Coach looking for some feedback

[Skyfly]

I have some videos of one of my vaulters at our most recent competition. I feel like he should be jumping higher but our progress is going slow. I'm hoping some other coaches from the PVP community might lend their eyes and critique and/or spot something I may have missed. Thanks everyone.

Vaulter stats:
Height: 5'11
Weight: 140 lbs
Run: 8L starting from 102' (ish)
Mid: 49'6 give or take a couple inches.

14'0 Bar 31.5" standards - 14'7 155 UCS 23.3 flex 14'1 grip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dHaS1ZlH0I

14'6 Bar 25" standards - 14'7 160 UCS 22.1 flex 14'1 grip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbR0msq83HI

15'0 Bar 30" standards - 15'1 150 UCS 22.6 flex 14'4 grip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4U25PHzHJw

[CoachEric]

I would suggest ajusting his pole carry. It is a bit tense, and it is causing him to lose some space at the plant. Notice how his left arm is a ways out from his torso, and as he plants, he decelerates and fails to get his left hand very far above his head.

As the pole tip is nearing eye level, he should feel the left forearm against his torso. You can cue this or you can cue him on lifting his right elbow behind him. Make sure he remembers to keep the left wrist cocked up through the entire run and plant. Also, have him wait just a bit longer to let his pole tip start moving. His pole is a bit low at his mid, and he is carrying slightly static before the plant, which is affecting his ability to maintain run tempo and to plant.

I think if you make those little adjustments, you'll see better run rhythm at the plant, more space in the plant, and a more powerful takeoff.

[VaultMarq26]

The pole is past neutral as he is getting off it....stiffen up the pole a bit

[cdmilton]

Pretty good looking vaulter there. Nice job coach!

What is his 6 step mid with that 14-1 grip?

He does get a bit long over his last 3 steps which for me is related to the timing of his plant. I would work on speeding up the planting motion which should help his turnover before takeoff. You'll probably need to move his run in a bit from the start as well as he gets better at the plan so he is not out.

[Skyfly]

Mid is around 49'6.

I feel like as he swings to the pole, his bottom arm is blocking his hips from going higher. Should his bottom arm break slightly sooner or am I off base on this?

[altius]

I feel like as he swings to the pole, his bottom arm is blocking his hips from going higher. Should his bottom arm break slightly sooner or am I off base on this?[/quote]

As I suggested previously - the problem is that he does not 'connect' the swinging legs to the pelvis and transfer the energy of the swing into it. so the legs go up - the hips stay down. Probably one of the biggest problems I see in many of the clips shown on PVP. There seems to be little or no understanding of the importance of this element of technique. So we see one athlete after another - indeed another one in the last couple days - who gets into a V sit - from where the legs eventually go up and PULL the hips up. Instead of the hips being under the legs and DRIVING them up.

It is a question of priorities - we can all sit back and nitpick a dozen things any vaulter is doing. We even have folk taking Bubka and Isinbayeva apart here. But the question always is - what is the most important thing we need to deal with. What will bring the most positive improvements -remembering that each element flows into the next. It is like a kind of coaches 'triage'. So again check his plant - it is late and many problems flow from that - including symptoms that others have noted. .

[Skyfly]

Thanks Altius for the further explanation. Much appreciated.

[cdmilton]

Mid is around 49'6.

49-6 is out for that grip. I would move him in so he hits 47-0/47-3 on his mid.

His plant also seems late over the last 3 steps. We want the top hand over the head on the penultimate step.

[Skyfly]

His plant also seems late over the last 3 steps. We want the top hand over the head on the penultimate step.

Yes, this is definitely something that needs to get cleaned up. Thanks

[altius]

"His plant also seems late over the last 3 steps. We want the top hand over the head on the penultimate step.[/quote]

Now where have I heard that before???

I am not sure how many coaches come to PVP now to learn from these little discussions but I would like to make the point that this is a common problem. Swinging the legs up without connecting to the hips means that this swing puts little if any energy into the vaulter/pole system - while at the same time raising the mass - cog - of that system. This inevitably slows the forward rotation of the pole towards the box. This in turn means that the vaulter -while needing a stiffer pole - cannot move to one without risking finishing up in the box. Hope this makes sense - just using this as a break from writing another book - on soccer - not vaulting!

[Skyfly]

As I suggested previously - the problem is that he does not 'connect' the swinging legs to the pelvis and transfer the energy of the swing into it. so the legs go up - the hips stay down. Probably one of the biggest problems I see in many of the clips shown on PVP. There seems to be little or no understanding of the importance of this element of technique. So we see one athlete after another - indeed another one in the last couple days - who gets into a V sit - from where the legs eventually go up and PULL the hips up. Instead of the hips being under the legs and DRIVING them up.

We didn't get a chance to physically work on this before our meet today, but we discussed these comments yesterday evening which gave him a whole day to ponder. The result, 6" PR and a 15' bar clearance! He's still slowing down a little in the last two steps due to the plant being a bit late. We'll be spending the next few weeks working on that so he can get on some bigger poles and push that PR even higher!