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A senior in high school is 153lbs, 5'9", kinda slow... and holds 13'4" on a 14' 160 pacer carbon. He looks good over 13' but is flagging and is not getting good pop from the pole for 13'6". Going to the 14' 165 spirit his press outs look good, same grip and stays tall and keeps hips and chest tall and rolls the pole well, and he seems to get better pop when he goes up but still flags out, making 13'6" the once in a blue moon height. I am doing pulley work and rock back drills with him but am stuck in my thinking. His step is pretty good, a few inches under but no more than 6"-9" ever. Is this possibly a grip thing? He is at 25+ inches for standards on the 160 in meets and probably will need 23"+ for the 165 when we have our next meet. He's just flat on top and falls off the pole and does not arc over it. Is a 14' 170 pacer carbon in line??? Or does he need to work the inversion and row better and stay with the pole longer? Or is it as easy and simple as BTB says, in regards to being right on with the step, no forgiveness for being under at all. I know there are vaulters who compensate for things and still jump really high, how do they jump high then (I'm only looking at 13'6"-14' here...). Arg. His swing is good, he just stops on his way to full inversion. Any help would be great.

I would keep him on the smaller pole and focusing on swinging past vertical before putting him on the bigger sticks so he gets the feel of the proper timing and technique. Maybe some work on the rings would be helpful too.

Can you show us a good video so we can see his takeoff foot and body position and then his swing from there?

- master

When I was overcoming that problem my coach put me on small poles from short approaches, and kept pushing the bungee up until I couldn't reach it, then I worked at it until I could. I repeated this for two weeks. pushing the bungee higher forced me to stay close to the pole and get a better clearance.

I have had kids that flag and I have found that as they are rowing, they tend to move the pole to far out in front of their head, not allowing their hips to be loaded fully. As he rows, he needs to stay under the extended arm. The row dosn't happen from the shoulders, but all the way through the abs. This may or may not help, but this is what I have expierenced. Good luck.

Trying to upload a video..It is hard being so behind with the technology...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g86F_B3v2d8

Let me know if it works. Here's what it is.

first minute is a race, then 12', 12'6, 13', 13'6 (two misses) the last attempt and an extra one on a 14' 165 holding 13'3 were bad filmed. Then a warmup, 12', 12'6 (miss then make), 13' (miss then make) then 3 misses at 13'6. All on 145' 160 holding 13'4" from a 6 left. Standards anywhere from 22-29.

Just a disclaimer... I'm a high school vaulter. It looks to me like he's reaching for the bar with his legs at the top of his vault. Basically trying too hard to make the height instead of thinking about the technique.

Being a habitual flagger myself, i have to agree with fx said. I tend to shoot my legs out towards an area just above the bar and when i feel like i'm going to make it, i relax letting my legs drop and hit the bar. It also appears that the young man in the video stares at the crossbar and never allows his shoulders to drop below his hips until it is too late.

What i have been doing to correct my flagging problems is trying to speed up my leg swing and very aggressively whip my trail leg around to a complete swing. Also the bungee drills that theczar mentioned are very benificial because it helps you get used to extending your feet above your comfort zone.

Have you guys seen Bubba's anti flagging ultimate pop up drill? It's pretty awesome. It's also pretty hard to do. But if you master this you will not flag out and you will shoot off the top almost acidentally. If you are vertical when the pole straightens where else are you going to go?

Here's the link http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/drill.htm

Have you tried this one before? The video of this looks really cool, don't you think?

It's a good drill, having done it many times myself. However, it is not an end-all solution to the problem of flagging (most of that has to do with taking off and swinging in the correct positions to begin with).

However, if you can do the wrap drill(the drill in the video), it is a good start in understanding what your position should be.