Mid Mark Chart

[lonestar]

Kris,

I think you are right on with concerns about pelvic tilt and posture at the takeoff, but rather than viewing the takeoff as pulling the foot back under the hips I believe it is better described as pushing the foot/shin straight down into the ground. This helps reduce the "overstride to grab" phenomenon we have all observed.

Just my 2 cents,

Barto

Well said Mike. I'll go along with that. Snapping the lead leg down underneath your hips like a hurdler and then pushing/driving that foot into the ground upon contact is kind of a "pull" action in the air that pre-empts the "push" action on the ground once contact is made. I have a big problem with those that strike the ground in front of the hips and pull the leg back under them - we used to call it "a hamstring waiting to happen" ... trying to think of examples and the only one that comes to mind is Annika Becker in the 2003 Worlds, but I'm sure there's many more.

[dj]

Good morning

I “revived” this post for several reasons…

At the top of the list is ….NOW! Right now is the time to create your run… actually you are already late if you haven’t started working on it…

EVERY vaulter should be doing pole runs with a 6 left, 7 lefts, 8 lefts and 9 left approaches…

What do you have to lose? And what will you gain! “Preparation for Success” as I mentioned in another thread.

Will you ever use a 9, 8,7, or even a 6 step approach? Maybe and Maybe not! But if your goal is to go to Harvard in the future should you drop out of school today?

There is so much that continues to be said and “repeated” about the run that I will try and get through it again.

What Lonestar and Barto are saying is very correct and doesn’t conflict in any way with the reasons to have a longer run, a check mark at six instead of 4, or even with “whole” method that I have gotten the impression that Alan and Roman teach. None of this goes against a “continuous chain” model or anything I have read from Petrov. Actually Petrov’s paper that I have speaks of the run in a first part, second part and final third part even though he indicates firmly that it is a “whole” action and starts… at the start.

As physical educators, as physical scientist and as teachers of sports we should have learned a couple of fundamental principles..
One is the Whole-Part-Whole method of learning and teaching. Second is the “SAID” principle… or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands..

May initial work on the approach was in the 1960’s with the long jump run. What I derived from that research, theory and practice was exactly what Barto has said about the Hips having to be “shifted’ before there can be a correct penultimate and take off…. Bubba will remember that I suggested he change his vaulters start position so she would be in the proper “rhythm” and in sink with the pole carry..(what Petrov calls the vaulter/pole system) she was doing great but was starting with the wrong foot forward which caused her to “swing’ the pole out of rhythm forcing her to have to correct in “mid” run so she could reposition the hips to takeoff correctly, which she could do most of the time anyway,( but many other vaulters do not) if she simply changed her feet at the start she would not be forced to adjust during the run, losing speed, rhythm and focus…….. this change made her faster and more confident on the approach……. And enabled her to “shift” the hips properly at the take off.

To explain do this….. as a right handed vaulter stand at the start with the right foot on the start mark… when you step/push out the right hand will have a tendency to want to swing forward to follow the left leg stepping out… the more “pumped” you are the greater swinging of the pole… now you are “messed up" because you will swing the pole to stay in sink!

Now do it correctly… with the left foot on the start mark… this time when you step/push out the right hand will stay on the right hip and follow the body in the correct vaulter/pole rhythm. Or it should..

The same thing happens to the athletes that “skip” into their run… if you skip with the left foot forward you have a good chance of keeping the pole in the correct balance position.. if you skip (which I don’t think you should skip… start with the toe on the line with the left wrist higher than the elbow ..Pertrov Model).. with the right foot forward, as a right hander, there is a very good chance of messing up your pole carry, posture and run rhythm.


I am addressing you from a position of logic…..

The coaches like Barto, Lonestar, Bubba and ladyvolspvcoach, that either already use my “system”, a variation of that system, a similar system or a seemingly different system based on the same “checks and balances”, already know how to get their athletes to run fast from a long run. When I “chat” with them they respond you are speaking to the choir. So bare with me if this gets redundant.

