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how can you tell? do you mark their take off for a check mark? Are you looking at the top hand and plant foot? Do you need to take off outside the top hand slightly? give me some ideas. thanks!

Once they take off, mark where they took off from; after that simply tell them to plant the pole in the box once they are off the pit. Then, while they are correctly standing with their take off foot directly under their top hand you will be able to see their take off mark in relation to where they should properly be taking off from. I hope that helps.

It has to do with 3 basic things if i understand correctly:

1.) where their take off step is, like the post above mine.

2.) Where their hands are at the plant. If you move your hands centered over your head at the plant, OR in front of you, it can make you look under or out when you aren't really.

3.) The position of your body with the ground. You want to be perpendicular, but a lot of times vaulters lean forward or backward. Either one isnt good, and can mess up your take off.


As for what to look for, look at hand position and foot position at the plant, and you want to see their top hand over their take off foot. More importantly, you want to see a smooth transition from the support of the ground to the air. There should not be any abrupt "jerk" off the ground, if so they might be doing a number of things like pushing the pole into the box.

I agree with most of the above however, if the plant is late this can severely impact where the step will be.

If you are under and keep backing up your mark on the runway, but still float your last step you are not really fixing the problem, unless the vaulter knows how to drop the last step and move the pole, you are possibly setting your self up for disaster.

For example if you float your step to 9' (when lookoing for a 10’ foot take off) and keep backing your mark up, the problem is that when you finally drop your step and get your plant to be on, you might have a take off at 13' when your looking for 10' or 11', leading to a very dangerous take off.

Don’t get me wrong, moving your mark back can help, but to fix a whole lot of problems in the long term, if I were you, I'm not but if I was.... I would work on getting the plant to be on time or early.

coachknight wrote:how can you tell? do you mark their take off for a check mark? Are you looking at the top hand and plant foot? Do you need to take off outside the top hand slightly? give me some ideas. thanks!

I can usually tell that I am under when my top hand shoulder hurts when I land in the pit, or I get rejected back by the pole

Reminds me of my first experience vaulting... ran about 4 feet under and didn't even bother to jump... almost tore my chest apart!

I can tell if I'm under when I start knocking the bar off on the way up or if my arms aren't where they should be at takeoff.

hey

as in other takeoff issues, i would like to refer you to the MID MARK CHART... match the MID and grip and you will start correcting your takeoff..

the takeoff my be a little different than the chart based on your height and reach... but you should always be within 8" to a foot, forward or back, of the "MID" for the grip you are using..

as your run gets faster the "MID" will move out and the grip will go up....

try it you will like the result..

dj