Rowing/Throwing?

[altius]

Are you telling me that highschoolers cant understand the notion of whip swinging on a moving high bar?

That they cant practice on a high bar - cant transfer what they have learned to the pole ? Sorry, my experience tells me that they can - unless of course they are absolute dumb bunnies. A major problem seems to be that many supposedly great vaulting centres around the USA dont even have a high bar -even Slippery Rock did not have one until very recently.

Take a look at the images in BTB2 -book or dvd - or the Petrov gymnastics dvd Sean brown has available and you will see how it all fits together.

[BethelPV]

You're completely right that it can be transfered pretty easily altius, but the main problem is just as you stated it... how are they gonna know what a whip swing on a high bar feels like if they've never swung on a high bar? I definately agree with you, but there aren't enough people working with high bars to necessarily know how it feels!

[vault3rb0y]

Well you definitely know way more than I do about explaining things to kids, but im just saying that when i tried to explain it to a small group of vaulters by relating it to a high bar, they said "Huh?" And i then just told them to keep their hands centered over their head, and that pushing their hands forward is bad. Sometimes it helps to hear it two different ways, thats all i was trying to say. I learned very quickly in the first experience ive had with trying to explain things to beginner vaulters to K.I.S.S. and say things more than 1 way, and thats all i was trying here too.

[Robert schmitt]

altius- I use rings that I hang 15' from the bleachers (I use rings because the AD (athletic director) took my high bar away- and the ring I can take down quickly after a saturday practice so the AD never knows. to me the rings on this long fulcrum mimick the feeling of a vault even better than a high bar. Do you see any pros or cons to the rings over high bar?

[altius]

Rings are a good option for the experienced vaulter - especially if they are the only option!! However it is much more difficult for young athletes to master the whip swing using rings as they find them difficult if not impossible to control in the early stages of learning - hence my bias towards the high bar because this allows even beginners to begin to feel their way through the second phase.