Speed or Strength?

[ADTF Academy]

Assuming you can add energy during the vault...how much does it really add to the amount of energy added from the approach/take off? Maybe an additional <5%?

Or here is an interesting thought. Are these motions not so much adding energy but done so that energy does not bleed out of the system?

Is it energy generation or more to limit energy loss?

[AVC Coach]

Great point. But I think of it like this..... If you role a steel ball down a bending ramp to catapult it into the air at the end, you are just trying to find the optimum bend to produce the greatest trajectory, right? Just trying to not let any energy leak out. That ball doesn't have any appedages to slow or speed it's motion. The human body does.

When a gymnast does a giant swing on a high bar, he/she adds energy by snapping the lower body at some point before they reach vertical, otherwise the rotation would stop.

Those are just some of my thoughts. This is interesting stuff.

[Robert schmitt]

I jumped in college I jumped closer to the "power" side of things big straight bottom arm pressed up above my head swung a straight trail leg to maybe 15 degrees past horizontal then bent the leg at the knee and shot out of that I jumped 34" above my grip. I also took off 12-15" under. 10yrs latter I started to switch. When we would do ring work outs They would never feel like my vault. When I swing on the rings I can feel the centripital force generated in in my swing tranfered through my arms and hands. In fact I can slack up the chains by several inches when I fully extend w/o pulling at the elbow. Now I can say when I take off right and swing like what I think we are trying to achieve I can feel that same feeling in the vault. I can feel the pole react to this by bending and accelerating into the pit and I time up with it more consistantly and effortlessly. I'm sure some of this is do to the force of the run is not transfered into the pole until you swing if you take off on and not under like I used to, However when I don't swing up I don't feel the pole react and accelerate into the pit as I do when I swing.

I believe that you do add energy if you swing correctly based on my time performing the 2 vaulting "styles" ( the thing was in college I thought I was trying to emulate a "swing" style) now is this added E .0001% or 10%+ I don't know.

[theczar]

centripital force

YES!! YOU USED THE RIGHT WORD!!!! Are you a physics guy or just know it is centripital not centrifical?

LOL

[blakedow]

Assuming you can add energy during the vault...how much does it really add to the amount of energy added from the approach/take off? Maybe an additional <5%?

Or here is an interesting thought. Are these motions not so much adding energy but done so that energy does not bleed out of the system?

Is it energy generation or more to limit energy loss?

This is the exact right answer to all statements addressing "putting energy into a pole once you leave the ground..."

[AVC Coach]

This is the exact right answer to all statements addressing "putting energy into a pole once you leave the ground..."

I can respect that opinion. A lot of people believe that and a lot of people jump high.

I think it just comes down to how you interpret what is actually going on during the vault. That's the driving force behind PVP. Everyone interprets the pole vault a little differently and get a chance to discuss their theories.

I look at the pole as just a vessel to get you from point A to point B. The less time you spend on that vessel, the faster you're going to get to point B. I don't think just hitting the correct positions is enough, although it is very important.

[Robert schmitt]

centripital force

YES!! YOU USED THE RIGHT WORD!!!! Are you a physics guy or just know it is centripital not centrifical?

LOL

I'm actually a chiropractor I had a dual major in chemistry and biology But I loved physics. My dad civil engineer, and always says centrifical and I always correct him

[blakedow]

I don't think just hitting the correct positions is enough, although it is very important.

This statement would be true if Bubka wasnt the world record holder... He is living proof that hitting the correct positions absolutely makes the difference... There have been several vaulters stronger and/or faster than Bubka...

[ADTF Academy]

I look at the pole as just a vessel to get you from point A to point B. The less time you spend on that vessel, the faster you're going to get to point B. I don't think just hitting the correct positions is enough, although it is very important.

Well isn't the correct positions the quickest way. Whats the quickest way from point A to point B. A straight line (following the model to the dot hitting all the key spots) not getting off the line (doing anything that would slow you down hence a passive moment)

Can things been sped up. I think so however, I still feel it is more important for young vaulter or older vaulters to first master the positions and model and then tweak it. To many are trying to tweak it before they master it.

Why not get everything correct and then attempt to do those little extra things to increase the energy. I understand the point get every newton possible. The problem is why would you want to add 100 newtons if what you do to add those 100 newtons cost you 400 newtons. That sounds like a bad trade off to me.

Lose 0 newtons and then attempt to add more energy.

[blakedow]

The problem is why would you want to add 100 newtons if what you do to add those 100 newtons cost you 400 newtons. That sounds like a bad trade off to me.

Lose 0 newtons and then attempt to add more energy.

This is precisely the idea that I'm talking about!! Right on brother...

[baggettpv]

And remember the top hand shall travel in a parabolic curve as it moves from takeoff to vertical...any deviation increases the length of travel with certain trasititions happening along the way.
Take an overhead transparency and place it on a video screen. With the camera shot stationary 90 deg. from takeoff. Plot the frame by frame of the position of the top hand, vertical line of the standards and the horizontal line of the runway.
You can also plot the shoulders, hips, take off foot, knee. See what you can come up with. or better yet hypothesize what you might get then see if what you get is what you thought you would get....
Oh yeah and draw a 45 deg. line out from the box and see what happens there...

Doing this since '84

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[baggettpv]

Oh yeah. By the way I really need to get a life too! Tacoma and Alki Beach killed me!

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC