Video Analysis of 16' 6" Miss

[seanbo98]

Sean Clarke
18 Years old vaulting for 5 or so years freshman in college
15' 7" 165 21.2 Flex Essx Recoil Advance grip height from top hand when planted in box is approximately 14 feet maybe 13 8 I would estimate
Just looking for any technical critique on this, obviously lack of penetration was the main problem but how can I improve that?
This was an 8 step I am just now beginning a transition to a 9 step to hopefully correct this.
Any advice appreciated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNW9Sy8 ... e=youtu.be

[GasPasser]

I will leave the technical analysis to others - but in my view you're technique is pretty good in this video.

As for meet coaching let me say this:

1) Problem: you are over bending this pole on this jump, and you are not getting enough penetration.

2) Solution: Lower you grip - it will give you better penetration, and the pole should not bend as much. Try lowering the grip on this pole 3-4 inches.

If you go back a left, then go up a pole and lower your grip 2-3 inches from this jump.

What makes it hard to analyze in the video is we don't see where you landed in the pit on this jump. Where were your standards on this jump and where did you land in the pit? Maybe the penetration was ok, but the standards were too far back. If your standards were close and you landed shallow - definitely your grip is too high.

[seanbo98]

Great thank you so much, I had been curious about the bend in the pole, I have one pole that is .9 flex up from this which should allow me to maintain the same grip I have in this video, the standards were supposed to be at 53cm but were mistakenly placed at 61cm so I wasn't crazy shallow but wouldn't mind a bit more penetration, you believe that less of a bend in the pole would improve that? I hadn't considered that actually.
Sean

[GasPasser]

You are over-bending this pole, not blowing through it. With a blow through, you would have hit the bar on the way up. So I stand by my original advice, drop your grip 3-4 inches on this pole. It will give you greater penetration (the peak of your vault will move deeper into the pit - you will also land deeper), plus it will effectively stiffen this pole a little and bend a little less.

I'm afraid if you went up a pole in stiffness, it will make you even more shallow in penetration. Yes it will possibly not over-bend, but it may risk you landing in the box.

You were well over the bar, but just too far away (in front) from the bar - so you came down on it.

[KirkB]

I mostly agree with GasPasser's analysis.

I agree that you should not go up a flex until you get better penetration with this pole, but I don't care (nearly as much as GasPasser) where your standards were set at - or if they were set "wrong". Any way you look at it, you're stalling, and you're not landing well into the pit. You need to fix that. Lowering your grip is one way.

I would also focus on the root cause, which I think is that you're leaning back during your run. Do you know that you're leaning back? I'm wondering what causes you to lean back? What does your body posture look like when you're sprinting without a pole? I suspect you would have a much better forward lean while sprinting. You need to try to run that same way, but with the pole. Here's how ...

I'd like to know *why* you're leaning back, but for now I will guess that it's because you're trying to counter-balance the weight of the pole? Could that be it? If so, try to time the drop of the pole so that it's almost weightless. Done right, you shouldn't have to lean back at all to counter-balance the pole - it should just drop straight into the box. Weightlessly. So maybe you're lowering the pole too early?

I must say that when I watched your vid for the first time, I thought you were going to stall out quite badly (based on your run), but then I saw a really (really, really) good stretch, and a pretty good swing out of that stretch. Congrats on that part of your vault!

But it would be an even better swing if you weren't leaning back on takeoff; jumped more forwards and up into the pole on takeoff; stretched with less pause; and then started your swing vigorously downwards and forwards (I actually mean circularly). That would give you so much whip (when done right) that you *would* blow thru that pole!

So first things first ...

1. Adjust your grip so that you're landing well into the pit. By that I mean that you should be clearing the bar even with standards set at 80.
2. Don't worry about moving back a step. That's just going to cause you to blow thru (or worse yet, break the pole). Instead, focus on your forward lean, starting your pole drop later, so it's weightless.
3. Jump *into* the pole on takeoff. I actually think you must be doing this a bit (but I haven't looked at your takeoff frame-by-frame), because otherwise you wouldn't have such a good stretch. So maybe you're only leaning back until your penultimate step, and then you're correctly your lean to be more forwards? While this seems to be working "OK" for you at the moment, there's room for improvement here - the act of leaning backwards and then sort of hesitating in order to get more of a forwards lean on takeoff is actually quite inefficient. It would be far better to not have that backwards lean at all - from the get-go at the start of your run.

I think once your improve your forwards lean, and improve your takeoff, your stretch and swing will improve quite naturally, and you'll be flying well into the pit (and well over the bar).