I must say 90 percent of the questions on PVP lead right back to the run. Question number one, I’m not penetrating deep enough, What should I do? The first answer is to lower your grip of course, but that means you can’t jump as high. So the real answer if you want to jump higher is to run faster (and correctly of course).

Question number two. I’m losing pole speed and can’t get my hips up. What should I do? Typical answer is to swing better. The best answer is to have a faster run (with an equal or better plant) so you have the “pole speed’ to have a “continuous” fast swing so you CAN invert and go vertical instead of “flagging”.

Question number three. I continue to “stretch” my last step and go under, my coach is constantly trying to get me to change but it continues no matter how hard I try. What can I do? The first answer is usually “get you feet down.” But the correct answer is to have a correct “Six Step Mark” so you can get your feet down AND have the ability to have a penultimate step which is critical to taking off properly and to transferring the energy so there is a “continuous chain”

AND if you continuously lengthen the last step, whither you are under or not, you will “flag” 90 percent of the time! Doesn’t matter if you inverted correctly (totally vertical) you will “flag” if you stretch the last step. Why you ask? It is simple physics, you don't have the correct “up” impulse at takeoff and you will” pass the cord” of the pole and cannot do anything other than “fall” from the pole. Now "if" you are very strong you might save some of those jumps, just from pure power, but not many.

Question number four. I’m jump pretty good from five lefts but always have trouble moving back. Should I just stay at five and improve my technique or, how can I move my run back? The first answer is to practice a longer run over and over on the track, with correct check marks. How do you know what correct is? What is your 3 left (6 step) mark? Your longer run “check mark” should not be more than one foot for every 4 inches of higher grip. For example from 5 lefts (10 steps) say you can hold 11-6 and your 6 step check is 39, when you move to a 6 left (12 step) approach, you figure you will at least hold at 11-10 or12 feet. You should put you “Six Step Check” at 40 feet. If you start to run better and grip higher you can move the check mark out proportionally.

I’m not sure when vaulters stopped using or even stopped trying to use a long run. By long I mean a minimum of 18 strides with hopes of eventually using 20. Eighteen to twenty strides was/is the only way any athlete was/is going to maximize their ability. I think maybe Jeff was the last vaulter from Earl’s group that was predominantly 18 strides. Has anyone set a USA or International record with less than 18 strides? Man or woman? Was it about the time the women started to vault that we stopped long runs and did that influence the choice of a short run?

Tully and most vaulters of his error had two runs… 14 strides was a short run and 18/20 was the long run. The 14 was used more in the “off’ season and only occasionally for technical work during season.

Back to how and why we should practice and use a long run.

As I have said before, I development my run “philosophy’ and technical base in the 60’s from the Long jump. What Barto and Lonestar are talking about in the position of the pelvis I got from an article written about the great Russia long jumper. The article has diagrams of the pelvis and how it should shift to be in position to “takeoff”. The running technique to get to that position was longer accelerated strides to get to the middle of the run and an active “pulling through” of the hips and increased frequency of the strides from 6/5 steps out and into the take off.

The article stated that to “practice” this action you should place “foam” strips on the runway (or track) at equal distances apart so the athlete can practice equal strides, correct posture and with an increased frequency. This is more or less how I see Petrov explaining it in his paper. The “drawing through” term can be misleading in that if we reach and “paw” we will invariably reach “under” and lose speed instead of accelerate through the takeoff. Do things the way Lonestar explained.

Yes the pole can “shift’ the mass slightly but if the pole is carried and “dropped’ correctly the effect is minimized. The pole carry with the left wrist higher than the elbow, creates a “fulcrum” that allows the mass to be shifted slightly back toward the top grip which should be at or slightly behind the hip. with the hands in the correct position the mass should be closer to the belly button. The tip of that pole will fall at 32 feet per Second Square.

