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Altius suggested it might be fun to have a look at photos of vaulters taken at the moment of a free take off. Below are a few starters. Please add any you have of yourself or any other vaulter.


Sergei Bubka







These images were scanned from the book From Beginner to Bubka and Isinbayeva too. Better quality visuals are available on the DVD that is a companion to the book. (Available for purchase from several places including the PVP Store.)

I knew things were a bit flat on PVP at present but I am surprised that this post by Doc has not stirred any interest!

It's college football season out here. We have our priorities . . .

Sorry - I just forgot how important that weird game is in your country.

Alright, I'll bite. Got an incredible pre-jump here.






This is Joel Pocklington (coached by Mark Stewart). Not sure what pole Joel is using but the run is from 8 steps (4 lefts) and the bungie was at around 4.40m I think. He was about 1-1.5 feet off the ground before the pole made contact with the back of the box in this jump. Very consistent with the pre-jump and is almost always takes off a foot out on every jump at 8 steps or less.





Another picture in training. This wasn't a one-off fluke, it's the norm!

-Andrew

Thanks Andy - lets hope some other join in because it is one thing to keep talking about a free take off -and its extension the pre jump - but it is another to do it in practice. These are great shots from TRAINING - now we need to see this translated into competition jumps!!

Thanks for posting those Andrew. Those are amazing; showing how high in the air he is before the pole hits the back of the box.

The following are frame grabs of a vault by Ashton Eaton (decathlete and heptathlon WR holder).
Ashton's PV personal best is 17'3".

Fantastic - clearly a pre jump!!!!

Forgot to add -many congratulations to his coaches! Who is his vault coach???

altius wrote:Forgot to add -many congratulations to his coaches! Who is his vault coach???

I defer to Vault West to answer that. I can say Ashton is a University of Oregon athlete, and he attended Mountain View HS in Bend, Oregon.

Ashton has had a number of coaches, I don't believe he vaulted in high school. As a freshman at U of O Kelly Blair-LaBounty was his coach as he started his multi-event carrier. Then Dan Steele was his coach for the next two years with help in the vault from Jenni Ashcroft, and then finally Harry Marra started coaching Ashton his senior year at Oregon and continues to be his coach at the present. I would say they all deserve credit for doing a great job in helping Ashton become the great decathlete he is today. I am not sure if there was a concentrated effort to teach Ashton to have a pre-jump in his vaulting style, from comments I have heard from his coaches I think it is just something that Ashton picked-up or developed on his own. I could be wrong about that last point but his coaches have all sort of shrugged and said that that is just Ashton being Ashton when that subject has come up.
Vault On

Thanks guys.

And great photos of Ashton, I've always been a big fan of his take off. One of the few things that impress me more than a pole vaulter with a pre-jump is a decathlete with a pre-jump! Fantastic work!

And Altius, you're quite right about translating it into competition. It's much harder with a longer run up and a bigger pole but it's being worked on.

Hope some others have more photos!

-Andrew