Rythm Run (how I failed to teach it) Help
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:50 am
Here is my take on the difference between the rhythm run and just sprinting as hard as possible the whole way.
I agree with Altius that the Europeans in general use the slow-out-the-back, gradual acceleration method more often than Americans who are more likely to just turn on the afterburners and head toward the box. I am also certain that the rhythm run is a much better technique.
It is much easier to set up a good takeoff with a more methodical start to the run. The problem is that it is also a MUCH more difficult technique to learn and teach. It took me years to get it right consistently. Granted, I was working on it completely alone with no direct model available to me to follow. All I knew was that I had to be as tall and powerful as possible at the takeoff, and I had found out by accident that a more deliberate start to the run helped.
I was completely blown out from squatting too much and had to compete in a meet when it felt like I could barely walk. The only thing I could do was start very slow and then try my best to run faster as I got to the takeoff. I jumped a personal best (my first outdoor 18’) and got on the biggest pole I had ever used up to that point. I knew I was on to something; I just had no idea what or how to repeat it.
When I tried to run that way on purpose, I found my step was all over the place. I could not figure out how to accelerate at a consistent pace. It was harder to pick up the box because I was inconsistent at when and where I was turning on full power. When it was working though, I gained six to eight inches on my potential height. It was that significant a difference. Often I went back to the full-blast-from-the-start approach out of sheer necessity. I had to make some bars or risk putting a dent in my season, but I kept trying to find a rhythm run whenever possible.
After six years of tinkering with it off and on, I finally learned it through the feel of my plant. As my focus and feel for the right takeoff improved, it began to dictate how I ran. I couldn’t set up for my best plant any other way, so I just naturally began to run with a more deliberate start. It happened almost without me being aware of it.
This is what it feels like: The first four steps are tall and bouncy, almost like a slow bound. This helps get my feet under me while I am still moving slow. If you start a gradual acceleration without this high, bounding start, it means that your feet have to strike slightly in front of you as you begin to accelerate. If they keep striking in front of you, you will be leaning back as you reach full speed. The whole thing can fall apart from there with a decelerating, under takeoff. It is much easier to maintain good posture from the start than it is to try to get there during the run. After the first four steps there is a gradual acceleration that culminates with a full-blast charge into the takeoff while still being as tall as possible. The box seems to draw you to it like a magnet. The closer it gets, the faster you go automatically. It is like a ball rolling down a hill, naturally gathering speed and power as it goes. This happens without losing posture. On my best runs it feels like I almost have to stretch down with my legs or my feet will miss the runway. Of course, this is an illusion, but it feels that way. (There are some pole carry issues here, but I won't go into that.)
The difficulty is in knowing and trusting that your step will be on. There is a kind of break-over point about six steps out where you know that you will have just enough strength to reach a slightly outside takeoff with good posture and all the power against the track that you can possibly give.
I taught a good college vaulter to do this by simply explaining it to him in much the same terms as I have attempted here. He got inspired and went out to the next practice and PR’d a foot. Then he didn’t plant again for three months. It was the most frustrating coaching experience of my career. I ruined a decent vaulter’s season because I gave him the feel of the right way to do something. He could not repeat it, and he could not go back to his old run. The problem was an issue of confidence. He just could not trust that his step would be on. He was always anxious that he would be too far outside, that he would not have the power to get to the right takeoff. He began to try to think his way through the run and completely lost his feel for the box. All I could tell him was that he had to feel his takeoff and let the run lead him to it. That was (and is) the only way I know to do it, and I found out the hard way that if an athlete does not have a good feel for the takeoff to start with, my method will not work. I worked at it for six years after my first 18’ vault before I found it. I could not expect someone who had not made 17’ yet to use the same method.
My question is – Altius and anyone else with 2 cents or more to give – how can this be taught? I am the classic example of someone who can do it, but not teach it.
I agree with Altius that the Europeans in general use the slow-out-the-back, gradual acceleration method more often than Americans who are more likely to just turn on the afterburners and head toward the box. I am also certain that the rhythm run is a much better technique.
It is much easier to set up a good takeoff with a more methodical start to the run. The problem is that it is also a MUCH more difficult technique to learn and teach. It took me years to get it right consistently. Granted, I was working on it completely alone with no direct model available to me to follow. All I knew was that I had to be as tall and powerful as possible at the takeoff, and I had found out by accident that a more deliberate start to the run helped.
I was completely blown out from squatting too much and had to compete in a meet when it felt like I could barely walk. The only thing I could do was start very slow and then try my best to run faster as I got to the takeoff. I jumped a personal best (my first outdoor 18’) and got on the biggest pole I had ever used up to that point. I knew I was on to something; I just had no idea what or how to repeat it.
When I tried to run that way on purpose, I found my step was all over the place. I could not figure out how to accelerate at a consistent pace. It was harder to pick up the box because I was inconsistent at when and where I was turning on full power. When it was working though, I gained six to eight inches on my potential height. It was that significant a difference. Often I went back to the full-blast-from-the-start approach out of sheer necessity. I had to make some bars or risk putting a dent in my season, but I kept trying to find a rhythm run whenever possible.
After six years of tinkering with it off and on, I finally learned it through the feel of my plant. As my focus and feel for the right takeoff improved, it began to dictate how I ran. I couldn’t set up for my best plant any other way, so I just naturally began to run with a more deliberate start. It happened almost without me being aware of it.
This is what it feels like: The first four steps are tall and bouncy, almost like a slow bound. This helps get my feet under me while I am still moving slow. If you start a gradual acceleration without this high, bounding start, it means that your feet have to strike slightly in front of you as you begin to accelerate. If they keep striking in front of you, you will be leaning back as you reach full speed. The whole thing can fall apart from there with a decelerating, under takeoff. It is much easier to maintain good posture from the start than it is to try to get there during the run. After the first four steps there is a gradual acceleration that culminates with a full-blast charge into the takeoff while still being as tall as possible. The box seems to draw you to it like a magnet. The closer it gets, the faster you go automatically. It is like a ball rolling down a hill, naturally gathering speed and power as it goes. This happens without losing posture. On my best runs it feels like I almost have to stretch down with my legs or my feet will miss the runway. Of course, this is an illusion, but it feels that way. (There are some pole carry issues here, but I won't go into that.)
The difficulty is in knowing and trusting that your step will be on. There is a kind of break-over point about six steps out where you know that you will have just enough strength to reach a slightly outside takeoff with good posture and all the power against the track that you can possibly give.
I taught a good college vaulter to do this by simply explaining it to him in much the same terms as I have attempted here. He got inspired and went out to the next practice and PR’d a foot. Then he didn’t plant again for three months. It was the most frustrating coaching experience of my career. I ruined a decent vaulter’s season because I gave him the feel of the right way to do something. He could not repeat it, and he could not go back to his old run. The problem was an issue of confidence. He just could not trust that his step would be on. He was always anxious that he would be too far outside, that he would not have the power to get to the right takeoff. He began to try to think his way through the run and completely lost his feel for the box. All I could tell him was that he had to feel his takeoff and let the run lead him to it. That was (and is) the only way I know to do it, and I found out the hard way that if an athlete does not have a good feel for the takeoff to start with, my method will not work. I worked at it for six years after my first 18’ vault before I found it. I could not expect someone who had not made 17’ yet to use the same method.
My question is – Altius and anyone else with 2 cents or more to give – how can this be taught? I am the classic example of someone who can do it, but not teach it.
