left arm and hand on the pole -must be under and outside, You extend yourt left arm until it is completely straight as you plant - that will tend to driving the pole into the take off with a straight arm.

what is your body weight/speed/long jump/ and pole stiffness on your pr?

Changing technique is difficult - needs lots of conscious repetition - can be very frustrating -so your motivation will be important!