Huffman roll

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superchau88
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Huffman roll

Unread postby superchau88 » Sun Apr 25, 2004 6:59 pm

what are your thoughts on this style of vaulting? yesterday i had a track meet and i "rolled" my way through 9'6", 10'6", 11', and 11'6" (PR). then on my second attempt at 12' i nutted myself doing the same thing i did on the other heights. i really don't prefer this style but i just can't help myself. when i'm about to swing up one leg just keeps on going and the other one drops then as the one legs goes over the bar the other chases after it. it is pretty funny hearing spectators talking amongst themselves after my jumps but i don't really have a coach who specializes in this style.

oh yeah, this only seems to happen at meets. during practice i jump normally but for some reason at meets i always end up doing this on at least one of my jumps.

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Unread postby fong520 » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:37 pm

wats the huffman roll?.. is that the dude on neovault??..
and any tips on doing it haha.. when ever my step is out wat u explained happens to me alot.
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Unread postby blazerunner121 » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:49 pm

its a funny technique. the legs go in like a scissor like doing a side ways twirl in the air over the bar.

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Unread postby rebelvaulter » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:59 pm

Hey, I was at the Meet on Sat and I saw you jump. I would say work on doing it the normal way because your chest got way higher than you hips. You were almost sitting on the bar when you threw your other leg over. by bringing both legs over at the same time you can get inverted and I think you would go a lot higher, especially if your coach doesnt know how to teach the Huffman Roll. In practice, do you jump with a bungee or a bar? I would say maybe try putting up a bar in practice and working on going over the normal way so that it is comfortable in a meet. Good job on the PR and I hope everything works out! Oh ya and I want to thank all the guys at that meet for taking so long, I didnt start jumping until the whole meet was over and there was nobody left! Im just kidding, its not your fault, there were just too many guy vaulters.

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Unread postby superchau88 » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:23 am

rebelvaulter wrote:Hey, I was at the Meet on Sat and I saw you jump. I would say work on doing it the normal way because your chest got way higher than you hips. You were almost sitting on the bar when you threw your other leg over. by bringing both legs over at the same time you can get inverted and I think you would go a lot higher, especially if your coach doesnt know how to teach the Huffman Roll. In practice, do you jump with a bungee or a bar? I would say maybe try putting up a bar in practice and working on going over the normal way so that it is comfortable in a meet. Good job on the PR and I hope everything works out! Oh ya and I want to thank all the guys at that meet for taking so long, I didnt start jumping until the whole meet was over and there was nobody left! Im just kidding, its not your fault, there were just too many guy vaulters.


hah sorry i don't remember any of your quartz hill vaulters but i'll take your advice and work with a bar at practice. i have two weeks until league finals and me and that kid from mira costa that won frosh/soph on saturday have a bet on who wins league title this year (battle is basically between me and him).

believe it or not i didn't want the meet to be any longer than you did, on some of my misses i would have to wait for twenty minutes for my next attempt at the SAME height. it was insane and the guy running the pole vault had no idea what he was doing, i made heights and he wouldn't even mark it down so he would basically skip me until i realized that i was being skipped and reminded him i was still in it. contreras and a few other kids i knew requested that he make it "five alive". meaning five people go and they get their three shots at the height then the next five would go rather then just go down the list.

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Unread postby lonestar » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:37 am

A very well-renowned biomechanist in the pole vault community once told me he could scientifically prove that the Huffman Roll is more efficient than the traditional pike-style clearance because of the additional rotation you get from the roll.
Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan. K Vonnegut

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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:39 am

I've never seen a high schooler do it efficiently.

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Unread postby lonestar » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:43 am

I haven't seen hardly anyone do it efficiently, but the best impersonator had to be Nathan Jauvtis of Cornell University - saw him clear 5.20 in Reno 2 years ago doing it - got a lot of chick attention too! ;)
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Unread postby VaultNinja » Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:57 pm

lonestar wrote:I haven't seen hardly anyone do it efficiently, but the best impersonator had to be Nathan Jauvtis of Cornell University - saw him clear 5.20 in Reno 2 years ago doing it - got a lot of chick attention too! ;)


I have seen Chad Harding take shots at 5.80m doing the roll, he didn't make it, but he was damn close. I saw him clear some bars in reno in 1998 or 99 during the elite vault, but I can't remember how high he wound up going.
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Unread postby achtungpv » Tue Apr 27, 2004 9:04 pm

Saw Kurt Hanna Huffman Roll 18'4" and come close to 18'10" in '00. The illustrious Jason Hinkin jumped 18' with the Huffman roll circa '98.
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Unread postby Skyin' Brian » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:24 pm

i still remember when i was at don hood's camp he showed us video of scott huffman breaking the american record to illustrate the point that running and planting well are far more important what you looked like on top(not that he couldnt pick apart any aspect of your vault but he sure did have the priorities straight)
man, coach hood was a perfectionist when it came to the approach. he is awesome.

and if anyone has never seen a huffman roll there is a clip on one on neovault.com

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Unread postby PVJunkie » Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:16 pm

Scott himself was not very fond of the technique...........it worked but he commented that it caused a lot of injuries in his career. To do it and do it, right, skyin has it nailed...........you have to run plant and swing first............THEN and only then might you (why I have no idea) want to try this. It originated out of a bail that turned into a jump. He wanted to bail but some how forced himself to go for it and............well the rest was history. Exciting, dramatic, unbelievable history. Bavo Scott for one of the most awsome vault styles EVER. Holders are cool but HUFFMAN ROLLS are like a train wreck............you just cant take your eyes off of it no matter what.


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