open or closed hand?

[das_1971]

just switched to closed this year, getting your wrist to spin around is kinda hard though.

[vaultin chris]

i keep both hands closed. Maybe its just me but i cant plant the pole and vault with my hands open therefor just as a habit them both closed (so i wont forget to close them at the plant)

[achtungpv]

whats the advantage of a closed grip? according to petrov?

I'm not quite sure, but I would think it is so your plant and swing are done from the top hand and ensures the top hand is the the point of rotation. If you have a death grip with your bottom hand you may swing off of it instead. Just a guess.

[vaulterpunk]

i jump with a closed grip. never had any problems with it.

[das_1971]

whats the advantage of a closed grip? according to petrov?

having a closed top hand makes it almost certain that the top hand holds the majority of weight of the pole. This is near essential for a proper pole drop, and all the free takeoff stuff. It also has something to do with run balance and run phases

[Kirk]

This might sound too obvious, but the only reason to tighten your grip on the pole (with either hand) is so that you don't drop it. You should experiment, and hold it as lightly as you can without dropping it (or losing control/balance of it). The looser the grip, the more relaxed (and faster) you'll run.

During the first half of the run especially, an open grip with the top hand (the hand nearest the top of the pole) allows you to carry it more upright, without feeling awkward.

During the plant, you want the pole to pass as close to your armpit and ear as you can. You want to plant the pole "THROUGH" the shoulder. An open grip in this phase is always closer to the shoulder than a closed grip. So even if you grip it tightly during the run, you should loosen it during the plant.

Once you clear your shoulder, you of course need to tighten your grip to hold the impact of your body weight. Many vaulters are afraid of tightening their grip like this, at the last second, for fear that it might not be tight enough on impact. In practice, this is rarely a problem. If you do lots of gym work - and you should - (rings, high-bar), then you should have the confidence in yourself that you're easily able to hold your body weight with the top hand. If not, maybe you need more gym work.

I recommend that you focus on keeping your plant tight to the shoulder with an open grip. How you hold the pole during the run is only secondary to this - but an open grip during the run more-or-less sets you up for a good open grip during the plant.

[das_1971]

This might sound too obvious, but the only reason to tighten your grip on the pole (with either hand) is so that you don't drop it. You should experiment, and hold it as lightly as you can without dropping it (or losing control/balance of it). The looser the grip, the more relaxed (and faster) you'll run.

I know what you mean, but I found the opposite in pratice. my run and plant both were more relaxed,smoother and fast. i have a muchhigher confidence level with both hands closed. I have carpral tunnel in both hnds though, so that might be a factor...

[Vaulter1080]

hmmm perhaps this could be a problem for me? I always start the run with an open grip, and my left hand closer to the right side of my body holding the pole. About 2/3 of the way down the run I throw my right arm back, and now I'm beginning to think it's to get a death grip on the pole before I plant, and the arm goes back to keep my left hand more or less where it was. This has a habit of putting me under, since I'm bringing my plant up from behind me. Think learning to start the run with a closed grip would help this problem, and just work on raising the plant with a closed grip?

[das_1971]

you might want start working on carring the weight of the pole with your top hand(right for rigt hand) and stay more loose with the other. that and allowing your shoulder to roll back while youplant will help keep that hand forward

[pv19]

According to Petrov (and other Russian coaches), left hand has to be closed and right hand is recommended to be closed. Closed right hand is better because of running itself and more important - the pole plant. It's much easier to do proper 'Russian' pole plant, which differs much from the plants I've been seeing in USA.
About the left hand: it would be awkward having elbow under the wrist and opened hand. Especially because the vaulter doesn't have control over the pole then. The elbow should stay below the wrist so that a pole vaulter wouldn't lower left hand much (making himself much longer way to go up again) and that he could just continue the movement of his right hand making their way up and a little forward.
About recommending the right hand closed it's something like this. Right hand has to start the pole plant (if the left one does, left arm is fully extended before pole plant and the movement forwards is stopped which brings a pole vaulter to a passive phase during the plant) and that's easier if it has control (of running and of the pole, keeping the balance correct) during the run. And the problem with opened hand is also regripping when starting the pole plant or maybe even on the take off. It's tougher to penetrate the pole if the regripping the pole occurs. Not to mention that the grip is different then.. But you have to be flexible enough.
And that's just their technique. You can see many vaulters jumping very high with different technique, maybe some of them doing exactly the opposite..

[altius]

The figure on the front cover of the 07?? UCS Spirit calender shows precisely how Bubka gripped the pole.

[fx]

I used to have the death grip with my right hand (top hand when I plant) and a looser grip with my left. After awhile, I started to get sprained wrists for some reason, so I switched to an open, looser grip. Haven't had any problems since then.