Unless you “hold” the pole tip up it will “fall” to the plant position by itself. (scary huh!)If it is allowed to fall from the six step mark, it will rotate itself from tip up to tip down in time to be planted. This was what Mike Cotton did in the mid 70’s that was ahead of it’s time. He weighted in at 147 pounds, soaking wet, and had to carry a big green cat, 16-185, down the runway. A “free drop” was his best choice. Scary but it worked. We practiced that on the track doing approach runs and letting go with the left hand to see if we could time it right. We found out of course that it was different at times because of the wind and definitely different into a head wind. It would hold the pole up.

I can remember 15/20+ years ago that the “High Performance” committee, headed by Bob Fraley and supported by Peter McGinnis’s research, determined that the number one factor in pole vaulting at an Olympic and world class level was runway speed.

I have much, much more… but I’m getting pretty busy going from city to city visiting the clubs and looking for talent. I’m going to post this even though it is far from complete.

Everyone should go out and do pole runs today or tomorrow!

A minimum of a 6 left approach… a towel at the take off.. three lefts into a Six Step Check.. with the check mark for the chart based on grip and your jump height…

I’ll get back to you in a couple of days… gotta go find some sprinters and decathletes…

Later

dj

ps here is an example of what a 12 foot vaulters run should be.......

towel for the box… a cone for the takeoff.. then 6 more cones 5-3 apart.. this is your Six Step Check (“mid”).. runback three lefts from that mark.. that should give you a 62-63 foot run from the back of the box to your start……. Three lefts to the “check’ three more lefts to the takeoff/plant…

pss... "flagging" is when the pole stops and the vaulter goes past the pole and goes horizontal or at a 45 degree angle up into or over the bar... looking like a flag on a pole...

[KirkB]

Wow! Lots of wheat here, DJ!

Just a couple followups ...

1. Can you clarify what you mean by "flagging"? I kind of get this, but not entirely. It's not a term that I ever used. When was that term coined?

2. I'm always surprised when I see elite vaulters skip-step their first step. To me, it's a mistake that I'd only expect rookies to make. It seems to me that you can't possibly skip-step consistently, to hit your mid mark or your takeoff point. It's somewhat random, therefore unreliable, isn't it?

3. I vaulted with Mike Cotton, and as you say, he was quite light and quite fast. I struggled with the heavy glass logs we used, so he must have struggled even more. I don't recall him using a high pole carry. Did he eventually get to that, or was it always a conventional carry - "low and to the side"? Wouldn't he have benefitted from a high pole carry? It was no secret - he saw myself and Kjell Isaakson do it in several meets.

Kirk

[Bubba PV]

In simple terms, no matter what is going wrong with the vault for any vaulter we can bring them back by spending a day or two with "the list", as we call DJ's chart. DJ was my coach during some of my best masters years (still helps A LOT) and Lonestar has been my coach since 2005. I was his before that. Every time we struggle with our technique, or have athletes that do so, we "start over" with the list and within a session or two, they are miraculously back on track. They get off track by trying to do too much, whether it is force the grip, run or pole. When I see the frustration mounting, I know the solution.

Even for myself, at 55 years old, if I have a little ding/injury and need to ramp back up to vaulting, I'll start the list at 8' and jump every height until I'm back where I need to be. This usually takes me about two sessions. Not much of an investment to get back on track. I'm a little more psycho in that I'll put a rubber strip across the runway at the mid and the take off. If I hit the strips and make the bar, it's still a miss. The result is that you develop run, plant and take off consistency, hence I rarely need to do pole runs. On the other hand, now I've got kids from 9 years old through high school that would normally show up at the box in a different place each time. The list gives them confidence and consistency during this critical development age.

I remember one weekend when I had Dean Starkey, Simon Arkell, Scott Huffman, Tim Bright and Pat Manson over at my house. I printed off and passed out the list and every one of them said, "this is real close to what I'm doing". Most were exceeding the height they could clear with a mid and grip but as a baseline it was really accurate.

