charlie wrote:You PRESS the pole now, but you do it AFTER you leave the ground and that is too late. The press starts when your foot is on the ground! I am one of the FEW coaches that teach this plant! Two step and PRESS when the pole makes contact with the box and come up on your toe as you PRESS!(do not leave the ground) That gets you in to the habit of PRESSING EARLIER!!!!
Yikes!
I thought Renaud L. and Sergy B. both proved to the world that a free takeoff is the way to go!
And I thought Altius (Alan Launder) had spread word of that technique to the masses via PVP and his BTB2 book.
And I thought PVStudent (John Gormley) provided ample scientific proof of that in the past year, in comparing RL's WR technique to SB's.
Charlie, you're a good coach, you have a good heart, and I love your enthusiasm. But I think it's a disservice to advise an aspiring young vaulter like Spencer to advise him to press before takeoff. At least you advise him ("
I am one of the FEW coaches that teach this plant!") that this technique is rather unusual. If you were there at the track with him, it might be different, but you're not.
Spencer, if you have a personal coach, I would go with what he says, since he's there to guide you along every step of the way (and he's apparently done a pretty damn good job so far). You shouldn't make too many major changes this late in the season.
Personally, I advise to not press at all.
However, I do not wish to get into a technique war with my fellow coach Charlie, so I will take the middle road and just advise you on your body posture ...
For more details, read this thread:
http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=16585&p=120112&hilit=Svetlana+Feofanova+kirk#p120112... and pay particular attention to the discussion about Feofanova's takeoff. That's where you're going astray. Get a better forwards lean (like Feofanova), and you're over 5.00! (16-5)!
You may have to move your takeoff point back to do this (but maybe not, if you can just stretch your chest forwards and stretch your trail leg back a bit more).
Just focus on your body posture. I'm not sure (I can't really see the alignment of your left foot with your top hand on takeoff), but immediately after takeoff you seem to have a rather extreme backwards lean. Almost like you're getting clothes-lined (yet still clearing 15-9).
The main issue here (IMHO) is your lack of forwards lean on takeoff, and even AFTER takeoff. you need to stretch your chest forwards more, and you need to stretch your trail leg backwards more.
If you do that, it really won't matter what your bottom hand is doing (as long as it's not pressing BEFORE takeoff)!
Kirk
