The One-Arm Drill

[altius]

To allow the arm to COLLAPSE is a mistake- Although as you can see from images of Lauren Eley - which Botcharnikov loved by the way - it is certainly much better than driving a straight left arm into the pole. Think of dynamic flexing with the arm strong, not weak -but deliberately positioned so it HAS to flex back over the head and out of the way, so allowing the chest to continue through at and after take off. On the dvd I suggest that you will not go far wrong if you think of the take off as a phase, not an instant, which continues until the whip swing begins.

Incidentally you will note from the images in BTB2 that all seven of my young athletes shown, do what I am suggesting - with varying degrees of success. See Pages 247 -249.

Technically this all off topic but it points to the fact that in this model everything is interrelated, and the drills you use must reflect that fact.

Only have time for this because I am still housebound with a viral infection!! Nothing else to do!!

[powerplant42]

PP42 -Just take a look at every image of Bubka at take off in BTB2. In every case the left elbow is pointed out to the left and the left arm is slightly flexed ready to "disengage", as the Germans say. Think about this also. The right arm has to be as high straight and strong as possible -agreed? Well if the left arm were completely straight and strong at that point - where whoud the pole tip be? Then again if the left arm is absolutely straight at the instant the pole tip hits the box, there can be no free take off because the left arm immediately begins to transfer the kinetic energy of the run and take off into potential energy in the pole - the pole begins to bend -too early.

YES! Agreement! Words got in my way... I did not clarify my point very well...

Petrov talks about having the arm straight BEFORE pole-strike, then allowing the elbow to bend out... One piece of that is around 23:00 in the speech.

Do get better altius!

[altius]

Clearly Bubka must have being it wrong because in every shot of him just before tip strike, the left arm is flexed to some degree or other . Simply has to be! If BOTH arms were straight, the pole tip would be a foot above the box instead of in it! Think about it young man!

[KirkB]

To allow the arm to COLLAPSE is a mistake ... it is certainly much better than driving a straight left arm into the pole. ...

Yes, I'm sure that words are getting in the way of my description of this too. The word "collapse" has some negative connotations ... which some vaulters think is a bad thing. I think it's more a question of TIMING.

To collapse the bottom arm and then pause is bad. I've done that, and it's bad. To drive the chest in and then immediately pop it back out again ... as the bend begins and as the elastic stretch (i.e. takeoff) is finished is good. I've done that too, and it's good. Very good.

Now, in the sentence mentioning the word "collapse", I say it's bad, whereas in the sentence mentioning the words "drive the chest", I say it's good. But I'm actually talking about the same action! The only difference between these 2 is that in the first sentence, there's a PAUSE (bad), and in the second sentence, there's no pause!

My point is that the word COLLAPSE is not the culprit per se. It's the TIMING of what surrounds the "collapsing"/chest-driving action. I could just as easily call it a chest drive, finishing the takeoff, and then PAUSING. If I did, it's only the PAUSING part of that sentence that's bad!

Yes, words do get in the way sometimes. That's why vids are so much more reliable!

... Think of dynamic flexing with the arm strong, not weak -but deliberately positioned so it HAS to flex back over the head and out of the way, so allowing the chest to continue through at and after take off.

Yes, that's a much better way to explain it. I suspect that I used my top arm a little more (and my bottom arm a little less) than the way you're explaining it here, but I think the way you explain it is better for vaulters without the strength that I had to do it my way. I think with less strength, I would have done it slightly differently ... more like you explain. But really, the differences are probably very subtle, and indistinguishable to all but experts.

Since we're nit-picking on single words now, I think we've exhausted this topic!

Kirk

[altius]

Words do matter. Collapse is the wrong term and will be misinterpreted by the folk on this board who lack your experience. Anyway if you havent seen it take a look at the cartoon I posted on Looking back 25 years? in the advanced section.

[powerplant42]

Words have beaten me again... So I'll use pictures.

Page 54 (BTB2), first picture... Bubka's arm is very straight. Same for Tarasov on the inside/top of page 73... But this is all WELL before pole strike. That's where I was cloudy.

