Looking at the bar

[gl356407]

This has always been an ongoing problem for me; whenever I jump, I have a tendency to look at the bar, whether it's at takeoff, or when I'm trying to get inverted.
I know that by doing this, I'm hampering my jump and what it could potentially be, so I was just wondering whether any of you have had a problem like this, as well as what kind of cues do you use to avoid it, and how do you practice using these cues (if there are any)?

[Vault Chick]

I have this exact same problem!!! What I do is I am too focused on the bar/height, so I let my feet and hips drop out too early and don't get back all the way. In order to fix this, my coach tries having me visualize a bar at a higher height and try to clear/kick that. (an example is like me going for 10'6", but visualize a bar at 12' to kick or pretend to clear) Hope this helps!

[gl356407]

Believe it or not, i've tried that before but for some reason it just made my performance worse..I'm really not sure why, but visualization doesn't quite work for me -- I'm more of a muscle memory/kinesthetic vaulter.

During my past few practices though, I've tried to keep my eyes on my bottom hand, rather than the bar; it's just that whenever I do this, I begin to lose focus on bringing my legs to my top hand, etc. Pretty damn frustrating if you ask me.

[txpolevaulter_k25]

stay focused on the plant box and dont worry about anything else, because if you have a good plant everything else will fall into place and you will have a successful jump and you wont really have time to look at the bar

[newPVer]

i look at it also. just think about looking at the sky after you get back. then, as your going over the bar, look back down into the box to keep your body square to the pole. it's helping me a little..

good luck

[pvu-hooligan]

thats all really good advice. i try to visualize with some success. Muscle memory is also i thing im trying to get down. Sometimes what we do at practice is put the bar at the bottom and a bungee up top. Lets say the bungee is at 15 and the bar is at 11. We swing up to the 15 to try to kick it or clear it, and the 11 bar doesnt even phase us. That actually helps a lot.

[PV4Free]

I look at my feet while i'm "inverting", which i feel is a slight improvement from looking at the cross bar. I still don't let my shoulders rotate under my hips, or get my head back soon enough, so i don't know if it actually works. Maybe it will work better for someone else.

[nitro]

i look at the top of the pole and it works for the most part

[LHSpolevault]

i have no idea where i look lol. i still have the habit of checking out the bar once in a while and there's a huge difference in the top of my jump when i don't look at it.

[WillinghamPV]

i used to stare at the crossbar all the way through my jumps.... then i started focusing on my top hand and that helped a lot, but the past year or so, i honestly have no idea where im looking when i jump

[Haverford123]

i used to have the same problem all throughout last track season,,
But this year one practice i was like "alright, i dont care if im too scared to get up side down, im gona do it!", and some how i got inverted atleast a little and didnt look at the cross bar,, i guess i threw my head back and let my shoulders drop below my hips,,, im not sure if i was doing it right but my coach said im finally becoming a "pole vaulter" now,,,
(i cleared 11 doing it but im still a pv noob,, i hope this helped though cause although im a noob and all, i can finally choose not to look at the cross bar)

[theczar]

to get out of that habbit I used to close my eyes after initiating the swing. If your eyes arn't open you can't see the crossbar! Worked like a charm. Now I don't look at it and I dont need to keep my eyes closed to do it.