vaultwest wrote:I was the vault coach at Oregon the first time Bubka jumped at Pre in 1994 or 95. He came a few days early and trained at Hayward field. I was very fortunate to watch some of his training sessions.
This is what I observed first hand. It was fun to check out his poles and the 5.20 (17 foot) 10.8, 11.0, 11.2, 11.4, 11.7 12.8 flexes poles that were in his competiton bag were incredible/scary poles to actually hold. But in his vault practice during the week he actually vaulted with a bag of poles that were 5.20 length but 14.6, 14.2, 13.4 flex, very interesting to see him jump at a bungee set at 20 feet with these much lighter poles. nothing super human there just a guy working on specific technical aspects of his vault that unfortunately I had trouble figuring out since all the talk was Russian or Ukraninan.
One work out he went into the weight room and I watched him do three lifts. The first was a step up then overhead press with 135 lbs. Working on his plant mechanics and explosiveness. The next was a bounding toe raise type exercise with 135 lbs on his back working on full foot flexion ( toes up) in the air phase. and finally some ab work. Absolutely nothing very impressive at all.
What I noticed most was that in his warm-ups, here was the worlds greatest vaulter doing simple walking and jogging plant drills with and without a pole that no American vaulter past high school would be caught dead doing.
Kind of got me thinking and I realized that as in all things one of Bubkas secrets to his incredible success was his attention to performing the simplest movements of the vault as well as he could and not losing touch with the basics, instead of looking for some remote magical new exciting secret to propel him to his great heights.
Alan is completely right the myths about Bubka's incredible athletic feats are just that myths and not what allowed him to be the greatest ever.
Thank you Vaultwest! Hard work and particular attention to the simple but critical elements is what it takes to become a great vaulter. Alan outlines this very well in his book. If someone wants to jump 20 feet or higher (21') you need to look no further than the Bubka/Petrov Model.
We have gone around in circles on this site about models with some still saying nay to the Bubka/Petrov model. It is proven that the Bubka/Petrov model will take a vaulter to 20' and beyond. No other Model can account for the same. Why? Would Bubka have jumped as high using a "tuck and shoot" method? No!
The best part is that the Bubka\Petrov model works at every level.
