PoleVaultPower.com

well. um. its my first year pole vaulting.
freshmen. girl. and i cant bend the pole yet.
but i can make eight six. and well, im really working hard to
block better, because i have a problem with letting it crash or come into my shoulder. and i was just in search of some help.

and drills to work on blocking and rowing and such.

or any tips that could help me.

or just any advice at all!
haha.

thanks!

My advice, as well as probably 97% of the people on this board, is NOT TO BLOCK, OR TO ROW!!!(that last part is actually a very confusing and vigorously debated topic...) Let me give you a little poem to remember:

I ran down the runway, I planted and I blocked,
Didn't get a free take-off, kept my arm locked,
The pole bent really wierd, I screamed what the h*ll?
I stalled out, freaked out, looked down at the box and fell...

A lot of dangerous situations happen (not to mention no-heights...) because people block out and then try to row through. There are about 80 billion posts on rowing on here, and about a trillion on bottom arm things in general. Use the search feature.

Despite these two things, you sound like you're doing great! 8'6'' is awesome for your 1st year! Welcome to PVP and pole vaulting in general!

Well now enough with the dramatic effect of the post above me...


Just focus on keeping both hands over your head like a high bar when you swing. Good hieghts for a girl in her first year, actually excellent, do you have gymnastic background? A lot of what you do in pole vaulting relates to a swing and "kip" i believe it is called, in gymnastics .

At any stage of vaulting, the run and take off are the essentials. Nothing right will happen off the ground if you cant do things right on the ground . Make sure your step is not under, and you are accelerating into the box. Those are the very first things to worry about when just getting started. If you really want some help, take some video at practice and post ALL your practice jumps on this website, and we can give you some more specifics. Glad you are having fun, keep vaulting!

I keep my bottom arm bent, but can get the pole to bend by keeping pressure on the bottom arm.

I agree with the poem...had a situation like that happen to one of my vaulting buddies and to me. He broke his ankle and I fell on my head
That sucked

What should happen with your bottom arm at take-off is an intermediate pressure. Not a push, but there is a bit of resistance. Oh, and you should invest in BTB2 and the DVD, found in the store on this site.