The rock back drill

[altius]

All good stuff folks - but still not giving the readers i was aiming at good enough reasons -simply stated -why they should avoid "the rock back drill" because even if you say there is 'no rock back" in a good vault i bet you lots of young -and not so young - vaulters are still trying to learn how to do the drill. And that is where I believe the problem is.

[higherflyer]

it causes you to rest on your bottom arm,
and your top arm is on the wrong side of your body.

when doing the rock back drill most people concentrate to much on swinging and cut there pendulum to short.

concentrate on hitting the positions that will generate a good.. fast.. long.. swing.

First the whole body rotates around the top hand and then rotation moves to the shoulders.

[krupat]

i dont truly see wat the problem is with doing the stiff pole rock back drill. when we do it, it usually is just a quick warmup, and helps us get the feel of the pole and plant for that training session, and something always funny happens so it good to watch too. but anywho, recently when i was warming up i have been going much further than normal, never resting my left arm on the pole, but being completely verticle, straight up and down. but we also have the idea, that for young, not very good/experienced vaulters, it is a good way for them to get the feel of going upsidedown. without knowing the feeling, how would u be able to know wat it feels like on a real jump.?! although it truly has no way of being like a real jump, it still provides a good way to learn the swing of the trail leg... but im not an expert

[altius]

Funny how so few people were interested in a very important issue. Almost every vaulter I saw in Reno warmed up with some kind of rock back drill and do not seem to understand that it runs counter to at least two of the things they SHOULD be trying to do in the vault. Namely take off as strongly as possible and swing/whip as fast and as long as you can.

Vaulters whose aim is to rotate back as fast as possible into 'the rock back position' inevitably skid off the ground without finishing the take off and then bunch up to shorten the axis of rotation so that they can rotate quickly upside down. In this way they can be seen to rock back - and therefore believe they are well on their way to being recognised as 'real pole vaulters'.

My gran always said "there is no sense in flogging a dead horse", so I will let this topic drop

[mikepv1]

I like straight pole drills, but I agree that the rock back drill is bad, the reason being that it abbreviates the early stages of the vault--arguably the most important stages. With repeated simulation, it will teach the vaulter to abbreaviate these stages in a similar fashion in the context of a real vault--dangerous stuff, not to mention inefficient.


Negative derivatives from this drill:

No upspringing takeoff.

No maximum extension of the body.

Dropping of the center of gravity.

Shortening of the swing and the rest of the vault.

Not a continuous energy input, not to mention what energy input there is is in the wrong direction.

--An overall incorrect feel for the vault itself--


There are better ways to acclimate the body to inversion and spatial awareness--namely gymnastics. Besides, the body should be acclimated to the entire motion of the vault, not just a single position in it.

This drill teaches no good habits at all. It is detrimental and potentially leads to dangerous technical mistakes.

There are good straight-pole drills. The direct rock-back isn't one of them.


Doing pole drills in which you skip the early stages of the vault is never a good idea. You can't build a house without the foundation, and you can't build a vault without the takeoff and swing.

[CrossBarHOpper]

i dont this drill casue it takes time to learn when i could be learn other aspects of the vault and I just warmup doing regular vaults on a foot shorter pole then the one i use

[ashcraftpv]

i'll agree....i've started some of my kids doing short 3 left vaults to warmup instead of straight pole swingups.

[C-townvault]

I remember agapit mentioning a drill that was different from a "rock-back" drill. A continuation or alteration of the pole climb drill? Would something along these lines be more appropriate? What kinds of drills do you recommend doing, Altius? There are plenty of vaulters here that wish to remedy the misconceptions and bad practices many american vaulters have in their vaults, beginning with themselves.


Also, the gentleman from france: your english is remarkable and would embarrass many of my classmates.

[Robert schmitt]

Funny how so few people were interested in a very important issue. Almost every vaulter I saw in Reno warmed up with some kind of rock back drill and do not seem to understand that it runs counter to at least two of the things they SHOULD be trying to do in the vault. Namely take off as strongly as possible and swing/whip as fast and as long as you can.

Vaulters whose aim is to rotate back as fast as possible into 'the rock back position' inevitably skid off the ground without finishing the take off and then bunch up to shorten the axis of rotation so that they can rotate quickly upside down. In this way they can be seen to rock back - and therefore believe they are well on their way to being recognised as 'real pole vaulters'.

My gran always said "there is no sense in flogging a dead horse", so I will let this topic drop

When performed like that I can see why you say it shouldn't be done.

[altius]

A miracle - a dead horse came to life! Perhaps my Gran was wrong!

[altius]

Have a look in the Elite section - Agapits Library topic. There he outlines the pole climbing drill he developed in Adelaide, which has many positive effects.

However the simple version is taking off from 2/4/6 steps - especially 6- and trying to grip as high as possible while still getting through onto the pit. keep your whle body LONG and - apart from the lead knee/thigh - behind the pole. In fact try to keep your hips from touching the pole -difficult/impossible but try anyway.

The height you can grip off 6 is a reasonable indicator of your take off efficiency -and also may be close to your take off point from a full run. So it is said that Bubka could grip 4.25m from 6 and took off from 4.25m on his full run. Perhaps Agapit could clarify this for us.