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I have a young vaulter, he is progressing fast. He has cleared 10-6 after 3 weeks practice. The problem is that he will hit his left knee on the pole at times and kills his vault and practice. He does not do it every day, but once he does it it happens over and over. Has anyone had this happen to them? If so what might be a fix? Help

Ok, where is bottom arm elbow when he is swinging. If it to the left of the pole it is probably the reason his left knee is hitting the pole. He needs to get the elbow to the right of the pole as he swings.

As a rookie vaulter i have had the same problem myself - and often gone home with painful knee after consistently hitting it into the pole.
I haven't been able to solve this problem yet and neither has my coach, but i'll try to pay attention to my left elbow - thank you vcp.

vcpvcoach wrote:Ok, where is bottom arm elbow when he is swinging. If it to the left of the pole it is probably the reason his left knee is hitting the pole. He needs to get the elbow to the right of the pole as he swings.

With all due respect to vcpvcoach, I completely disagree with this statement. Don't teach kids to cheat the bottom arm inside the pole or to go around the pole, this is not the path to high grips or big poles...it is the path to a bad plant (low and not centered). Physics dictates that the best place for the pole at the plant is right down the middle. I have seen many kids develop bad plants by taking off with the elbow cheated inside just so they can do pop-ups!

Teach them to plant high and strong with the pole centered, get the shoulders involved in the swing, and the pole will move out of their way because of pole speed. Watch this video of Bubka doing a stiff pole pop up...he has the elbow outside at the plant (so that the pole is centered), then swings while making space between himself and the pole, and slips the elbow inside the pole as he is inverting.
http://youtu.be/ZgYQkQNwSPI

If the athlete is hitting their knee(s) on the pole, they are probably pulling with both arms and pulling both knees up instead of swinging. Have him run from 2 strides and jump up to catch a highbar, then swing into inversion.

Good luck!

Toby -

My assumption was that vcpvcoach was referring to once swung up, not at plant. I 100% agree with your statement regarding take-off, but many kids 'chicken wing' the elbow when swinging up and get the pole stuck into their armpit thereby getting stuck and hitting their knee.

You are saying all the right things, but want to make sure the matter isn't confused.
1) Elbow down and out at take-off
2) Tuck the elbow inside the pole at the swing.

If 2) isn't happening the symptom described is often experienced.

js

I find that teaching kids to tuck the elbow in at swing often leads to problems with the plant. It's only something you _need_ to do in order to do a drill correctly. It's not something you need to do in a full vault, so I don't see why teach it in a drill. There are plenty of drills that can teach a good swing besides a popup.

I was in a hurry when I wrote my response. Jason said it better than I did. I was referring to a vaulter who "chicken wings" their arm way out to the left. I don't not have my athletes cheat the elbow in and I don't use pop ups. We do short pole runs with a swing. In the video posted above, Bubka has his elbow right next to the pole to the left right after takeoff then as he swings the elbow moves to the right of the pole. My quick response is a good example of "Haste makes waste".