http://www.advantageathletics.com/lanaro.html
My critique of his vault:
*On that day his step was under, but if you look at his left ankle he had a big brace on it. He had surgery after this photo was taken. That may be why he wasn't getting his last step down quickly.
*He has a great take off. He keeps his eyes and face moving forward under both his hands, most importantly his bottom hand.
*He has a great drive phase. His head, shoulders and hips stay in a vertical line while driving forward after he comes off the ground.
*If you do the last part correctly, the hips will be forced to swing forward and up. At this time its important to keep your trail leg back. It is even better to lift the trail foot to preload the driving down of the trail foot. See
http://www.advantageathletics.com/polevault/tapslam.html
*He is great at the next phase or move. He drives his trail foot down to reach full extension of the body from the top hand, through the shoulders, hips, and trail leg knee to the trail foot. This creates the long lever that will counter act against the pole from uncoiling as this lever rises. According to Vitaly Petrov, Sergey Bubka's coach, Gio hits this extended position right on the money. Petrov says this extended straight line of the body should be at a 45-degree angle to the runway and the trail foot should be pointed at the box. (Not that the toe is pointed at the box but the line of the body.)
*Gio is very good at the next phase. That is getting the ankles to the top hand without letting the top hand getting in front of the vertical line of the shoulders. The important thing here is that the trail leg must be straight when it reaches the top hand and the lead leg is almost at full extension and right next to it.
*He is very good at the next part of the vault too. That is doing the Bubka drill. He extends his body without pulling. He keeps his shoulders under him while extending. He keeps his feet balanced above the shoulders while extending. He lets his shoulders rock down and back under his hips to help maintain balance. He does this with good timing with the pole and not just shooting out of it.
*
I feel he looses it in the last phase of pulling, turning and pushing. Notice after his body is fully extended and he begins his pulling action that the top hand is forced away from his body in the direction away from the crossbar. That action of the top hand, or his base of support, is forcing his body to rotate, in a clockwise direction in these pictures, more than rise. The forces being applied to the pole that should help to rise are not in line with the object being shot through the air. In this case is his body.
(Do this: Get a straight stick or arrow with a slit cut in the end of it. Attach a string with a loop in the end to the slit of the stick. Point the stick into the air and pull the string straight up with the hand staying close to the stick as it pulls. Notice the direction of the stick's flight and how high it flies.
Then...Make an "L" out of pvc pipe. Cut a slit in the end of the bottom part of the "L". Attach a string to that slit. Pull the string straight up and try to get the "L" to fly straight. Get my point?)
Look at the last phase in
http://www.advantageathletics.com/polevault/kholev.html. Denis keeps his pole tighter to the pole than Gio, and Denis keeps his body in better line with the pole than Gio. The difference is Denis's legs don't start to rotate over the bar until much later. Gio has great hip height over the bar, but his legs barely clear the bar as they rotate over it. The difference in bar clearance is about 12 inches. The problem is...I asked Brian Yokoyama about Gio's top hand getting away from him like that in the pull phase, and Brian said he coaches him to do that.
If you want another look at the last phase of the vault, look at
http://members.aol.com/actstunt/bubka.html
After reading this and thinking about the technique do you think The Topper drill makes sence?
http://www.advantageathletics.com/polevault/the_topper.html