I don't like to see you stall over the bar like that. It's dangerous, and it's not a good jump to emulate on later attempts. Instead, lower your grip a bit, get good horizontal momentum going (land well into the pit), and *then* (once *that's* under control) focus on things like raising your grip, increasing flex, and adding steps.

Good luck!

Kirk

[seanbo98]

Awesome thank you so much Mr. Bryde, I was hoping you would get a chance to look at this.

I've definitely been working on my pole drop more this week as I am certain that is the cause of my leaning back on take off which I am sure is what is holding me back. I did actually move back already to a 9 earlier in the week and its been working great as it lets me really work on keeping the pole vertical for most of the run using markers. I am not using the pole seen in the video, Instead I swapped longer for stiffer and went with 15 170 18.7 (edit: I weigh 135 so this is a fairly stiff pole for me) flex https://youtu.be/YXk8T-qOQ_M this is my most recent video, standards are at 80 cm bungee at 17' 4 with some sag, I felt alright about how I had a slower build up in this run and I think it finished with me more upright. Wanted to edit saying I will also work on my swing, I know from your other posts you aren't a fan of the tucking method. Unfortunately mine comes out of necessity, I am incredibly inflexible (despite the addition of yoga to my routine) but I try to maximize the time I keep my trail leg long and circular. Clearly still need to continue improving it of course!

Thanks,
Sean

[KirkB]

I've definitely been working on my pole drop more this week as I am certain that is the cause of my leaning back on take off which I am sure is what is holding me back.

Keep working on it. And don't expect instant results. But if you focus on keeping a forwards lean thru your entire run, then you'll get there.

this is my most recent video, standards are at 80 cm bungee

Glad to see that you've moved your standards all the way back. I recommend that you keep them there - for practices and for meets. It's safer, and it will give you a better swing. It will also make your jumps more consistent (clear bars more consistently).

I will also work on my swing, I know from your other posts you aren't a fan of the tucking method. Unfortunately mine comes out of necessity, I am incredibly inflexible ... but I try to maximize the time I keep my trail leg long and circular.

It's true that I'm not a fan of the tuck. Tuck? What's that? There is no tuck!

But I'm not too worried about your tuck or your bar clearance. I'm much more worried about you improving your pole dropping, and your forwards lean - thru your run and on your takeoff. That's where you're going to find the biggest improvements in your technique, with corresponding improvements in your PR.

What I'm saying is that you're going to discover that your swing will improve and (eventually) your tuck won't be as necessary, when you improve your run and your pole drop. After that, I would work on your takeoff. Again, your swing will improve when your takeoff improves.

Kirk

[seanbo98]

Had a much better meet this weekend in terms of rolling the pole well and confidently getting into the pit. Unfortunately still couldn't hit the 5 meter mark, I believe I have a habit of dropping my feet into a pike to early as I go over the bar instead of truly catching the fly away and keeping my legs up, any ideas on drills or what the thought process should be up top? Should I keep my core tight going over the bar until I have hit peak height and then pike? Hope that makes sense.

[KirkB]

I have a habit of dropping my feet into a pike to early as I go over the bar instead of truly catching the fly away and keeping my legs up, any ideas on drills or what the thought process should be up top? Should I keep my core tight going over the bar until I have hit peak height and then pike? Hope that makes sense.

Sorry, your focus on the top end doesn't make any sense at all to me.

Focus on your run, pole drop, plant, takeoff, stretch, swing.

Anything after that isn't worth worrying about. If you do the 6 things I just mentioned well, you will FLY over the bar!

If you're skeptical, watch some Bubka vids. Do you see how he FLIES off the pole? Do you think he ever worried about his bar clearance technique?

But I will say that if you're keeping your grip low enough, and your flex light enough so that you *always* land well into the middle of the pit, then you also wouldn't be worrying about bar clearance technique.

Kirk

[gabsterpv]

The first thing I notice, besides the pole drop issue, is in the middle of your swing... you can immediately see a non-fluid movement of the pole through your swing. This indicates that you stop rowing through you swing to get upside down... in doing that you stop the pole from rolling into the pit... which is why you did not get the penetration you needed. You need to work on getting your swing a little faster but in connection with rowing consistently and that will put you completely inverted. Try getting a PVC pipe and doing this drill... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGDvR18Vw38 ... i started with 1" diameter but you could probably buy a 1" 1/4 (shouldnt cost you more than $8)... this will maxmize that pole in the right position over that bar and getting into the pit.