Bent left arm

[Benjamin1205]

Everytime i vault i bend my left arm, and i dont know why. I try to plant the pole as high as possible but when the pole hits the back of the box my arm bends. Right now i am using a 14-6 pacer and im not having any problems with penetration. I was wondering if it matters that much if a vaulter bends their bottom arm, because it doesnt seem to affect my vault. If it was straight would i be able to use a longer pole? I was also wondering if there is anything i could do to fix my problem. Would going to a softer pole help? What about moving my hands farther apart? What about lifting weights, maybe being stronger would help me keep my bottom arm from bending. I think that if i had my left arm straight then i would bend the pole more and it would help me clear those higher heights.

[KYLE ELLIS]

Lots of people have jumped high with a bent left arm. I think most would have to see your jump to give you advice. But I know locking your left arm can cause lots of problems. I would advice driving your chest forward under your hands at the plant. I dont think anyone has ever jumped badly from driving their chest. They key is to have your arms extended and to drive your hips and chest under your arms staying in an upright position throught the takeoff (rather than losing your hips and going straight to your back.

[cdmilton]

You do not want to have a straight bottom arm if it is not straight above your head. If you have a straight bottom arm and it is not above your head it will prevent you from having an efficient swing. You may see a lot of elite valuters appear to have a straight bottom arm at plant but this is mainly because of their grip height and take-off angle. Since you are holding about 2 feet lower than the elite's your take-off angle is not great enough to allow this to happen. In your case you will want to have your top arm as high and straight as it can be and your bottom arm will go where it goes. Once you leave the ground you will want to move your bottom arm upward so that it is straight, directly above your head.

For example...

Toby's bottom hand is not straight here:


But in the next frame here it is moving to straight as he takes-off:

[advath]

The 2nd frame...only because his pole is bending away from him.