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When I have my athletes do these drills, I like to see several things:
- Straight top arm throughout drills
- Drive knee driving up
- Trail leg long
- Trail leg stays behind the pole
- Good alignment

When I was in the Netherlands, I thought the Dutch girls had excellent form on these drills. These are mostly girls who jump in the 10-12' range, not superstars.




Great position at takeoff




Sorry the standard is in the way, but you can see how her trail leg is behind the pole.

I will have to dig up pictures of how I see most kids do it later.

thats from three lefts right? Did they do any of those with left arm?

hey! thats how i do my drills! Sweet i found some one else who does them or teaches them that way! I guess im going the right direction. haha i still want to be able to strait pole with a grip of like 13 or 14 feet. Thats a take off.

KJ wrote:thats from three lefts right? Did they do any of those with left arm?

I can't remember how many lefts the Dutch girls were going from, but I never have my vaulters do the drill from more than 3 lefts.

Here are some excellent photos from Alan Launder of what I am trying to describe: http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtop ... 8770#98770

those are really good drills, i dont like ground drills that much i will have to try and see if i can do them that well... in my reg. drills i do them like the girl in the pic. above but i have my left are on my pole. Does she land deep in the pit? i cant tell where she is going to land.

Please note that the young man I used to illustrate the points made, is using two hands/arms . The one arm drill looks spectacular when done by a skilled vaulter who knows exactly why they are using it - Ie to learn to drive the right side forward at take off - but it is a nonsense for beginners who will generally learn bad habits -such as sliding past the pole too soon.

When I asked Petrov about one arm drills he said - with some acidity in his voice - 'when people vault with arm we should train with one arm -otherwise not'. I am sure this will upset those who use this drill - I would only say you should think carefully about why you are in fact using it. The KISS rule never fails.

Excuse my ignorance... whats the KISS rule?

I am certainly not opposed to using both arms for the drill instead of one handers as long as they don't try to force the bottom elbow inside the pole. The pictures of the girls from Hengelo were just the best I found so far of what I was talking about, but the same principles apply whether you use one hand or two.

KISS= "keep it simple, stupid" or similar variations

Hey, quick comment and quick nit question.
it makes sense to stick to KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid),especially with 90% of HS vaulters. And the comment good vaulters who use this warm up usually all do it correctly and won't do it wrong and hence develop bad habits...

Are there not maybe two primary things that can be focussed on in this drill? and perhaps a couple of secondary things (I'll call nits)?

Specifically the Primary would be the holding the chest and shoulders square and tall (holding the right side in) AND (?) also maintaining trail leg and hips back?

Or, if you take care of holding the right side in are you automatically gonna result with hips and trail leg staying back?

Nits: Ideally, would you not want to see something more close to a 90 degree angle at the lead knee to foot?in pic #1..And Nit 2, Maybe my eyes are not too good, (actually a fact) Wouldn't Trail leg-Quick tap fans out there really like to see a bit/slight knee bend/collapse on that trail leg instead if rigid straight? That way the fast tap develops a bit more whip like energy to it and hence quicker rockback? ..instead of a big long swing?

Just silly observations, wondering what you smart dudes and dudettes thought?

Thanx
Run Fast, Hold High and Fly

When I do these drills with my high schoolers (with one hand or two) the main things I focus on (in this order) are: 1. Tall springy takeoff, 2. Straight top arm throughout jump, 3. Staying behind the pole (the result of doing several things right).