video critique

[KYLE ELLIS]

i need some opinions on why my hips drop over the bar and i end up pushing off with my upper body going up and my legs going down? do i need to just catch it a lil better or what? im running from a skip etc. and 4lefts on 14'6 poles. this is my second practice thus far this year. http://pen.eiu.edu/~nratkinson2/Kyle.wmv

[Barto]

You are late.

[BethelPV]

What I see is that because you stop your swing and momentum by tucking into a ball before extending, the pole beats you to inversion and you can't catch up to it. This causes you to have only one option, which is fall off the backside, and this is causing the dropping of the legs and rising of the upper body so drastically. I think your biggest problem is you are not getting to inversion quickly enough. Part of this could because you are a under at your takeoff and you seem really tense and stiff at takeoff. Move your step out and loosen up a little bit and it might become easier to swing and beat the pole to inversion!

Zachmo

[jcoover]

also, i would try narrowing your grip up maybe an inch or two... it looks pretty wide and ur getting blocked. also, try and jump off the ground more... it looks like the bend in the pole pauses for a second instead of the high bend really turning over and letting you get underneath the pole... reallllly jumping off the ground will help that.

[achtungpv]

I'm a believer in fixing problems in the order they occur in your vault. Otherwise, to fix a technical flaw you will have to do more things incorrectly to compensate for technical deficencies that occur earlier in the vault (hope that makes sense).

You start the pole too low with your first step. As a result your hands drift back when you run and you crouch instead of running tall. You need to fix that first.

[maximus]

One thing leads to another...

Your pole tip on your run begins too low, thus it is falling and "pulling" you into your plant. This causes your hands to get too low. You have to overstride on your last three steps because of the pole fallling ahead of you.

You're left hand drops below your left elbow as you go to initiate your plant, because of this, your plant does not move straight up, it moves in a rainbow fasion from right to left, thus delaying the speed of your pole and making your plant late.

Because of these two things mentioned above, your step is under so you are unable to finish your take off un-resisted.

You are locking out your left arm which is creating a pushing motion at take-off which delays the action of your swing the instant your take-off foot leaves the ground. One of the reasons for this and the carry of your pole and subsequent plant is that your grip is too wide. Narrowing your grip would allow you to have a more efficient pole carry, pole drop, and plant action. Thus, you would be unable to completely lock out your arm, and it would allow you to initiate your swing more effectively.

You are driving too low through your take-off. A take-off angle this low will inhibit your ability to cover the pole after your swing.

Your head is down and it is keeping your swing low and beneath the pole. Instead of aggressively swinging after you take off and swinging past the cord to cover the bend, your hips are staying under the pole till the chord is compressed, then you are having to tuck into a ball to decrease the length of your body so you rotate faster - the problem is that by the time you tuck into a ball, the pole has moved away from your body and your are unable to cover the bend.

In addition, the width of your grip doesn't allow you to apply adequate pressure to the pole once you have reached inversion. Because your grip is so wide, your body begins to turn early and you come out of inversion prematurely. Your left arm is almost totally incapable of applying pressure in unison with the right arm and what you see is that the pole is releasing its energy without moving you upward. The most upward thrust you receive is when you begin to push down and away with your right arm, at this point you are already over the bar with your hips.

[KYLE ELLIS]

thanks coach.

[Tim McMichael]

Kyle,

You are going to have to trust me on this one, and I know I am going to get hammered for the advice I am about to give you, but your jump is modeled after my jump, and I can tell you what is wrong based on that model. – this is as alien and inapplicable to the Bubka/Petrov technique as you can get. (For those reading this who are leaning that jump, NOTHING I am about to say applies.)

You are executing the plant for a power vault, and doing it very well. The timing of how you move the pole is right. Your plant path is right, and your attack angle is right. The only thing that is wrong is that your hands are much too far apart. The max you can get away with is about 24 inches. 22 inches would probably work better. Anything under 20 inches is too close.

