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Hey my name is Samuel... haven't vaulted in two years, so i'm working out some bugs.

I can tell you exactly what i'm doing wrong, i'm throwing my head back and posting with my bottom arm and its causing me to flag out. I'd really appreciate it if you would watch these two videos and see if there's anything else you can identify of me doing wrong, and suggest some drills on how to correct these problems.

I'm 5'10" at about 130-135 lbs.
Jumping on a 13'6" 150 lb. Pacer pole, holding about 12'9"
from 5 lefts, bungee at 15 ft.

i have 2 clips:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13224424

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wFSj2wwLk

i believe what i'm going to do is get on a smaller pole and start doing rockbacks from 3 lefts... i can do GOOD rockbacks and get totally vertical but when that pole starts to bend, then the problems arise. So i'm going to get on a smaller pole at three steps, do rockbacks and gradually move up the pole until it starts bending and i'll just focus on doing rockbacks and keeping my head tucked in, focus on swinging all the way through and getting vertical.

You seem to stop your swing mid-way through. You kind of curl up and hang there, then kick out at the bar. That way, you'll never get inverted correctly. Make sure you aren't too focused on the bar...you should vault the same each time, regardless of where the bar is, or if there even is a bar.

What you should do in addition to rockback drills are high-bar drills. They'll make your swing much stronger.

powerplant42 wrote:You seem to stop your swing mid-way through. You kind of curl up and hang there, then kick out at the bar. That way, you'll never get inverted correctly. Make sure you aren't too focused on the bar...you should vault the same each time, regardless of where the bar is, or if there even is a bar.

What you should do in addition to rockback drills are high-bar drills. They'll make your swing much stronger.

Okay.. good review... i was vaulting like that before we put the bungee up though haha.

i know, its bad...

what are high bar drills?

http://www.polevaultpower.com/media/video/skillsanddrills/

I'm going to build one of these in my back yard soon. I'm gonna push for one at my school too, but it's a pretty big liability issue.

powerplant42 wrote:http://www.polevaultpower.com/media/video/skillsanddrills/

I'm going to build one of these in my back yard soon. I'm gonna push for one at my school too, but it's a pretty big liability issue.

oh my lord...

i'm not sure if i can do a single one of those...
talk about your 90 lb. weakling.

Ok you are way under. You do not want to bend the pole while you are still on the ground. And you have a lot of bend before you leave the ground. You should first learn to carry and plant the pole properly before you worry about the top of your jump. As long as your plant is late and you are bending the pole before you leave the ground top of your jump will not get any better. Do some research "Beginner to Bubka" is your best bet. Drills Drills Drills and then more Drills! Especially pole carry and take-off drills.

vaultman18 wrote:Ok you are way under. You do not want to bend the pole while you are still on the ground. And you have a lot of bend before you leave the ground. You should first learn to carry and plant the pole properly before you worry about the top of your jump. As long as your plant is late and you are bending the pole before you leave the ground top of your jump will not get any better. Do some research "Beginner to Bubka" is your best bet. Drills Drills Drills and then more Drills! Especially pole carry and take-off drills.

In my defense, my steps were way off all day that day, and that kind of uncharachteristic of me. I normally have a very powerful plant.

BUT no one is perfect (im so far from it) and i know after two years off i could stand to work on my approach/plant/takeoff.

So thank you for your advice.

Vaultman18 is right. You gots to drill yo! And if you ARE only 90 pounds, drills that build core strength can really change that, SUCH AS the high bar, an essential tool in the BTB approach to pole vaulting. Alan Launder says that many tools are great to have, but the high bar is absolutely required for great vaulting. Just get someone to spot you and you can do it!

powerplant42 wrote:Vaultman18 is right. You gots to drill yo! And if you ARE only 90 pounds, drills that build core strength can really change that, SUCH AS the high bar, an essential tool in the BTB approach to pole vaulting. Alan Launder says that many tools are great to have, but the high bar is absolutely required for great vaulting. Just get someone to spot you and you can do it!

THANK you for the input and positive words!

I'm about 135 lbs tho lol. But i know where i can get to a highbar and when i can get out there to work with it, i will!

Hey man, you jump looks pretty similar to what mine was in decemberish.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5847921506

I was on a much smaller pole at the time, but I still see some similar characteristics. The swing to the L position, but then flagging out is evident in both your jump now and mine in december.

So if you have the same jump as I did, also means you have the same problems as I did. So I'm going to tell you how I fixed my problem.

I was putting too much pressure with the bottom arm foward. Some people say that putting pressure upward will solve the problem, but I could never figure out how to put pressure upward. But I was putting too much pressure with the bottom arm, which slowed down my swing tremendously. That is why I would swing to the pole with the long trail leg, but I would always be too late to catch the recoil.

So, to fix this problem, I started from a very short run and gradually added more steps and more grip. But by starting from like 1 or 2 lefts, and a very low grip, I would not put 0 pressure with the bottom arm. So as I moved my step back and grip up, I was told to continue to put no pressure with the bottom arm. Now this sounded strange, because I was always told to put some pressure with the bottom arm, but to put absolutely none? However, I found this actually worked. My swing became more powerful and after a month or 2 of more training, my vault improved significantly.

However, it is important to note, that when I say no pressure with the bottom arm, it does not mean you should have a weak or late plant. Make sure your hands are completely extended at the plant, but just don't jam your left arm in to the jump. Putting no pressure is going to feel weird at first, and it might be beneficial to use a smaller pole to just get used to the feeling.

If you want some more details about the drill that I used (the process of starting from short steps with a low grip and raising it) please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm not a coach or a very experienced vaulter, but that's just my experience. Anyway, good luck!

sooch90 wrote:Hey man, you jump looks pretty similar to what mine was in decemberish.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5847921506

.....

Anyway, good luck!

Hey man THANK you!!! I typed out in the second post almost the same thing that i thought would help me... i wrote this:

BadMotherVaulter wrote:i believe what i'm going to do is get on a smaller pole and start doing rockbacks from 3 lefts... i can do GOOD rockbacks and get totally vertical but when that pole starts to bend, then the problems arise. So i'm going to get on a smaller pole at three steps, do rockbacks and gradually move up the pole until it starts bending and i'll just focus on doing rockbacks and keeping my head tucked in, focus on swinging all the way through and getting vertical.

were you bending the pole during the drills that you were doing?

Also, this is for everyone... kinda a newbie question... when i vault my pole never rotates out to the side, its always flexed straight in front of my. Should i worry about rotating the pole out to the side when it flexes?