Nice PV mix! I liked the vault into the surf! Now that's SAND vaulting!
3:04 shows a nice slo-mo of a vaulter - is that Lobinger?
Think of it as a 3-stage process ... maybe even a 3-stage rocket booster if you're into aeronautics. I think that's the same analogy that Altius uses in BTB2.
I described the first stage in my previous post. This is the bottom half of your vault ... where you get MOST of the "boost" to set up your pushoff.
The second stage is your INVERT. While inverting, you're rotating your body, pointing your body skywards, as well as extending your body into an upside-down position. If you time this with the uncoiling of the pole, you can add additional energy ... an additional boost ... to your pushoff.
The third stage is the actual pushoff. The point I was making in my previous post was that your body needs to already be SUBSTANTIALLY shooting skywards from stages 1-2 ... and PULLING UP with the top arm ... before you literally PUSH DOWN with it. If you're pointing in the right direction, you can add a few inches to your CoM by pushing down. If you've flagged out, then pushing down is only going to rotate your body ... likely knocking the bar off ... and will not provide any additional lift.
In the vid, the vaulter executes all 3 stages quite elegantly ... including a nice little "flick of the wrist" as he's leaving the pole. He gets MOST of his upwards momentum from stage 1, then some more from stage 2, and then a LITTLE bit more from stage 3.
At 3:04, he's exactly in the "inverted I" position ... body straight, close to the pole, upside down, top arm not yet pulling. This is a GREAT position to be in ... to shoot off the top of the pole!
... after that position the vault should be near effortless and the handstand is only a direct result of the energy put into the pole and not the vaulter attempting to handstand?
No. The vaulter should be attempting to "stay close to the pole" ... and he should strive to CONTINUE his upwards momentum by first PULLING with the top arm ... and then PUSHING with it. The PULLING part of this motion is like a "clean and jerk" weight lift ... and also feels almost exactly like a "hip-circle-cast-off-shoot-to-a-handstand" (search PVP for my posts about those drills ... and DO THEM! That's where you'll get the feel for the right body motions during the extension - not on the pole).
As you probably realize by now, that final 3rd stage boost with the top arm isn't much effort compared to the effort expended in the first 2 stages. That's not to say that a 6.00 vaulter like Lobinger shouldn't do it ... he does it nicely ... I'm just saying that it's not the right focus when you're in the 4.00 range. And of course you should "pull and then push". It's the natural thing to do ... and it will give you a boost of a few inches ... provided you're pointing straight up. I'm not saying you shouldn't pull/push at this point ... I'm only saying that your training emphasis should be on stage 1 ... and when that's going well ... then stage 2. Stage 3 isn't going to buy you that much more height compared to stages 1-2.
is pole flex number a direct correlation between "push off" height?
No, I wouldn't say that. You will find in general that vaulters with the greatest pushoffs use poles with very strong flexes, but there's a lot more to include in the formula than just pushoff and flex number. For example, run speed, takeoff speed, technical efficiency, amount of additional energy added in the Whip, and amount of additional energy added in the extension. Also, don't forget that the vaulter's body weight correlates to flex as well ... so a lighter vaulter can get more of a pushoff on a certain flex pole than a heavier vaulter on that same pole.
Kirk
