PoleVaultPower.com

I have an athlete who is pole vaulting about 10 feet (first year vaulter). He gets good bend and has good speed. Lately he has adopted a bad habit of having his upper body turn sideways to the right over the bar instead of staying straight and inverted. My gut tells me to lower his grip to help correct this but I am not sure. I appreciate any help.

if he is helicoptering it means that he is pulling down on his top arm causing him to turn sideways.

good morning,

if you mean he is going over "backwards" he more than likely is "blocking" with the bottom arm and then trying to "pull" with the bottom arm..

if the vaulter "swings" from the top hand and through the shoulders they normally turn correctly..

dj

Have any video??

I have a vaulter (1st year, 10ft) with the same problem. He has a great runway and speed. His plant is decent and the pole literally shoots him in the air. He has gone over 10' feet first and belly flopped into the mat

BIG PROBLEM - HE JUMPS OFF HIS RIGHT (incorrect) FOOT!! and has a right hand approach. (reason - metal mesh and screws on his left hip from a fracture in motocross crash a few years ago) He has no vertical jump from his left leg

We tried changing his carry. We tried jumping of the left but we all know what happens if you dont give any jump.

He jumps of the right and tries to then straighten out the left and bring the right to the chest (like the 2nd step of a hitch in the LJ) and actually gets inverted sometimes.

Question - would a double leg swing be more benificial to him? He is a HS So and has 2 years to go. The hip fractire was 2 years ago but still hurts.

Height - 5'10
Weight - 170-175 (wrestles 172)
Pole- UCS 13'6 175 - holding around 12'

Even if he was to use a double leg swing, (which only the quickest and smallest vaulters can really do and get a good inversion,) he MUST jump off his left foot! That's actually quite incredible that he can do that...