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Long Leg Swing or Short leg swing?
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:32 pm
by Vault101 Boy
I know the long leg swing is more common, but i tend to have a fast bent leg swing. I thought there was a technique were the left leg was bent but followed by a tuck and shoot after inversion.
Should i drill for a long swing or just stick with the short leg and work on a tuck and shoot?
Re: Long Leg Swing or Short leg swing?
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:27 pm
by vault3rb0y
Drill for a long swing. Something ALL vaulters do after take off is keep their hips under their shoulders before they swing. The only guys who "tuck and shoot" would still swing long underneath their body, and only tucked because they were jumping on poles 50 Ib's over their weight.
do all your drills with as long a swing as possible to build core strength. When it comes to the actual vault, do your best to swing long to the top of the vault, and the better your take off/position is, the easier it will be. The tuck only comes when your core is not strong enough to swing with a straight leg. I can tell from your videos that you have enough core to do it when your take off is better, so stick with a long fast swing!
Re: Long Leg Swing or Short leg swing?
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 4:30 am
by Barto
No such thing as a "good" short leg swing. Some vaulters will tuck the trail leg AFTER they swing it long through the chord of the pole. That is the technique you are describing in your question.
Re: Long Leg Swing or Short leg swing?
Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:54 pm
by Vault101 Boy
Thanks for the advice, I've finally seemed to figure out how to maintain the long trail leg through the vault. I built up a significantly faster run over the break to go with it so hopefully things will start clicking.
Another question: I'm coaching the junior high kids after i practice and one of the girls is rather talented as an 8th grader doing 7'6 her first meet. The problem is that she can't seem to figure out how to swing the left leg long and helicopters on all of her 3 steps. She can easily keep the left long when she doesnt swing since i drill that a lot to prevent this problem, but whenever she swings up, its with a bent left leg and then she brings her right leg downwards next to it so it turns into a double leg swing midway through the 3 step. We dont have easy access to any type of bar adequate for swinging so I'm at a loss when it comes to fixing the problem. Her goal is 8'6 by the end of outdoor season and i think she may have it if she can iron this problem out and work on getting inverted better(for some reason she already drops her shoulders naturally which is not bad i believe).
Thanks