Thoughts on Pole Carry

[dj]

good morning

i remember some of the early (1970's) discussions with vaulters about keeping the left (front) hand up and use it as a fulcrum.. as poles got bigger and grips got higher.. some of the top vaulters felt you could distribute the weight better with the wrist under the pole..

at the time i really wasn't aware of how important the pole carry that petrov eventually describes was/is to the plant..

if the left wrist is kept chest high.. not rib high.. chest high it is virtually impossible to have a bad plant.. the vaulter will abort the jump because they cannot get the tip down without the correct drop...

i became fully aware of this when i started working with randalene..

wrist up.. elbow down.. left wrist in front of the chest.. right hands little finger next to the hip joint..

i do a drill .. 4 step walking plant.. over a high hurdle..

carrying the pole this way helps the run... the pole drop.. makes an early plant a must and lines the pole up properly for takeoff..

later

dj

[smokinvaulter1]

tim you or todd might tell if this is true.
I heard from an old air forcr vaulter that the first time Bubka came to the states he was jumping on a raised run way. All the american vaulters were chatting it up when they heard a rumble coming down the runway they look up just in time to see Bubka plant and knock the box out of the bottom of the runway. He said it took over an hour too fix the box and runway. But all the american just sat around talking about how they had no chance . True or not if so maybe you can tell it better or more detailed.

[Tim McMichael]

I wasn't there for those first meets. I was still an underclassman at OU with no chance of getting into the premier competitions. I do know that Bubka was a complete shock to everybody. In one of those early indoor meets Olson got fired up and equaled his own world record. Bubka passed that height and made the next one by about a foot. It definitely freaked everybody out.

[Luke Pursley]

Too bad there isnt great meets like there used to be where you could see multiple wr broken in a single meet..

[Tim McMichael]

i agree with most of the thoughts about pole carry and run, and maybe i misread this, but are you saying at meets you think its better not to engage in small talk with other vaulters? i think i just read that wrong

i think the small talk is what makes vaulters so close. dont get me wrong, when im on the runway, and even a little before, im taking care of business, but otherwise i enjoy getting to talk to people. plus it helps keep me relaxed

I think the main thing is to just be yourself, but to do that in a competitive atmosphere means that you have to be really strong in yourself. If you can project a personality that you are comfortable with, you can go a long way towards insulating yourself against head games and intimidation. What made Earl Bell so scary was that he could be so personable. He was perfectly at home and at ease in competition. You never felt that you were a threat to him, or that he was ever anxious about the competition at hand. His friendly and outgoing nature became intimidating. This made him very, very strong in the mental game, and he went more than a decade without a no-height.

Here is a hint. One thing that serious competitors almost never do is talk about their jump while they are competing.