Think I finally figured it out.

[TylerPorter11]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-86XY6r8wM4

At least I think i figured out my bottom half

[KirkB]

Tyler ... OK ... I'm analyzing your 14-0 clearance ...

Frame 0 ... is the frame with your thighs together ...
Frame 1 ... you have a great forwards lean, coming into your takeoff!
Frame 2 ... yours forwards lean is still going good ... but you're not off the ground yet, and you're already bending the pole.
Frame 3 ... you've driven off the ground quite nicely (albeit bending your pole too early). I'm not used to seeing this posture on a 14-0 jump. Usually, when someone bends the pole before takeoff, they're UNDER. But your body posture continues to be very good ... and you've stretched your body nicely ... from hand to toe!
Frame 4 ... Here's where you start to go astray ... you begin to LIFT your trail leg back and up. You're actually on the right track with this ... I did something similar in my vaulting days (See: Bryde Bend thread) ... but you're BENDING your trail leg.
Frame 5 ... you continue to bend your trail leg.
Frame 6 ... more trail leg bending.
Frame 7 ... MORE trail leg bending. Your leg is now at right angles above/below the knee. Your trail leg bend is very EXTREME.
Frame 8 ... OK, you've stopped bending your trail leg, and now your hips begin to swing. You hold your pose with your trail leg bent at 90 degrees. Lead leg is kept high ... which is good.
Frame 9 ... Your hips swing a bit more ... starting to rotate about the top hand / shoulder fulcrum.
Frame 10 ... First sign of a downswing. Delayed waaaaaaay too late.
Frame 11 ... Downswing.
Frame 12 ... More downswing. You obviously get a lot of whip here.
Frame 13 ... You're at the end of your downswing and the start of your upswing. You should feel the whip of your trail leg now ... and I'm sure you do ... it's very good!
Frame 14 ... The start of your upswing. Your trail leg is a blur in this frame, due to your leg speed. Very good!
Frame 15 ... Now you're beginning to raise your hips ... from the natural swing you've generated. Good. But I think you pulled in your trail leg a bit here. No reason to yet ... you still have good momentum, so keep it long a bit longer ... maybe?
Frame 16 ... You've shortened your trail leg significantly here. I wouldn't think this would be necessary ... given the power you've generated in your trail leg.
Frame 17 ... The pole is still bending down ... you're not quite at full bend yet ... and you're using this time to drop your shoulders and get your hips up. Nice! Actually, as you know, your shoulders have no choice but to drop ... because the pole's still bending. I'm sure you like that sensation! I sure did!
Frame 18 ... Your pole is STILL bending. Your shoulders are STILL dropping. Hips are STILL coming up. It's going GOOD.
Frame 19 ... I think you're about 2 frames short of the "flat back" position here. Let's see ...
Frame 20 ... You're now one frame before the first flat back frame. How long will you stay in the flat back position? Let's see ...
Frame 21 ... OK ... you're now in the flat back position. You still have good penetration into the pit (aka rolling the pole to vertical). Good.
Frame 22 ... Flat back frame #2.
Frame 23 ... Flat back frame #3.
Frame 24 ... Flat back frame #4 ... the pole is now at full bend. (It might have been at full bend a frame or 2 earlier ... hard to tell).
Frame 25 ... The pole begins to unbend. I can see that you've caught it, as you extend the legs slightly in unison with the pole. Nice.
Frames 26-30 ... Flat back frames #6-10. Not much body movement. This is what I call "riding the pole" ... because you're just hanging on ... passively.
Frame 31 ... The pole is uncoiling at a fast clip now. You're starting to really feel it's lift. But you're WAY late in extending. You're still in an "L" position ... which is certainly better than being in a "V" position ... but you're still not getting much out of the pole ... you're still just riding it.
Frames 32-35 ... You're starting to extend your legs a little ... too little ... too late.
Frames 36-38 ... Your hips are moving UP much better now. You've caught the ride on the pole ... and it's finally starting to give you some upwards oomph.
Frames 39-42 ... flagging out a tad ... but really not enough to worry about.
Frames 43-50 ... your hips are getting over the bar ... and you've reached your max CoM (Center of Mass) height on frame 48.
Frame 51 ... you release the pole. But you're already half-way over the bar ... so you're not getting much of a pushoff ... your grip must be about 14-6 or so?
Frames 52-59 ... bar clearance. You show good patience by just letting your body rotate ... if you contorted your body at all in these frames you might have hit the bar.
Frame 60 ... you flamboyantly wave your top hand over your head ... clearing the bar! That's not only effective for you, but it looks very ... well ... artistic! I like that! It's kinda your signature ... isn't it? Nice!
Frames 61-76 ... you fall from your max CoM to the pit.

Not that it matters to you much right now, Tyler, but I want to calibrate your camera based on this, so could you please tell me how high your grip is, and what the height of the top of your pit is off the takeoff level. Don't ask me to explain. If you're really curious, you can read the Video Metrics thread, but it's just a bunch of PV techies talking about how to analyze PV vids. You just keep vaulting and improving. You've looking good! Leave the video metrics to us techies! Just gimme your grip and your pit height ... please.

OK, enough about video metrics.

You now have my detailled frame-by-frame report of your 14-0 vault. But it wouldn't be compete without a summary of where I think you should improve your technique ... it's in your C and your downswing.

I will guess that you consider your stretch into the C, your exagerated cocking of your trail leg, and your downswing as being the best parts of your vault. And to a certain extend, that's true. I've never seen anyone do it quite "as well" as you ... at your age. But as a "jump to the split" and "downswing" specialist, I can tell you that you still have a long, long way to go to perfect this technique. And I mean that in a good way. You're doing great ... but you can do much better.

The most important thing that I think you can do is to turn that exaggerated BENT trail leg position ... just before you start your downswing ... into a STRAIGHT ... or STRAIGHTER ... trail leg swing. You need to start it earlier too. So straighten it up ... and start it earlier.

Practice this on the highbar ... or rings. Remember to focus on keeping your trail leg straighter ... MUCH straighter. Don't worry, it's not going to kill your swing. It's just going to make it all the more POWERFUL. It's already good, but a bent trail leg like that causes what I call LEAKAGE. You're wasting energy ... and you're delaying your swing.

I actually think you can improve on this just by deciding that you WANT to improve it. I'm betting that you thought you were doing quite well with it just as it is. Well ... compared to other vaulters of your age and PR ... I'd say you're doing very well. But we want you to be even better ... right? Of course!

So give it a try, and talk to me about it. I'm interested in hearing your feedback. Trust me, you won't lose any power in your swing by what I'm suggesting ... you'll just make it that much more POWERFUL!

We do have to fix that FLAT BACK problem sometime. Ten frames in the "flat back" position is too much. At your age and PR, I'd think you could get that down to 5 or less. But don't worry about it right now ... the most important way to fix this is to get your DOWNSWING to be more powerful ... as I've just discussed.

So there's your full report!

Kirk

[TylerPorter11]

Kirk B.

My grip height is at 14' (6 inches below label) on a 14'6" 165 Pacer, 18.5 flex.

Im not sure what the height of the pads were at take-off, I'm thinking about 2.5-to-3 feet though.

[KirkB]

Im not sure what the height of the pads were at take-off, I'm thinking about 2.5-to-3 feet though.

Please measure. I need it to the nearest inch. It's to calibrate the speed of your camera ... and then the speed of your jump.

Kirk