Good morning
We can argue many technical points and attribute them to Petrov, Roman, Alan, Bubka.. etc.. and some can “fit” our brain, our experience or understanding of physics..
Many points, although termed differently can mean the same thing.. for example “rowing”.. those that use that term mean the “closing” of the gap for the bodies pendulum (top grip shoulders swinging on the pole) from the inverted “C”, which has several terms but means the same, to a position vertical, and in Petrov/Bubka’s terms, past vertical or called “covering the arc of the pole.”
The head/neck should actually be kept in a “stable” alignment with the spine.. the rotation will be around the top grip until the body/spine has passed a vertical position on it’s way to a “flat back” position on the pole. There is rotation around both the hand and shoulders to this point.. from this point the rotation is around the shoulders… and the “gap”, between the body and pole, should be closed as fast as possible and with as little tuck as possible… and it is definitely one continuous fast move all the way to and through vertical around and of the top of the pole with NO stopping to let the pole “thrown” you.
Tim Mack accomplishes this extremely well in his 5.90 trials jump and practices with a stiff pole and 6 step “pop-up” to do what he calls a superman. Most vaulters and coaches have seen or tried to use the stiff pole pop-up where you swing, align with the pole, “cock” the lead leg.. and hang under the pole like a sack of potatoes and fall on your back into the pit with the pole still in your hand!!! This is and ok, “warm-up”, lead in drill for the vault but is not correct for the “real” vault.
To answer the question about throwing the head back… the vault is a swing from the toe leaving the ground until the top grip leaves the pole.. the faster you can make that happen in a vertical direction above whatever grip you have the better you can “potentially” vault.
The best way to train this correctly is to vault on a stiff pole… swing and try and go vertical on the runway side of the pole as the pole passes vertical to the ground.. find Bubba’s 360 drill.. then you will be training this movement correctly.
I want to finish with one important note.. as coaches and athletes we need to understand that the vault is RUN-PLANT-SWING.. physics will dictate each end result.. 90% of the time if your arguing about a “movement” it’s semantics’…
Do we (I) use my hands to get to vertical on the swing?? I probably do.. I know I’m pretty good at getting to vertical.. can I get my hips to my hands and “wrap” the pole.. when I focus on it and have that as my goal…
Many of the things we see different are still the same but from a different vocabulary. I do know that Petrov’s “description” of a “free takeoff” is different than Alan’s.. but I also know they mean exactly the same thing.
Here’s my advice.. the vault is run – plant – swing… practice the whole-part-whole method of learning.
Understand correct technique, correct movement and correct physics… devise drills or just select from the thousands that have been given to us from pole vaulters and coaches since the 1800’s, and train a “part” of and action.. train all “parts” and then begin to put them together..
THEN… utilize them by setting a target.. and let your “physical” do the correct movement from the start of an action to the "target."
For example.. I teach correct pole carry position, correct position for “toeing” the start mark..etc.. the first “target is.... posture, acceleration, “push out” from the start and hitting consistently and with speed at our pre-determined “MID” point.
Then the second “target” is to “get the feet down” as the pole is being dropped to the plant ... over the last 6 steps.
The third “target” is to have a early (pole tip half way up the box) high, aggressive plant with the vaulter up on the ball of the takeoff foot, REACHING HIGH, just before the tip ‘smacks” into the back of the box.
Now that’s the targets I’m striving for.. BUT they don’t have to “think” all of this…
We practice the individual parts and then on a vault or at a meet all I say is………..
Come out of the back…….. get the feet down….. plant BIG…
Most of the time they “devise” their own version of this sentence and I may not say anything other than “just pole vault”…
On the takeoff it might be… get the feet down quicker and reach higher…
On the swing it is usually “swing really fast to vertical before the pole unbends”… I often remind them that the pole will bend and unbend in less than “one thousand and one”…
So they had better be moving…
Often the “target” on the swing is to get the right knee slightly wrapped around the back of the top grip and the body vertical, top arm still straight… AND I remind them this is a position to pass through not stop at…
We do have so much “vocabulary” that it is sometimes difficult to communicate!! I know that is kinda “profound” but years ago I tried to get the school systems to include sign language starting with the first grade. Think about it.. communication gets simple when words don’t get in the way..
If I flip you the “bird” you get the meaning quickly and without the sounding vocabulary.
My solution to getting to vertical.. is of course to have the “lead up physics” in order at the takeoff but them just swing to/through vertical..
do a simple test with your vaulters. Stand them under the high bar and tell them to jump up grab the bar and swing to vertical. head down feet up...
I challenged Earl when he was a sophomore in college… I told him he couldn’t be a world class vaulter until he could jump up and grab the chin-up bar in the hall outside my office and “shoot” up and over the bar without crashing his chest into the bar!! This was an exercise I saw Wammardam do in a film training for the vault.
For days after practice Earl would come in the gym and before he headed to the locker room he would try this exercise.
One day late in the fall he came in the office and said.. come here.. I went into the hall with him.. he leaped up.. grabbed the bar, his adrenalin was so high, he shot up into a handstand and actually slammed his feet into the ceiling!! He just stop in a handstand, arms locked, feet on the ceiling.. and started laughing.. I though he was going to fall head first and get hurt.. He jumped 17-6 indoors and 18-2 outdoors and won NCAA.
Give the athlete “targets” .. that they can visualize… and if they have been trained properly and are an athlete, they will do the correct movement to get to the "target."
Think about Fosbury… he had a “target”, the bar.. he turned the “scissor” technique into the “flop” because he had foam rubber to land in.. it would not have happened without the target and the physics…….we (I) was using the scissor technique in the high jump but couldn’t “lay back” because of the sawdust pit.. we were using the physics to jump high both in the scissor high jump and in basketball when we jumped to dunk from a run.
The vault is still a “stiff pole vault” but with a bending pole… the run and plant is to “shorten the radius” and the swing is to bring the pole cord to vertical by the time that shortened radius is back at it’s full length (straight) .. a continuous fast swing gives you the height above handgrip.. and yes the “unbending” pole helps lighten the load but doesn’t catapult you.. if you don’t do the work during the swing and wait to be catapulted you will “fall” of the pole with very little height above grip.
Hope this fits some points..
From what I know of Romans work.. he knows the vault from take off to max height pretty well.
I do know Petrov structured Bubka in his early career.. maybe up and to the world record.. I’m not quite sure when but Bubka seemed to make his own decisions in his “later” vault career.. whither those thoughts corresponded to Petrov or not are not worth debating.
Hope this is helpful for all of us..
dj
ps..
6.40 Model is a different model similar to the block start as compared to the standing start in sprints. For example who told you before that you must invert immediately upon completing the take-off jump? How is this not a different approach (model)? ...
Who was this a quote from.. Roman??
This is the way Tully was taught.. and many vaulters before him…
And I agree with this… I just felt as and athlete in the long jump and pole vault, and as a coach, I wanted to get all the “physics” out of the takeoff that was possible.. or an explosive “impulse” BAM.. Attack and then swing like H&%%...
