Free Takeoff Help

[KirkB]

Fiberfaced is such a negative word!

The distance from your head to your bottom hand doesn't matter much at all.

What matters is you BODY POSTURE as you're finishing your takeoff.

If you're under, and your body is leaning back (at the same time that your bottom hand is near your face), then you're not going to get much of a downswing, and you're not going to get much of a bend. It's in this position that young vaulters complain that they're "getting fiberfaced". This focus is wrong.

If you have a free takeoff, with a good forwards angle as you're finishing your takeoff, then you're set up to get a powerful downswing, and the pole is going to bend like hell, clearing the space between your face and your bottom hand. That's exactly what you see in Bubka's vid. We discussed this same vault in the "Is Pushing with the Bottom Hand Good or Bad?" thead here http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=16585&p=121545. Unfortunately, the "quick fix" to "getting fiberfaced" seems to be to push with the bottom arm ... to get the pole a "safe distance" away from your face. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The focus should be on the angle of your body in the C ... not on the distance from your face to your bottom hand. That doesn't matter ... and besides ... it's just for a moment ... before the pole bends out of the way.

If your pole DOESN'T bend out of the way ... then take a look at your body angle as you pass thru the C. Are you leaning forwards or backwards? THAT'S WHAT'S IMPORTANT! THAT'S what you need to fix!

Kirk

[powerplant42]

That clip shows Bubka doing exactly what he always intended to do -ensure that the left arm did not get in the way of him continuing the take off phase - it is a continuation of the FREE take off - with the free meaning that nothing stopped him driving the chest up and through the shoulders. Look at the fantastic p[oisition he is now in to execute the second phase of energy input. CF Lauren Eley in the book and dvd!!!!!!

But why is it there on some of Bubka's great vaults and not in others? He doesn't get his head nearly as close to the pole in the 6.01 jump at Athens... I realize that the position his body is in is good, but why do so many beginners seem to get in a similar position and then screw up? (Just lack of swinging experience perhaps? Maybe that's it... not just strength as I suggested before.)

But I'm serious about the question of why it's there on this particular jump and not others... What are the differences? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Or is it even something to be paid attention to in itself?

[vault3rb0y]

Dont forget that when you are forced to move your hands back before you leave the ground you are lowering the pole angle in the box. You can still have a free take off with your step a little under, but you sacrifice a little of this pole angle in doing so.

[quick]

But I'm serious about the question of why it's there on this particular jump and not others... What are the differences? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Or is it even something to be paid attention to in itself?

This.