But we are starting to nitpick on a tangent... So I've got something to shake things up again! At a meet yesterday I took some video of vaulters in my area warming up, most of them doing the one-arm drill, one trying to do a 'rockback' or 'pop-up' I believe, and then my teammate that has been under my instruction for the past few months doing a Jagodin... I'll post the link soon.

[KirkB]

Words do matter. Collapse is the wrong term and will be misinterpreted by the folk on this board who lack your experience.

Words do matter. We must always be careful of saying what we mean. The readers on PVP aren't mind-readers. "Collapse" is the wrong word. My bad.

The quote is here: http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=16991

And now that I look at the cartoon again, it's spot on to all this "friendly banter".

Altius, your viral infection must be getting better ... you're not as "snappy".

Kirk

[powerplant42]

Well, I finally figured out what was wrong with my uploading systems, so here's the footage I mentioned. There are a few beginner vaulters doing one arms and then one vaulter trying to do a 'rockback'... Then one does a 2 step Jagodin...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EURu2P6Dmo

Tell me which one is 'mine'!

[KYLE ELLIS]

First off nice work on teaching your teammate on doing a fine straigt pole. But come one,thats a little ridicolous to video tape some rag tag vaulters who look like they have no clue what they are doing, and say"this is why you shouldn;t do one arm drills". How about someone post a video of a person doing it right.

My story, i have been vaulting incorrectly since I was 10, I was taught many incorrect thing for a long time. I am now 25 and returning to learn to vault correctly after a 2 year retirement. I ave always blocked off with my left arm, I am trying to learn to vault the right way, with my left arm positioned correctly at takeoff. The first step is to learn to a correctly straight pole, My goal is to be elastic with my arms/ my left elbow facing out and planting with my left hand above my head. I can do this but I have trouble planting in the middle of my body. (If you plant in the middle of your body your left elbow should ace out naturally) If anyone else has pushed wit their left arm at takeoff they may be able to relate, but when I takeoff it was at the far right side of the runway as i planted in the left corner of the box. This was to further enhance the pushing of my left arm at takeoff, sometimes i would even step off the right side of the runway. One thing I have alot of truble with now is planting in the middle of my body, mainly because of the path my left hand wants to take my pole. So one day i tried with one arm from 2 steps and I actually felt the correct feeling of reaching high with my right, leading with chest as it bumps the pole with my hips staying behind. When I add my left hand I plant in the left side of the box and the pole immediately goes to the left side of my body, so i don't get the chest bump and the feeling of staying behind the pole. But after doing some with one arm I could feel what it was supposed to feel like, and it helped feel more comfortable with planting in the middle of my body with 2 hands. BOTTOM LINE I FELT LIKE THE ONE ARM DRILL HELPED me. But I would say my circumstances are alot differemt than anyone elses. As soon as i do it correctly with both hands I probably will never do them again. I was taught on straight poles since day 1 to put my elbow on the inside of the pole immediatelt. (think about that, and what 13 years of doing that can do)
People on my team used to do one arm drills and it pissed me off because 1)they wear out the pole tips and 2) they suked at actively dropping the pole and thats what they needed the most work on. I have never done a one arm drill in my entire life till last week. I hope this example can be a neutral post on how it can be helpful. And yes if the more sport specific you can get the better. I can put videos up if anyone would like to see.

[powerplant42]

Please do... I agree we need a good demo (but I think Tim McMichael posted himself doing one as an experiment). I should have said that it was why BEGINNERS should avoid using the drill to learn how to vault. That was my mistake, I wonder if I can change the title...

[KirkB]

I've got something to shake things up again! At a meet yesterday I took some video of vaulters in my area warming up ...

... There are a few beginner vaulters doing one arms and then one vaulter trying to do a 'rockback'... Then one does a 2 step Jagodin...

I agree with Kyle. I watched that video twice, and I still don't understand your point. How does that vid "shake things up"?

My suggestion is to reduce (edit) a vid down to a single specific drill or jump ... describe what you want us to look at ... and tell us what we should learn from watching it.

Otherwise, you're just wasting our time. [sigh]

Kirk

[KYLE ELLIS]

not me, but this is an example of a pretty decent one arm straight pole. sorry about the grammar my keyboard has been freaking out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvh5VSrR ... re=related