With this plant, however, you MUST execute a powerful tuck or the whole thing will fall apart. If you try to do a swing vault from this position nothing good will come of it. This looks like what you are trying to do, and it is robbing you of power because the timing and positions are wrong. The way you are planting causes you to stay low and behind the pole for a long time. This is a good thing. Your trail leg extension is very long. This is also a good thing. This, however, means you have a lot of ground to cover before you can catch up with the pole, and you have very little time to do it. It is a tough move that only a few vaulters in the history of this sport have been able to make. Dial, Buckingham, and Vigneron come to mind. Even though they tucked, their hips never stopped moving up the pole. This is an aspect of power vaulting that those devoted to Bubka’s technique miss. A good tuck from the right position does not mean passivity and loss of energy.

Your tuck, however, loses a tremendous amount of power. On the video, you can see that in the middle of the jump your hips come to a screeching halt. Energy leaks from the system and you are hopelessly behind in timing. Your legs run into the pole with your hips static. The pole has won the battle and will beat you to the top. Instead of everything being directed upwards, the pole kicks you horizontally, thus the over rotation.

The answer is to swing much more aggressively and much earlier with as much power coming from a pull through the right side of your body as possible. You have to bounce out of that long, low position as soon and as fast as you can. The trail leg has to become an elongated blur. You have less than .3 of a second to cover about eight feet with your trail leg. After this you have to tuck as aggressively as possible.

Tucking allows you to get your swing finished just as the pole starts to return. This means that you will be timed up with it. All of your energy will be directed upwards with you in command of what happens instead of being tossed around like a rag doll. There can be no pause between your tuck and your extension. The hips have to keep moving.

The primary difference between this technique and Bubka’s is that the hips are low and behind the pole while the trail leg is swinging. Then they have to move up the pole as fast as possible to catch up with the timing of its return. This is why the tuck is necessary. You can’t catch the pole without it.

With Bubka’s jump, however, the hips start moving right after takeoff and finish ahead of the pole in timing.

Please understand that I am not implying in any way which technique is best. I honestly don’t know. I do know you have two choices: You can spend several months learning an entirely new system to conform to Bubka’s model. Or you can work along the lines I have suggested to get the most out of the jump you have.

For those besides Kyle reading this, I also want you to understand that Kyle literally grew up watching Joe Dial and me jump. I remember him standing by the pit watching us when he was no taller than the top of the mats. The advice I am giving him is personal. It may serve others as an explanation of an alternative style of jumping, but is mostly applicable to Kyle himself and very few other athletes.

[OUvaulterUSAF]

i grew up in oklahoma too with that technique. it took me 1.5 years to convert to BTB. I'm still trying to implement BTB gripping above 15'.

[rainbowgirl28]

thanks coach.

haha

[KYLE ELLIS]

Yes my technical model is not bubka's but rather tim and joe's. mainly tim's because i think he was a better technician in certain area's. but i keep an open mind and borrow peice's of others vault that i think work well with this model. Tim changed my jump several years ago but i havent had the furtune to have him their coaching me all the time. but rather i have to watch film and try to interpret and apply it as best as i can. So basically what would happen is Tim would teach me something, i would go work on it non-stop on my own then a week or 2 later he would give me something else new to chew on... Its been a very rough process with having a new vault coach every year of my life. but i appreciate all the feedback and i do consider everyones opinion. But everyone models themselves after someone and thats what they stick too. when i was little my dad pointed me in tim and joe's direction and its way too late to deviate from it now, plus i believe 1000% in this model. But i am always looking for ways to improve myself within this model and think about outside opinions. I havent worked with tim in probably in a year and a half and when i did there was atleast 10 or more other vaulters with us. so i couldnt soley rely on tim, but i had to try to move forward on my own and i believe that the better you understand "your own" vault the better off you will be.

[SlickVT]

Use the 6.42 model. Vastly different from the 6.40 model.