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ok, heres the problem I'm having. I'm holding the pole at the height of the bar 9', I can clear that easy, but once I move up on my pole, most of the time I'm not able to clear 9. One of my problems is that I cant keep my left arm straight, it comes toward my body so I can't bend the pole. I'm just pulling myself up. I think without bending the pole I can't get past 9. What can I do to keep my arms straight? I've been stuck at 9 since the beginning of this season and this is my last season.

i hear ya!! it's difficult to focus on keeping your arms straight. what i try to do is think about really punching up your arms and reaching. it's real important to just think about keeping pressure on the bottom arm.

recently i've been able to kinda trouble shoot that problem, when i'm coming down the runway, oh, and in suggest doing this from shorter to longer, you can focus more on having straight arms when you don't have a long run...

but anyway, like i was saying, when i'm coming down the runway, just when i plant my pole i look up, past my hands and right at that area above the crossbar, i pretend i'm leaning forwards and jumpin up to grab some invisible rope above it, top arm must be locked out before contact with the back of the box. Then once if feel that pressure, instead of that natural instinct of pulling closer to the pole i push my hands up and forward (rowing) aggressively, try to keep the pole away from yourself, like your pushing it forward and back into the box, with out pulling mind you! Also your trail leg should be a deep swinging motion, there's not much i can tell you about the rest, it just comes natural once you get the knack, but all i can say is 3 lefts did wonders for me....good luck...

3 lefts also has been working wonders for me. Are you getting deep into the pit? If not you may want to think about moving down to a smaller pole till you get the hang of bending it and pushing your bottom arm out in front.

One good way of learning how to use your left arm in te vault is penetration drills. Just go from like 4 or 5 lefts and really focus on extending your left arm so it is straight out above you. Then you can just ride the bend of the pole as deep into the pit as you can.

[quote="izzystikchik"] try to keep the pole away from yourself, like your pushing it forward and back into the box [quote]

Im pretty sure you dont want to push the pole forward, you want to push it UP. If you push it forward, then you will be blocking everything, make sure to keep pressure upwards with that bottom arm. Also (i know this is allot to think about at once) but dont lock your shoulders to get that bottom arm up, makes sure you keep your shoulders really open, thats what gives you the big swing. good luck, keep working hard and youll get it

You don't neciserely want a streight arm. It's bad to push the pole to bend it. I've had two coaches that say I shouldn't be streight arming the bottom hand until I get to around 13 ft. Theyve also said not to push the pole with your bottom arm, just in case your doing that. I will admit that it helps for you to streight arm it.

mcminkz05
PV Junkie
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 643
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:17 pm Post subject:
[quote="izzystikchik"] try to keep the pole away from yourself, like your pushing it forward and back into the box [quote]

Im pretty sure you dont want to push the pole forward, you want to push it UP. If you push it forward, then you will be blocking everything, make sure to keep pressure upwards with that bottom arm. Also (i know this is allot to think about at once) but dont lock your shoulders to get that bottom arm up, makes sure you keep your shoulders really open, thats what gives you the big swing. good luck, keep working hard and youll get it
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Last edited by mcminkz05 on Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:18 pm; edited 1 time in total


...sorry, i didn't mean to stop applying up pressure, when i vault, once my top arm is locked out and fully extended i keep it there, and i hold that upper application pressure and don't think about it as much as i'm rowing forward, i think i got ahead of myself because it seems i started to go into the rock back in what your arms are doing, So definatley keep the arms up at the plant and takeoff, and when rocking back with the feet at the top of the pole or at least making their way, continue the pressure of the hands "rolling" the pole still.... you know what i mean i hope...

what do you guys mean by lefts? I'm not getting very far in the pit, maybe like 2 or 3 feet in. Is because of my speed or just my form. I've only really shot into the pit a few times and I don't know what I did different. I going try looking up also because I'm always looking down worried about my mark. Also how far before you plant your pole should you have your right arm extended. What I do is right when the pole is going to hit, I push the pole down into the pit and thats wrong, right, your suppose to push foward on the pole.

Well, lets get into your experience for a moment, there are a couple of terminalogies your gonna keep running across like lefts if your gonna figure out how to use this advice, which is cool it took me awhile to pick up the pv lingo...

Lefts are the number of steps you take when you come down the runway, we count everyother step because its a lot easier than counting everysingle step, so in this case it's our left foot.

Example:

Lets say you want to run 3 lefts into the pit, well, that is 6 steps total, but we call it 3 lefts.....

You don't want to push the pole forward when you are vaulting you are acutally wanting to just let your back hand (right) stay straight without pulling and your front arm you want to attempt to push upward. The forward movement of your body will determine most of the penatration you get onto the pit. Just make sure your chest stays forward and you stay tall throughout the plant/take-off!

im workin on the same problem and ive gotten my arm pretty straight so far. to work on my left arm i got on a really small pole...i normally use a 11' 130 but i jumped on a short (dunno how tall) 70 held at the top and just focused on my left arm from 3 lefts, id repeat a bunch of those the move another left and keep going till i got to my full run.