Does this list work for everyone? Yes. Real simple. When DJ called me from Saudi a couple of weeks ago I told him the way I answer this question is with an example of high hurdlers. One is 5' 9" and another is 6' 4" but they still run three steps between hurdles. No matter what the run rhythm variables, or intensity needed, every one passes through these benchmarks at some point, whether it is at 40% effort for an elite, or 95% effort as a high school kid. Bo Jackson once told a group of seniors that they experience the same levels of perceived exertion, so they are getting the same exercise benefits as he, it just doesn’t take them as much to get there.

All I can say is that for 15+ years this is my benchmark to consistent development from the beginning to the end. What really made me get serious about it was a young athlete I was working with out at UC Irvine could jump 16’ from his short run (12 steps) and 16’ 1” from his long run (18 steps). I told him that at some point in this transition he has lost his efficiency. So that summer we started him over and made him start at 8’. He had to make every height before he could move to the next. He went on to jump 18’. Same thing with BJ Vando’s older brother. He 15’ 3” to 17’ in one year using this approach. In fact, when BJ Vando first joined us as a very young kid, he went through the same progression and showed remarkable success. Ask Lonestar how much he HATED me in the first month of training when I converted him to this method of vault training. He got several lifetime PRs and was consistent at a level above his past PR. Now he’s an outstanding coach. Last year I did the same thing with our top high school kid. We got him as a cross country reject after his freshman year. He had made 9’ 6”. Two years later he was at 15’ 6” and in the Texas State Meet where only eight vaulters qualify.
This subject gets great banter on the boards here and I usually stay out because I won’t get into a pissing match with someone. Everyone has their view and that’s great. It’s just not worth arguing over it. I don’t have the time or energy. Besides, as Vaultwest told me, “so often we’re saying very similar things, just in a different way, so it’s more a matter of semantics”. All I know is that it continues to work for me and every athlete I’ve had. It’s certainly worth a try. You’ve got nothing to use and everything to gain. Have fun with it like we do. THANKS DJ!! Bubba

[dj]

hello

thanks Bubba... i'm in Dammam SA... having cheese cake and a diet pepsi... 10:30pm

don't have time to add more tonight but thanks......

i did do a sesion this afternoon with three young boys.. one 11 and two 15.. the 11 year old was on a 3.35m 100lb nordic.. gripping 10 cm from the top.. when he hit the correct "Check" he looked like our buddy Duplantis... it was the same for the 15 year olds... when they were on they jump 12 feet by a foot...

Most of the time their biggest error was hitting 44 feet gripping 12-6.. stretching, stepping under and coming up short.. or pulling in with the arms...

later

dj

[master]

i think this job gets more fun evry day.... ; )

later

dj

So what is your job that you are traveling around the world coaching?

- master

[dj]

Good morning

I edited my above post a little because of what happen the second day, yesterday.

The first day I had briefly explained to the coach why I had put a shoe at the “Six Step Mark” and we decided to come back the next day and do another session. When I arrive at the track “on time” the coach/father and his son had already started. When I asked if I was late, he said no that he wanted a “head start’ to show me his son could be better today than yesterday. (without the mark)…

The next jump, he said watch.. his son was about 2 feet out, stretched, reached under and pulled in with the arms. Instead of stopping and let me help set up the run he said, wait..wait..he will get it.. He "yells" at his son to RUN and get his plant up! This time he ran faster and hit 3 feet out… a big reach… crushed the pole and got ‘thrown” into the left standard. Fortunately he wasn’t seriously hurt but could not continue. But his father continued to yell at him that he was still stretching and not getting the plant up!!! And told him that this was why he almost got hurt! This was his father! I was not very happy.... One of the 15 year olds was warming up and when he saw this he told the coach that he was tired from yesterday and didn’t want to vault. End of session. Now because of this experience the coach doesn't want me around. He called my decathlete who is from his same home town and said i didn't help him any, as a coach, with the vault technique just talked about the run!!! the sad part is he is doing a fantastic job with all his vaulters but i may not get a chance to help him anymore. His 15 years olds could jump 4.50 or higher in just 2/3 months. They are jumping 3.90/4.00 now, but unsafely because of the run.

