First post: Help?

[kwarky]

I started pole vaulting 3 weeks ago. 2 days ago at my last meet I cleared 10'6". Is that good at all? My friends are doing like 12' so I dunno... and I started late (I'm a junior).
I'm 5'8", 145 lbs using a 13'6" 140 lb pole (gripping 12'3") and bending the hell out of it.
I really wanna reach 11' so we can break the relay record at my school.

My main problem is that I can't invert fully and I don't know how to twist at the end of the vault. I know inverting well comes with practice, but every time I clear a height I just swing and then let the pole pop me over (my back facing the bar). I somehow manage to push the pole back so it falls back without knocking the bar over but... it's awful form.
How do I get from the end of the swing phase to the inverted phase to the twisting (chest facing bar) phase? My coach keeps saying that it should be natural but I don't get it. He also says that if I manage to twist correctly I can get at least a foot better , so I really wanna get this down.

Help please?

[at track]

Good to hear that you're starting off pretty well and seem to be enjoying it! First and foremost, I have to URGE you not to use a pole under your weight - even if its just 5 lbs over and you're gripping down - unless you're specifically told to by an experienced vault coach and being supervised. That's a REALLY great way to hurt yourself and waste a $300 piece of equipment.

Now for the vault, starting out at 10'6" is (in my opinion) a very good place to be with only 3 weeks of vaulting experience. Don't worry about starting late, I currently coach a kid who started as a sophomore and ended up jumping 14' by the end of his junior year. He has almost the exact same stats as you do, so there's definitely plenty of potential to succeed in a short period of time.

As for your jumping technique, it's really hard to diagnose what's going wrong with your jump without video or a more detailed description of what you're doing. This is especially true as a beginner, as there are many things that could cause what you're talking about. To hazard a guess without seeing you jump, I'm going to guess that you're probably pulling yourself towards the pole after takeoff which would cause that big bend and keep you from swinging and inverting. This is just a guess, but if this is the case you should just work on staying tall after takeoff and starting your swing long (which you should focus on anyway) as this will add power to your vault and will help generate speed to swing when you collapse at the hips and start to invert (which is really more just a continuation of the swing). If you get the chance, take some video at your next practice (on a safe pole) and post it in the video review board. There are people on there far more knowledgeable than me that can help fix any problems you might have. I'm sure you're gonna improve fast, so keep us updated and try to watch some elite videos on youtube and poke around here a bit. You'll be amazed how much you can learn, and any knowledge you get is gonna help you jump higher