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Last winter at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, an Australian coach was overheard to say “If you haven’t read Petrov’s letter, you haven’t studied the Pole Vaultâ€Â

I have had a copy of "The Letter" since it came to America. I worked with Andjie at Oregon for a season coaching the under 17' guys in the Athletics west heyday. I can say that there have been misconceptions about what he said and the english interpretation of the original letter. The biggest misconception (asked by me at Reno) is about the takeoff. The issue was the location of the takeoff foot. Vitaly laughed and said that was not it, the issue was what was happenning at the moment of leaving the ground. In essence the vaulter has to jump with every aspect of his/her body up into the pole. Anyone have video of the 88 Seoul Olympics? Bubka is obviously way inside but the pole doesn't start to bend until he is coming off the ground.
Remember the letter was written in Russian and translated by Americans. I have an Italian paper on training methods but haven't found an Italian to translate it, I am still interested in what it says......

Rick Baggett
WSTC

baggettpv wrote:I have had a copy of "The Letter" since it came to America. I worked with Andjie at Oregon for a season coaching the under 17' guys in the Athletics west heyday. I can say that there have been misconceptions about what he said and the english interpretation of the original letter. The biggest misconception (asked by me at Reno) is about the takeoff. The issue was the location of the takeoff foot. Vitaly laughed and said that was not it, the issue was what was happenning at the moment of leaving the ground. In essence the vaulter has to jump with every aspect of his/her body up into the pole. Anyone have video of the 88 Seoul Olympics? Bubka is obviously way inside but the pole doesn't start to bend until he is coming off the ground.
Remember the letter was written in Russian and translated by Americans. I have an Italian paper on training methods but haven't found an Italian to translate it, I am still interested in what it says......

Rick Baggett
WSTC

On stabhochsprung.com, there used to be a video of one of the Laccheb brothers jumping around 18'8". When he plants the pole he moves his hands up and back to adjust for being at least a foot under and allow for a free takeoff. It's subtle, but if you watch the video, it's definitely a conscious action.

I've seen plenty of video of Bubka doing the same thing. It didn't really matter where it took off, but that pole absolutely didn't hit the back of the box until the instant he was taking off.

Yep, I’m sure that Vitaly Petrov is laughing. Here’s another quote which should be of interest:

“When Sergey Bubka’s coach, Vitaly Petrov first spoke at the Reno PV Summit, he commented that Americans are much more enthusiastic than Europeans in their love for the sport but that we constantly disobey the laws of physics."