PoleVaultPower.com

This a three minute clip of me and some other vaulters at practice, I am the only one jumping (You might want to skip the first minute). I am on a 14' 155lb pole, from three lefts. I am having problems getting totally "inverted", also I am unsure about the use of my left arm during the vault. Critique please!!!! http://media.putfile.com/Sunday-Practice-98

I dunno why, but for some quick time videos, I just can't see them. Nothing shows up when I try to watch this only "quicktime is missing some files" or something like that

sooch90 wrote:I dunno why, but for some quick time videos, I just can't see them. Nothing shows up when I try to watch this only "quicktime is missing some files" or something like that

Go to apple.com/quicktime and make sure you have the latest version.

Your jumps look good (nice music too ).
Your left arm looks like it is getting where it should be, you want both arms pushing up at take off. This will set you up for a better swing. Then when you do swing, you want to ATTACK the swing. Swing as hard as you can with a straight trail leg. Honestly it looks like you get inverted pretty nicely, its the problem of staying there. to correct this i would say think about 2 things:
1.) swing harder and faster to carry you farther in your invert
2.) when you begin the pull-push, keep your ankles flexed and legs straight, dont worry about the turn at all in your vault, and use your core muscles to straight inverted once you are there. This will all encourage more patience on top of the pole.

The reason i say to do these things is that to me, it seems that when you start the pull-push, you begin piking over the bungee immediately. If you stay inverted through that stage, you will add at least a foot in your jump. It should feel like you are getting stuck in the inverted position... only turning and piking when you have absolutely no more energy in your vault and body to use. Great jumps though, awesome speed for just 3 lefts!

Man we have some experts in here wow. LOL

and thats supposed to mean what?? If you have anything to add to help people jump high then say it, because we are all just trying to help each other out. Otherwise keep your cocky mouth shut!

I'm gonna have to agree with vault3rb0y, that was pretty lame.

The issue has become that people give generic statements of help that anyone could give which really don't help at all... I mean sure you can say work on the plant, or swing harder, but how do you do that? That is the important stuff that you all skip over, and that is what i think he was trying to say.

As for your problem, this is what I see. Not enough impulse off the ground which takes away from the actual jump in the takeoff. You need to have a more agressive jumping action. This should help to drive your chest forward thus "finishing your takeoff" After you leave the ground, you need to focus on getting your hips above your shoulders which will bring you to verticle. I think your problem is you are not patient enough. What i mean by this that you try to force things to happen in your jump. Instead of allowing your swing to finish, you rush by tucking your legs in and curling into a ball. This causes you to lose momentum in your jump. To help break this you should tighten your core muscles, and think of swinging from chest intsead of your stomach. then, once you get to the pole, you need to focus on keeping your hands tight, and not pulling. When the pole reacts and unbends, your arms will do the correct thing, by forcing your arms to stay tight to your body, you will keep going up the pole which should improve your jump. I know thats a lot of stuff at one time, but it is what I can see. Hope this helps!

Zachmo

Bethel i can totally see where you are coming from when i read my own post after thinking about that. It just would have made a lot more sense just to say "he needs more detail than that". I thank you for letting me know, and ill see what i can do to be more responsive and explainatory in my posts. After all, im only 16, but id like to be as helpful as possible.

I hate to be the buzz kill guy, but there are very few (if any) 16 year olds who need to be giving advice on the pole vault.

Feel free to cite as many examples of sharp young minds as you like, but I have worked with some of the best 16 year olds ever and none of them posessed more than a superficial understanding of what they were really doing.

Barto

man people are bein rough on others on this board lately...I'm 19 and I don't act like I know everything about the vault...but I have been to a good hand full of camps with Jan Johnson and others such people as Kevin Hansen...what I'm trying to say is...people aren't going to be knowledge bases like you Barto...but we all can contribute something! You're right there aren't going to be very many 16 year old child prodigies goin' around handed good advice left and right...but there are going to be people that are going to catch something your coach didn't at the take off or fly away!

Bethal PV....Minnesota? you must know Ryan Morrey! He's a good friend of my...I go to the University of Minnesota so maybe I'll see you guys!

I too like to get "advise" (or shall we say perspective) from as many younger vaulters as I can. These "new" vaulters present a grassroots presentation of the vault. Sometimes it doesn't fit what I feel is the direction that I would like to go but from a "work with what you got" side of things it may be just the thing that might help me or someone I'm working with get that extra 6 inches or foot. Keep in mind I strive to get myself and everyone I work with to achieve the 640 model but the fact is, it ain't gonna happen with everybody, mostly me included. So, that being said, "keep 'em comin' kids". When the rest of you (and me) disagree, point out step by step why we disagree or look at the contribution differently. We all are here to learn and help each other be the best we can individually be. Later..............Mike
p.s. Now I've got to figure out how to get that new quicktime to work.