I have seen this happen over and over for 36 years…… what his son did was not his fault.. he was absolutely trying his best… this is what happens to 90 % of all vaulters in competition. Tim Mack was doing it in 1995 when he worked with Tully and I in LA.. He worked on it with us and continued to work on it with “B” for 4 years. But then because of adrenalin, the run surface and getting his start out to far he made the same “natural” mistake in the 2000 trials. He didn’t make that mistake in 2004, he adjusted his steps forward so they would match his intensity, his speed and the surface he was jumping on.

That mistake is this, Please try and understand this, When you come out of the back “naturally” and accelerate correctly, (which is the way I fell you should run) so that you can have the correct speed to jump high, this almost always results in shorter and faster steps!

Ninety percent of the time this will put you “out” at your check mark. This means one of two things… (mostly one) 90% of the time you will have to stretch to get to the correct takeoff mark. This automatically kills your speed and posture. When you do this you automatically feel like you need to slow your start so you will have enough speed left at the plant. This is the incorrect thinking.

You need the speed at the end just as Bubka had. Your need as much “controlled” speed as possible at the box to jump your PR, but not over controlled. What Bubka adapted to on the run as a “whole” we can train, practice and adjust too by paying attention to “detail” of the parts of the run.

As physical educators, as physical scientist and as teachers of sports we should have learned a couple of fundamental principles. One is the Whole-Part-Whole method of learning and teaching. Any activity is best learned if you can separate the parts, practice and then put the “corrected” parts back together. The second principal is the “SAID” principle… or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. What this means is if you do something exactly the same enough times the body will adjust and adapt. If you run your steps, a long run or short run, enough the body will adapt. If you are great at a short run and lousy at a long run (6 lefts or more) ?????

If you don’t accelerate from the back or start of the run the laws of inertia and acceleration will dictate that you will not be your fastest at the box 20 meters away.

Now back to how to fix your run so you can run fast and consistent from a long run not a short run.

What happened with this coach and his son happens all they time. All the time… I have heard many of you say the same thing but not understand why and how to change. I have seen it 1000’s of times and I’m extremely upset that out of the coaches enthusiasm and desire to show me that his son could do things better than the day before, without the check mark, his son got hurt and had a bad experience. I hope that I can go back in a couple of weeks and present my run program so that they see that it works and is “natural.”

Here is how to fix the start of your run up too the Six Step Check mark.

First Go on to the track and take block starts. Time yourself for 10 and 20 meters.
While someone is timing you have other teammates mark your steps, every step!! or at least every left.

Then do a “3 point” start with no blocks, time these and mark the steps. Then do a standing start, timed and marked. Now it’s time for the pole. Hold the pole. (right handed vaulter) Left hand 10 inches in from the chest, wrist higher than the elbow, elbow down toward the ground and not out from the body. The left “fork” of the hand is holding the pole “fulcrum” fashion; the right grip is at the waist or a little toward the butt. If you “open” the hands (just as a test) the pole should not drop to the ground. Toe the start mark with the left toe and the right foot is placed one or two feet behind you, the same as a standing start.

Now you are ready to “race” for 20 meters. Time every one of these and mark the steps.

Compare your data.. the FASTEST and most consistent steps becomes your Approach Run from the Start to the Six Step Check Mark. If you are using a 4 left approach you will only need the first two steps from the start. A 5 left approach is the first 4 steps or 2 lefts.

A Six Step Approach, which is my minimum approach and favorite, is the first 6 steps (3 lefts) from the fastest pole run plus the last 6 steps from the Six Step Chart based on grip.

Bam!! Now you have a world class run. After putting this process into the “system” of my athletes and practicing of course, all I have to say to my athletes at a competition is;

“Come out of the back, get you feet down and plant big.”

