Steve Hooker's New Swing

[Andy_C]

Hi All,

Not many people have had the chance to see Hooker yet this year but I was fortunate enough to get some decent videos of him at the Sydney Track Classic. I saw some very interesting developments in Hooker's technique at the meet that I thought everybody would be interested in here!

At first, I was thinking I would just keep quiet and wait for people to discover it here themselves. But I got an email from a friend suggesting I put it up to "liven things up" a bit around here!

I won't say much, I'll just post some relevant media. First, just to remind everybody what Hooker's technique looked like in 2008 and 2009, here are some still shots from videos.

Hooker Beijing 2008.jpg (49.89 KiB) Viewed 16230 times

Hooker Melbourne 2009.jpg (63.66 KiB) Viewed 16230 times

Hooker Boston 2009.jpg (65.36 KiB) Viewed 16230 times

As you all can see, both legs down at the cord of the pole. [Continued in the next post...]

[Andy_C]

Now here are some screencaps from the videos at the Sydney Track Classic 2010 that Bubba was kind enough to put on youtube. Images are at/around the cord of the pole - I'm sure people will notice something is different!

Hooker Sydney 2010.jpg (56.56 KiB) Viewed 16229 times

Hooker Sydney 2010 - 2.jpg (47.28 KiB) Viewed 16229 times

Hooker Sydney 2010 - 3.jpg (56.02 KiB) Viewed 16229 times

-Andrew

[rainbowgirl28]

Can someone post a link to the actual videos?

[Andy_C]

All the videos are from Bubba's tread:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19286


direct video links are here:

Make at 5.91m - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_z69rjLUOY
Miss at 6.01m - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI4Vd8_1NuQ

Here's a 5.70m jump from Steve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCw2JMVXgyw

And 5.60m
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvf1GET5ASQ

-Andrew

[LHSvaulter]

I thought I was the only one that noticed that! It will be interesting to see how this change affects throughout the course of the Diamond League.

Whoever took that footage of the Boston Indoor Games 2009 has some pretty sweet camera skills (me lol)

[powerplant42]

VERY intriguing... I guess they've had the time to work on it now...?

[KirkB]

From "What's a Petrover?" ... http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19339

" but in Hooker's case, do you really think he'd be better off by keeping that knee up?" Yes indeed - but who am I to disagree with a guy who has coached two different world champions?

Altius, you're looking pretty clever right about now!

Kirk

[rainbowgirl28]

From "What's a Petrover?" ... http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19339

" but in Hooker's case, do you really think he'd be better off by keeping that knee up?" Yes indeed - but who am I to disagree with a guy who has coached two different world champions?

Altius, you're looking pretty clever right about now!

Kirk

Well, he'll look more clever when Hooker jumps 6.07+ with the new style

[golfdane]

Is it me, or are the standards (at the 5.91 and the 6.01 attempt) set close to or at zero (the bar seems to be offset by something like 30 cm to the standards by some sort of angled support)?

[Andy_C]

Is it me, or are the standards (at the 5.91 and the 6.01 attempt) set close to or at zero (the bar seems to be offset by something like 30 cm to the standards by some sort of angled support)?

Yeah there is an angled support. My guess is that the standards are at like 50-60 or something based on their positioning relative to the standards pads - I jump on those mats like every week.

[altius]

"Is it me, or are the standards (at the 5.91 and the 6.01 attempt) set close to or at zero". Oh ye of little faith!! Would any elite athlete have the stands inside 50??????

[golfdane]

"Is it me, or are the standards (at the 5.91 and the 6.01 attempt) set close to or at zero". Oh ye of little faith!! Would any elite athlete have the stands inside 50??????

That's why I'm puzzled . The standards seems to be set at the white stripe on the left side front bun (it should indicate the back of the box, and based on the raised pole, it seems to be), but I can't give an accurate estimate as to how deep the angled support is. On his 5,71, do the standards seem to be at +30 (+what the angled support yields).

5.70m (3rd attempt):

Standards seems to be at 30 something (+the angled support on top).

5.90m (2nd attempt):

Standards seems to be very close to zero line (+the angled support).
The 6.01m attempt looks very similar.

Most likely, the angled support has an offset of something like 50 cm (putting it a bit out of harms way). The pads around the standards at the bottom indicate, that the standards can't go deeper than what it is at the 5.70 attempt, making me guess the angled support must be deeper than what I thought....