4 step jumps in practice..any help would be great...

[my1965dartgt]

These jumps are from a few months back during season, since its been summer i havent jumped in a while so i decided to watch the video just because i miss jumping! So the video is of a day at practice i was running from 4 rights from around 50 ft. The pole is a 14' 6 165 and i was gripping around 13 3 not sure exactly. any advice on what i can do better would be great, i notice that the pole sinks a little bit in the middle of my jumps and when that happens the pole speed dies...but i dont know what i am doing to cause that...also if you see anything wrong with me jump thatd be appreciated! (besides the fact that im a lefty i know i have that going against me haha)

heres the link...thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYI1JjXUSM

[vault3rb0y]

Lefties of the world unite!!!

Anyway.... Your take off is where it should be, but i think your posture on the runway could improve. You seem to be pushing your run forward and taking uncomfortably large steps. Consequently, your take off is a little low and you use your bottom arm a LOT to bend the pole. I'd like to see you work on some max-grip 4 to 6-step (or 2-3-right) pop ups, and instead of working on running fast, work on jumping high. You are set up in a decent position off the ground but you aren't moving UP. This could be because of a soft pole, but i feel like its instead because of a low take off angle. So work on those quick last steps to jump up more off the ground.

Once in the air, You are well behind the pole which is good. But let yourself hang on your top hand and put less pressure into your bottom hand. You should let both hands come behind your head a little more, but only until your bottom arm is directly over your head, don't let your hands come back too far! A little pressure is necessary with your bottom arm, but you are applying enough to slow your pole speed and swing speed so take the pressure off a little and let the weight of your body hang from your top hand. You swing well, but your swing slows down and you break a little too much at the hips once your swing reaches the chord. This could be caused by too much pressure from your bottom arm, but work on swinging fast and continuously. You could swing a little longer. Practice a fast and long inversion on the rings. Then, once you are fully inverted, keep pushing your hips up the pole and LET GO OF THE POLE! From a 4-step on a flexible pole, you should be working on moving your hips up and away from the pole, not staying connected with the pole. That's more of a drill, and from this run you should be finishing your jumps completely.

To recap:

Stay TALL on your run

Jump UP not IN

Less bottom arm pressure

Swing continuously and long to the top of the pole

[my1965dartgt]

Thanks for your reply first off!

As for my run yeah you are right I do need to be taller in my run , ive tried to work a lot on my run this past spring changing how I approach it…I used to just take it out hard like a sprinter out of the blocks, ive adjusted to make it more of a gradual increase in tempo I found I wasn’t slowing down at all by the time I got to the box (go figure).

I will def work on jumping up more, I think I jump up a lot more then I used to but I will work on the up not in idea I like that!, because even though I think about jumping up my main focus I know is still get into the pit..

So less bottom are you think will speed up the pole? Another thing I worked on a lot or tried to this spring was swinging that trial leg long instead of just tucking it up into a ball like I used to do…haha I know I need to let go of the pole and try to push off and finish the jump! Hopefully illb e able to get out and jump soon somtime…idk where or how now that its summer and I moved away from where I used to train haha

Thanks again! If you ever think of anything else im all ears!

[Carolina21]

Your last two strides are very long, seems to be a lot of deceleration in your run. Agree with above, you should strive to be taller, but also work to really snap down those last two steps. Watch your video your last two steps are noticeably slower and longer in almost all your jumps. Also I think your grip is too wide, to the point that it is inhibiting your ability to swing. I think your grip should be ~6-8 inches closer together, hard to say exactly how much but your grip is very wide (just wider than your waist is a decent gauge to use), but I would make this adjustment slowly. Moving it in that much in one day is a sure fire way to mess up your jump.

One tip to help with posture:
Start at the back of the runway with the posture you hope to end with. Think of it like this, planting a pole is not easy. You are approaching top speed coming into the box preparing to plant a long heavy pole and hit a takeoff spot the size of a dollar bill, it's difficult even for the best vaulters. Therefore most likely your best hope is just to maintain the posture you start with, so if you are starting your run hunched over, leaning back, not tall, whatever the case may be, likely you will takeoff in a worse and less controlled position than you started.... So before your first step stand up tall in a good sprint position. Watch Bubka he is soo tall and has such amazing posture and control when he starts his run and he maintains it every stride.