What this means to then is that they are going to take the proper grip and stance, accelerate naturally, (pushing of course) drop the pole naturally.. get the feet down from the Six step check mark (which means increased frequency) plant correctly with a penultimate, out and “up”. BAM…

All of this comes from:

“Come out of the back, get you feet down and plant big.”

I watch the Check Mark. To see if they ran correctly to the Mark and after the mark. I watch the mark to see if they are faster today and need to adjust the pole, the run and/or the grip.

I feel today.. that I could take the top 10 male and the top 10 female vaulters in the world, train them with this process and one of those ten men and women would jump World records (excluding Isi). I would not coach them on technique off of the ground or anything about how to vault. They know “how to vault” they have been taught how to vault by their coaches.

Mike Tully knew “how to vault”, Earl Bell knew how to vault, his father and Guy Kochel taught him that. The brief time I spent with Earl was on how to haul A$$ down the runway. Once he jumped a world record i doubt he was pissed about the 50 and 100 yard pole runs we did. ; )

Please don’t think I am being arrogant! I’m not… the ones that know me, know that this is not the case. I am confident. Confident in the knowledge and experience I got from my coaches and fellow athletes. (How else could someone 5-9 140 lbs (and white) win the NAIA National Indoor Long Jump Championship!)

There is no reason not to have a long fast (faster) run based on your own ability. A longer, faster, more accurate run produces higher vaults.

Thank you

dj

[dj]

good morning again....

Here is how to fix the start of your run up too the Six Step Check mark.

please don't go back to where i said this an forget or leave out any of the steps that i listed... i know you guys.. over half of you will leave out the block starts, another 25 percent will skip the runs without the pole and another 25 percent will go straight to the runway!!!

i may be being to kind! to you gentlemen and ladies.

By Lonestar

The Approach and Pole Drop
In reality, the pole drop starts at the initiation of the approach. In order to maximize
efficiency of movement to increase speed, the vaulter needs to eliminate excessive
counterproductive motion, yet should neither be rigid. Just like a sprinter, the vaulter
needs to use “reciprocal motions” to maintain balance. As the sprinter drives the right
knee with hip flexion, knee flexion, and ankle dorsiflexion, the left hip extensors, knee
extensors, and ankle plantar flexors push the athlete forward. At the same time, reciprocal
motions in the upper extremity allow balance and rhythm. Shoulder extension and elbow
extension (the driving back motion of the upper extremity) coincide with the opposite
lower extremity extensors (the pushing forward motion). One needs to keep in mind this
“reciprocal motion” concept during the pole vault approach. Therefore, as the right knee
drives, to balance and reciprocate that motion, the left shoulder and upper extremity
move forward slightly and vice versa. Now to optimize pole carry, the vaulter needs to
eliminate a swinging, up and down motion, of the pole. Allow the upper limbs to move in
reciprocal fashion, however, maintain a steady pole drop. This means that the movement
of the hands is relatively minimal except to allow the pole to drop.

I need to add that if you keep the left wrist above the left elbow.. and the left wrist as high as the chest.. especially during the last 4 steps you will never have a bad plant. if something is not correct, run, rhythm etc.. you will not plant at all or plant "ok" or great.

dj

[KirkB]

DJ, I've said this before, and I'll say it again ...

I sure wish I had you as my running coach, in HS and on thru college. My run was my weakest link, and I should have worked on it MORE, rather than shying away from learning how to run properly.

My only defense is that I didn't like to lose or to be embarassed, and every time I ran next to other athletes - even in practice, that's what happened. Over time, I realized that I HAD to learn to run - it was ESSENTIAL if I was to reach my PV goals - so I did grin and bear it, and eventually started to enjoy it.

Are there any particular drills that make running more FUN and ENJOYABLE, for guys like me?

