Please Critique! sectionals in 2 Weeks!

[WNvaulter10]

Please give me some tips and advice on this vault i have more to come but this is all i have for now, any help would be apreciated.

Im 5'8''
127lbs.
crossbar is at 12'
im jumping on a 13 165 ucs spirit, hand hold 12'6''
7lefts from 82' 4''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhplqro-YxY

Thank you in advance!

Tom

[vault3rb0y]

Focusing on a strong drive knee at take off and on jumping up and INTO the vault will help you the most if you only have two weeks. Practice just jumping without swinging, and keep your hips back and your trail leg back immediately after take off. You swing fast and quick which is good, but you need to finish your take off before you swing.

In other words.... hit your take off harder and more agressive, and these things will happen automatically!

[WNvaulter10]

Thanks i will deffinatly work on that throughout the week, should thoes drills be done from my short run or my full aproach? i do about 3 leg swing take off drills gripping 10'3'' on a 12' pacer mystic 135 from 3 lefts, then i do some at 5lefts off of a 13' ucs 150 gripping at 12', but i can never transfer the muscle memory over . any tips for that?

Thanks!

Tom

[powerplant42]

Short run only.

Search KirkB's 'Bryde Bend' thread in the 'Advanced' forum for what he calls 'scaling'.

[KirkB]

Tom, what PP is referring to is how to scale up from your 5-lefts 12-0 grip on a 13-0 150 to your 7-lefts 12-6 grip on a 13-0 165. As you know, that's a 15 pound increase ... quite a bit of a jump ... but not insurmountable.

Don't bother reading my BB post about scaling ... just listen up ...

You're getting reasonable bend out of the 165, but probably not as much as you're used to on the 150.

This may sound like odd advice, but have you considered practicing at 4-lefts on your 150? If you try that, the bend may be closer to what you're getting on the 165. What you REALLY want to do (if you're game to try this ... and I realize you don't have much practice time left) is to learn how to drive HARDER on takeoff (as 3PO suggests).

You're quite a bit under, so you don't get much chance to drive up hard on takeoff. Your lead leg is barely passing your trail leg by the time the pole hits ... all before you jump off the ground. It 's going to be easier to fix this on the 150 than the 165. Maybe first try to fix it on your 5-lefts run, then cut it back to 4 and try again. If that works out, you should get a much better angle (and stronger jump) on takeoff, thus putting a log more energy into your swing and pole. This is what will give you the momentum to rotate the pole to vertical, so you can keep your standards all the way back. Right now, your "in" takeoff is sucking you under, so you don't even get a chance to drive your lead knee up, let alone swing long and hard. If you can shorten your last step just a bit, that will give you a much better (forward) body angle from which to jump into the pole.

Then, when you think you've got it with your 4-lefts run, go to your 7-lefts with your bigger pole and do everything else exactly the same ... with your 12-6 grip (assuming that your technique on the shorter run has improved). Depending on how much you can improve in the next week on your short run vaults, you might want to shift your grip up or down a bit from the 12-6.

For example, if you surprise yourself and start getting a really good takeoff, you might go as high as 12-6, but if you're struggling and your takeoff is still under, you might want to try 12-4 or so. The better the takeoff, the higher the grip!

What are your standards set at? You seem to have landed well into the pit, so you need to maintain that.

If you can, see if you can post another vid of your next practice, at 4-lefts and 5-lefts. No rush to get to 7-lefts until you improve your takeoff at 4-5 lefts. If need be, you could continue practicing at 4-5 lefts until the day of the meet, then go with 7-lefts on your bigger pole. Scary, I know, but that would be a worst-case-scenario. And you're ALREADY vaulting on your 165 with good depth into the pit, so it's not THAT scary. The point I'm trying to make is that even with your limited time left, you still need to focus on fixing your technique BEFORE you get back on the 165 with your higher grip ... which is slightly too heavy for your CURRENT technique.

Kirk

[WNvaulter10]

Hey Kirk thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

for that jump my stadards were set at 26.

Thanks for all of the advice, i will deffinatly stick to the 4-5lefts aproach until i feel my takeoff drive has improved. i will try and get some video up maybe wednesday night. i am going in the pool tomarow and then may do a few short aproaches. I completly understand what your talking about with the bend at 5 lefts on the 150 i can really feel the difference so i will move it in for sure.

Thanks again for all of your advice, ill post again tomarow after my practice and let you know how it went.

Tom

[KirkB]

Why are you going to the pool? That doesn't sound like a very productive use of your time, given your important meet coming up. You're not going to learn any technique at the pool. Why go?

Kirk

[LHSpolevault]

If he's on the track/runway a lot, his legs are probably taking a pounding. So the pool session would help his legs recover a little bit

[WNvaulter10]

Yes my legs are taking a huge pounding and the weather here in Buffalo, New York is supposed to be rainy for the next few days so i figured i would try and get the best training i can by going to the pool, working with rings and rope drill. If the weather is halfway decent i will follow up the pool work by going to the runway and working short runs with the agressive take off and leg swing.

Tom

[vault3rb0y]

The pool provides a much different action for your muscles than vaulting. If it's just for fun then fine.... but dont get the idea that it will help you jump higher. If your legs are taking a pounding, get on a bike for a few minutes, stretch, and ice. But 2 weeks before sectionals you shouldnt be doing intense workouts and getting very sore. You should feel really, really good!

[WNvaulter10]

I just like the pool because it slows everything down and helps me feel the positions im supposed to hit, such as the "C" on takeoff, and the "Power I" ( i use that term to describe the inversion when your bottom are is colapesed and shoulders are droped). Mostly its fun though.

And my legs are sore becasue last week i had 4 competitons leading into the campionship meets.

ill get some more video of practice on the agressive takeoff and legswing tomarow, thanks.

Tom

[vault3rb0y]

I thought you were doing a pool workout as in laps of crawl, fly, breast, and back strokes!

Pool workouts for track can definitely do what you said, nevermind what i said above!