Please leave any feedback!!

[Mikeaj0]

Age: 16
Grade: 11
How long you have been jumping: 1.5 years
What pole you are on (length and weight rating): 14'6" 185 lb
How high you are gripping: 14'6"
What bar(s) you are attempting in the video: 13'7"

Video: sorry the run is in slow motion you can skip to about halfway through for the vault
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APe_DMcRSwM

Notes:
I know that I need to get inverted more, I am just wondering how. I've been doing all the drills and watching a ton of videos and it still doesn't seem to click when I vault. Any feedback is appreciated.

[KirkB]

Not to be too picky, but if that's a 14-6 pole, then you're not gripping 14-6 - your grip looks to be a couple inches under that.

You're running very flat-footed. You need to SPRINT down the runway, on your toes.

Are you aware that you're taking off UNDER?

The pole begins to bend well before your takeoff foot leaves the ground. Instead, you need to JUMP off he ground. A good JUMP off the ground isn't possible if you're UNDER.

Then, once you take the impact of the pole, you seem to lack the core body strength to STRETCH elastically forwards with your chest, then SWING your trail leg vigorously. That's where you're losing a lot of energy - it's all being absorbed by those two inactions - not STRETCHING and not SWINGING. Situps, pullups, rope-climbing, and any other drills that increase your core strength will help here.

That's actually all you need to focus on. If you did those 4 things better (SPRINT, JUMP, STRETCH, SWING), then your hips would swing up quicker, and you'd be in a better position to EXTEND your feet straight up.

Lastly, you need to resist the temptation to pull too early with your arms when you're in that "V" position. You need to invert more before you pull. And the way you do that is by improving all parts of your technique before that - SPRINT, JUMP, STRETCH, and SWING.

I'm leaving out the PLANT, but someone else can comment on that.

If I were you, I'd lower my grip by about a foot, and work on the fundamentals above. Gripping 14-6 to clear 13-7 isn't the right ratio. It should be the other way around. You should be able to clear 14-6 by gripping 13-7.

Lowering your grip will also give you a lot more speed into your swing, and you can extend straight up without having to worry about stalling out.

On the bright side, if that was 13-7 that you just cleared, you can now bump up your PR in your profile! Congratulations!

And good luck!

Kirk

[KirkB]

Mike, this 20/20 drill would also be very beneficial to your running (SPRINTING) form ...

http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=26565

Thanks to Coach Strand for explaining it. It's from the B2B2 video that compliments Alan Launder's book.

Kirk