One thing I like is challenges, and I ran the stairs in Husky Stadium quite a bit. To me, although that was hard work, it was "fun" in the sense that I set the goal to run every stair in the stadium, then I ran them. The feeling of accomplishment when I finished the last stair was my reward. Next week, when it was time to run stairs again, I actually looked forward to them. This might also have something to do with the endorphin rush that "running the stairs" gave me.

I should also point out that there's 2 ways to run stairs. One is to work on technique - high knee action, sprinting up the stairs, then walking down and over to the next set. The other is to run up/down the stairs at a continuous rate. We ran the first way - which is better for the sprinting action that we needed for PV.

I feel today.. that I could take the top 10 male and the top 10 female vaulters in the world, train them with this process and one of those ten men and women would jump World records (excluding Isi). I would not coach them on technique off of the ground or anything about how to vault. They know “how to vault” they have been taught how to vault by their coaches.

Mike Tully knew “how to vault”, Earl Bell knew how to vault, his father and Guy Kochel taught him that. The brief time I spent with Earl was on how to haul A$$ down the runway. Once he jumped a world record i doubt he was pissed about the 50 and 100 yard pole runs we did. ; )

... There is no reason not to have a long fast (faster) run based on your own ability. A longer, faster, more accurate run produces higher vaults.

DJ, I agree with everything you said in this post (and some parts I just don't understand - so I take your advice unquestionably), except for the last part of the quote above. I just can't agree that "They know 'how to vault'".

Yes, the run is EXTREMELY important, and is a major factor in how high you'll grip and how high you'll clear. But there's so much MORE that you can do to improve your vault after your run/plant.

Since I consider myself a takeoff/swing specialist, I can tell you without a doubt that the fastest run on the planet does you know good if you can't jump or swing technically correctly. Instead of debating this, I'll just say that you need both - a good run/plant, and then a good takeoff/swing.

Note that I haven't mentioned a good extension/fly-away. They're important - just not as important as the other vault parts. You can actually do quite well with a good run, plant, takeoff, swing - even if your extension and fly-away are poor. You can work on those later - when time permits (but since there's always so much to work on in the bottom half of your valut, you may never get to perfecting your extension or fly-away). And I'm living proof that you can actually do not too badly with a poor run, then a good plant/takeoff/swing/extension and a not-so-good fly-away.

Do we violently agree on this?

Kirk

[dj]

good morning Kirk

i agree totally with you about the technique.. my point is if they are top 10 in the world they have to have a lot of the technique already in order... it may just be the run that is holding them back.

like you said if you could have improved your speed or maximized your run the way you maximized your technique you would have jumpered higher.

ask ladyvol to post his girl, alicia, jumping at Tyson a couple of years ago. Check her run... she is actully a beginner! very new to the sport but has an awesome run, that he helped her create from day one.

dj

[KirkB]

... if you could have improved your speed or maximized your run the way you maximized your technique you would have jumpered higher.

Here's something very, very stupid that I used to believe ..

I was told that sprinters are BORN - not made!

From that, I deduced that I would never, ever become a good runner.

First, this attitude was self-defeating.

Second, the importance of your speed is relative only to yourself. It doesn't matter how fast I was compared to others! What mattered was that I needed to believe (which I didn't enough) that if I worked hard on it, I'd get faster!

I used to have such a good, positive attitude about MOST training, but when it came to running, I had this mental block.

If you think you can, then you can. If you think you can't, then you can't. Either way, you're right! (Henry Ford)

Silly, silly.

Please learn from my mistakes.

I just googled this excellent poem ...

You Can If You Think You Can!

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/youcandoit/youcan.php

Along the same lines, here's a nice one-page essay entitled "You can, if you think you can" ... http://more-selfesteem.com/you_can_do_article.htm

Kirk

[Vaultdadof2]

Dave Johnston's mid mark chart is now available at http://www.polevaultpower.com/docs/djmidchart.doc (It's a Word file)

He's going to get on here and explain it to everyone... it's really GOOD stuff.

I get a 404 error when I click on the link to access the Word file. Is there a new link for the chart?