about how much you should put pressure in the bottom arm--well, i had anotehr coach recently tell me when he was trying to help me fix the blocking that i should feel the pressure on my top hand instead of my bottom hand. so its kinda like the top hand is leading the action the way i see it. i think you sort of need to get the feeling of having the bottom arm react to the other moves of the vault. so its like when you takeoff, if your top arm is behind your head in the c position, then naturally your bottom hand follow this by being about above your forehead as you start your swing. but you can still be pushing up with both hands. and then when you rockback and stuff, you row your hands into your body so theres still some force into the pole so it doenst unbend too early, but you are able to get yourself in a good position close to the pole to set you up for a good invert.
some if what im saying is basically a repeat of what my coach tells me to try to help me fix this. some is me trying to work it all out in my head so i can understand it better for myself so that i can fix this problem, so those things im thinking could possibly be wrong! hope that doesnt mess you up though, i think we have similar problems and i understand about half of it really well because i learned it from my coach, the other half i think i better ask him about tomorrow so i dont start thinking the wrong things about what i need to do!!
and as for your last question, i think yes it is more important to have your hands in a good positon over your head than putting pressure with your bottom arm. i think ive been having troubles not blocking becuase im trying not to block, where i should be instead trying to plant with my arms not out in front of me, but above me, or even better, with my top hand a little behind my head.
