PoleVaultPower.com

These are some pole drills I am doing. The pole is a 13' 6" 170, and I am 6' and around 155 pounds. I was working on my run and drop. My pr is 13 feet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivZrX51zup0 full run
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOPlErCvjwg full run
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0n5qPhYA3U three step sand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJAnV_GPJOA three step sand

Your full run's looked a little slow and not very energetic; kinda like you were just jogging and not really "into it". You gotta be agressive in your run and jump off of the ground. As for you sand-drills, not too bad, but it'd probably serve you better to lean forward slightly more at take-off, as to prevent your hips from getting sucked under the pole when it stops moving. Also, you might want to do the sand-pit drills on a stiffer pole as i think i saw it bend a little bit and idealy, the pole wants to stay as straight as possible for this drill. -6P

Morning,

Yep those are drills that can be help full, however you need to be doing them Perfectly... (I'm just going to talk about your pole drops/runs) On your pole runs, you are holding the pole too long, we want the pole to drop, the last 3Ls should be fluid and we shouldn't see any pause with the pole at or around parallel, we want the pole at parallel at 2L but it still needs to be moving/dropping. Take those pole runs back down to 3/4Ls and really practice that pole drop. That will also force you to quicken up those last few steps.

I agree with the above that you are sort of going through these pole runs passively. Your sprint form needs a bit of work, if you take away and focus on one thing from my post I would ask that you really pull your toes toward up, and squeeze your heel to your bum as you cycle through, that will also force you to get your knees up a bit better.

Just a thought, cheers
Bel

Run up drills should be done as if you were going to clear a pr. Sand pit drills - you must stay behind the pole -one cue is to always land on the pad on your right leg - better still take the pad away and land in the sand -you then have more time to ensure that your left leg stays behind the pole until the right foot lands in the sand. This is very important. But more aggression in all your work and a powerful upspring up take off to drive the pole forward - and then keep pushing your grip up.

Thank you for all of your replies, I will be doing track drills Saturday and Sunday now that soccer is starting for me. I will do 30 swing ups on Monday through Friday to hopefully keep up my strength and technique on the high-bar. I will work on my aggression in all of my drills. The pad is there because I have heard of injuries into the sand pit, so the pad is there to keep me injury free.

The point about working in the sand point is that encourages you to execute the drill correctly. If you think you are safe with a pad it is easy to get careless. I have never seen a sand pit injury in over thirty years with thousands of vaulters.

No injuries in the sand here for the kids I coach. Been doing that activity since 1983 with about 25 kids/season..


Rick Baggett
WSTC

I am fairly sure that Power Plant got hurt in the sand pit.

PP trained while injured for far too long. I think he"ll confirm this.


It goes without saying that if you train while injured then there's a much higher risk of either (a) aggravating one of your existing injuries; or (b) causing a new injury - becuz your body over-compensates to protect your existing injuries.

If you're healthy, sand vaulting is completely safe

Follow the advice in your tagline - don't be a wussy!

Kirk.

Thank you all who posted, I'll be more aggressive, stay behind the pole more, and get rid of the pad.