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we got to see video replays of us vaulting today during practice and oh boy, does my vaults look ugly!! When im vaulting, it "feels" like i had good form ad everything but seeing the video, i realize that i still have a long way to go. my pr is 9 feet and today at our "practice meet," i tied my pr and then tried to go 9" 6' but i couldn't do it. seeing the video, out of the many problems needed to be fixed, the most important ones are my take off, swing, and rock back.

When i take off, from the video and according to my coach, i don't try to jump, instead, i just run towards the pit and expect the pole to jump for me

when i swing, my swing looks good and strong, but the timing is WAY off. i tend to rush my swing and immediately swing after my take off. Instead, i need to be a little bit patient and have more hang time and then swing

and my rock back... here, i find that the reason for this is because i pull my pole towards my body when im in the air. i know that you need to keep the pole as far away from your head with your right arm straight for as long as possible, but from the video, when i get up in the air, it seems to me like im trying to pull my self above the bar.

so if anyones got tips and solutions to these problems please.... help!

AGB wrote: ... out of the many problems needed to be fixed, the most important ones are my take off, swing, and rock back.

No, you shouldn't have a rockback if your PR is 9-0. Just run/plant/takeoff/swing.

AGB wrote:When i take off, from the video and according to my coach, i don't try to jump, instead, i just run towards the pit and expect the pole to jump for me

He's right. You need to JUMP. The higher you can reach during your plant ... and the higher you can jump during your takeoff ... the higher you can grip. That's becuz it will take less energy for the pole to rotate towards the pit. And of course, the higher you can grip, the higher you'll vault. This is all WITHOUT bending the pole at all. Learn that first. THEN worry about getting some bend. But it doesn't sound like you're anywhere near ready for that yet.

AGB wrote:when i swing, my swing looks good and strong, but the timing is WAY off. i tend to rush my swing and immediately swing after my take off. Instead, i need to be a little bit patient and have more hang time and then swing

I doubt that this is a problem. Don't worry about "hang time". Just worry about swinging your legs and hips above your hands. If you hesitate ... which you will if you try to "have more hang time" ... then you won't get your legs up high enough to clear the bar. Again, you need to learn how to do this with little or no bend before you can learn how to do it with a bending pole. If you try to rush this, you'll get into some bad habits that will make it more difficult to learn how to swing efficently later.

AGB wrote:and my rock back... here, i find that the reason for this is because i pull my pole towards my body when im in the air. i know that you need to keep the pole as far away from your head with your right arm straight for as long as possible, but from the video, when i get up in the air, it seems to me like im trying to pull my self above the bar.

Again, at a PR of 9-0, don't expect a rockback. Just swing upside down ... with very little (if any) bend. The part that I underlined is dead wrong. You DON'T need to bend the pole to clear 9-0 (or even 10-0) and even if you NEEDED to bend the pole, the way to do it is NOT to keep "your right arm straight". You'd be far better off to just learn how to swing upside down. Don't worry about how close to the pole you swing. It is what it is ... just swing "naturally" ... just like you would on a rope. The bend will come later ... it's really not very important until you start going 11-12 feet. A SLIGHT bend is OK now ... yes ... but not any more than that.

It sounds to me like your coach is trying to coach you exactly the same as he would coach someone that's jumping 13-14 feet or more. On those bars, you do want to learn to bend the pole "properly", but even then, you'll find it much easier if you already know how to swing upside down in one fluid motion.

He's trying to teach you how to RUN, when you're still CRAWLING. Your next step is to learn to WALK. You MUST learn how to WALK before you learn how to RUN. Or have you ever seen a baby go straight from a crawl to a run? Mention this to your coach, and see what he/she says.

It does take some patience to learn to swing properly before you go for the "big bend", but it does pay off in the long run.

Kirk