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This is my third year vaulting and recently I have been blowing through several poles. I was using a soft 11'6" 130 lb pole, but now i am on a stiffer pole of the same lenght and weight. The first week i had the pole i was getting good height, but for some reason now I can't seem to get good penetration.I am holding at the top right now. Another thing is I am letting my feet drop before my turn. I was wandering if any one had any ideas about how i could get past these problems.

lower your grip a couple inchs untill you can get your penatration back.

multicard18 wrote:lower your grip a couple inchs untill you can get your penatration back.

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Most penetration problems for new vaulters, assuming your plant is high and your step is on, is trying to swing too early. Gotta have a good drive at take-off and make sure your body gets into that reverse "C" position before you strat your swing. Try vaulting and staying in the take-off position. Don't swing. That's a good drill to learn how to fully finish the take-off before you swing.

Thanks for the advice. I have been working on my hang the last couple of days, and have been getting better penetration. Almost to much. Now I am not staying in my rock back long enough and getting shot foward instead of up.

superpipe wrote:Most penetration problems for new vaulters, assuming your plant is high and your step is on, is trying to swing too early. Gotta have a good drive at take-off and make sure your body gets into that reverse "C" position before you strat your swing. Try vaulting and staying in the take-off position. Don't swing. That's a good drill to learn how to fully finish the take-off before you swing.

Sometimes vaulters don't have enough time to do all of that. That only seems to work if you have a relatively long pole to work with. If you have a shorter pole, it unbends too fast and you miss that window of opportunity. Agree?

Sebes wrote:Sometimes vaulters don't have enough time to do all of that. That only seems to work if you have a relatively long pole to work with. If you have a shorter pole, it unbends too fast and you miss that window of opportunity. Agree?

Not entirely. Your drive and "C" position just won't be as predominant as it would be on a longer pole. It still has to happen. You'll never get comletely inverted if you don't get a good drive with a long extend trail leg, aka. reverse "C"

I agree superpipe. And when you are on a shorter pole once you've completed your Phase I then you really need to move through to close off quickly and stay tight and inline with pole or you will flag.

But I'm having trouble with the whole "move through to close off quickly" thing. I'm not sloth-like. On a short stick it bends and unbends in a nano second...and I just can't pack all of the movements in time.

Ok 2 things to look for.
1. Are you constantly moving your hands (keeping down pressure throughout the whole jump)?
2. Is your takeoff leg staying straight thoroughout jump and getting to pole, Also, during your swing are you bending at the waist?

after posting then reading your post again and thinking about it. I would concentrate on #1. Keeping down pressure will slow the pole from unbending too fast so you can get to a closeoff position. If that dosen't make sense, than think of pushing through the tip of the pole, through the box while keeping the top arm straight throughout the whole jump.

If you watch any vids of ISI she is constantly keeping down pressure with her rt arm. It is very visible and a good tool to use as a model. Neo Vault 3 has some great footage and slo mo of this.

make sure you have a strong drive knee

also, make sure your plant is tall, your last step might be inside on you're takeoff