I give up.. how do I fix my plant?

[mcminkz05]

This is more of a technical question, but I need to show a video to illustrate what I am doing in my vault of course.. anyway hopefully somebody has enough knowledge or sees something I don't and can help me out. I vault for a D1 college in Michigan and our vault coach quit a few days before indoor, so I am a bit lost right now. Anyway the problem I'v been trying to correct with my vault right now is my awful plant phase. I am referring to my arm position both at takeoff and in the air, look at the video you'll see what I mean.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-nUO_TREO_4
(I believe that was a 14'6 bar, 13'10 grip on a 14' 190 (6 lefts) I weigh 170)

This video is from last summer, the run, swing, top end have all cleaned up much better now, but the plant is still basically the exact same as in the video. I used to hit a great tall, extended position with my arms, but my coach tried to get me to ""row"" i.e. crank down on the pole with my arms immediatly after take-off.. I didn't know any better and did it to the point that I actually started pulling with my left arm as I was trying to ""row"" (as you can see in video). Obviously the pulling action kills my pole speed. I can take a pole up, say a 15'7 180 gripping 14'8 and land in the middle of the pit. As soon as I try to swing, rather than landing deeper in the pit, I come up short on bars. I only do the pulling thing when I swing.

I have tried about everything I can think of to shake this nasty habit, but I am completely lost as to what I should do, or how to progress out of this. Its extremely frustrating, I have pulled a record # of NH's this season from coming up short on bars. Any kind of help or advice, especially from coaches, would be appreciated. I need any kind of guidance, hopefully its not too late to save my season. Thank you and I am looking forward to hearing some good advice!

p.s. here is a picture of what my plant used to look like before this crap..

[HHSPVCoach]

Hey Adam, its phil. Do you have that video available in quicktime format that you might be able to email to me? It's kind of difficult to analyze it on youtube since i can't do a frame by frame...

[vaultnaked352]

The first thing I see is that u let ur left arm come in when u plant. Also, ur left arm is some what "in front" of ur body. This can cause you to block your chest out. Narrowing your grip will help u with that, when u have a narrow grip (18-20inches) it allows you to get ur hands (mainly left arm/hand) in a higher position at takeoff. What university are u attending??

[vault3rb0y]

Hmm, its kind of hard to tell from the angle and just seeing one jump, but i think you might be in the same position i am. I have had 2 terrible meets in a row from coming up short on bars. Im a foot over and knock it on the way down because i lose my pole speed, so i know how frustrating it can be, believe me. If it is anything like the problem with my jump and hands at take off, this is it:

It might be the angle you leave the ground, combined with where your hands are. Try to consciously adjust your hands at the box to try to leave the ground before the pole tip makes contact. Once you are in the air, think about all the ring drills and bubka drills you do with your hands right over your head. Keep them there, and swing underneath them. Move your bottom hand out of the way and toward the top of the standard if you need to. Go back down to a very short run to break this habit.
Your run looks like you might be overstriding into the box a little too. Try to accelerate and shorten your cadence, and that should give you a little more control and angle at take off as well. Keep your head up, everything at the plant goes up. Your chest, hands, drive knee, and angle. Think about that as you approach the box, keep your vision at the angle you want to leave the ground.

If you can plant those huge poles and not turn it up, still making pit, swinging on them should only help you get on even bigger poles. Make sure to visualize your vault while you do bubkas and ring drills, to imagine what having your hands directly over your head will feel like. Go back down to a 4 or 5 step approach and hold low enough to work out these issues. Take a week or two of short runs, only long run at meets. You will probably find yourself going up 2 or 3 short run poles when you get your hands in the right place and leave the ground correctly. Good luck man!

[mcminkz05]

Phil-
Thanks Id really appreciate the help, this video isnt mine (Randle lynn took it), but I do have some from practice the other day I will try to upload and send to you.
Vaulterboy- thank you for the help as well, as I said this video is old so the overstriding isnt an issue.. you are right about the plant angle being an issue though, and yes I am right now committed to 4-5 left vaults in practice everyday. What do you mean when you say move my bottom hand toward the top of the standard?

[vault3rb0y]

You do it pretty well in the video, but i mean that when you swing, you want both hands centered over your head. And while you swing, it helps to get your bottom hand out of the way, and it is easier to keep your hands over your head if your bottom hand is to side (still over your head) and not in front of your body. THinking about pushing your top hand toward the top of the left standard (or right or leftie vaulters) will encourage your bottom hand as well as your top to stay centered over your head while you swing. Obviously the result is the bend of the pole going toward one side.

[mcminkz05]

Thanks, thats what I thought you meant but just wanted to make sure. I think enough repetitions of what you suggested (keeping the hands centered over my head) will fix it eventually, I just needed some guidance. I love how we are a D1 school with a track program that wins indoor and outdoor conferance championships every year plus sends half a dozen athletes to NCAA's, yet we don't get a vault coach, don't have warm-ups, and had to carry the pits 1.5 miles to the outdoor track on top of a buick

[vault3rb0y]

I love how my high school has had back to back national pole vault champions and has had a state champion 4 years in a row, and we still cant get the equipment we need to vault safely and properly. Its insulting.

[vaultmd]

I would try keeping your left hand higher and closer to your body, even if it means the right hand has to be a little behind your hip. This would allow you have better balance going into the take off and will probably make you drop the tip from a higher point. This should allow you to hit the box better, which cures a lot of ills.

Was it Dave Wooley that quit? He was a really nice guy.

[mcminkz05]

Thanks for the advice vaultmd, I'll try and work on that. It wasn't dave wooley, our vault coach was eddy luthy.