I can feel the bend now!

[Ming3r]

Amazing what straight arms will do.

Sure, I spent all of practice doing blow throughs abot 3 feet down from my mark just getting used to keepin my arms straight...and I can feel it. I was so excited...

Now my only problem is that I also found out that when you vault and keep your arms straight, its not exactly parallel with your body, but instead the right arm is to the left and left is to the right a bit...

Its why I spin apparnetly...oh well.

hooray

[Ming3r]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3919484562

My only jumps are around the 23 second mark and 40 second marks. The bar was up earlier, but my friend didn't decide to pull out the camera till afterwards, in which up till that point I was doing fine. In many of these, I hit the situation where it just felt weird and couldn't get myself to jump...and apparently he didnt take that out before sending it to me to upload

Right now, I think I need to work on the timing of when I collapse the arm. Before, it collapsed before I even jumped, so I never really gave it too much thought during a jump. That and when runing, my coach wants me to have my bottom hand by my hip the entire time, as I have it a bit behind me...

Suggestions or anything? I'm taking a 5 step on these mostly because I'm still getting used to the bend, so I'm not sure if I hit my top speed (pretty close though, I think).

[JTred]

How wide is your handgrip? If it's signifigantly wider then the width of your shoulders (or measure from to hand to elbow), I think you should consider making your handgrip so wide. It looks like it will help your swing and you bottom arm problem. There's a kid who vaults at the multi-school indoor practices and he has a very wide handgrip and his vault looks a lot like yours. I don't know if you mistyped it but your top hand (Right for you) should be at your hip not your bottom. Your bottom hand should stay level with the chest until it's ready to go up. If you bring it down to plant you have that much farther to push it up. You have a powerful swing and thats good. It's good that you've got a video camera to tape your practices. I've found that a video camera is one of thebest pieces of equipment you have. Your coach can tell you all about your jump, but you never fully understand until you see youself doing it.

[Ming3r]

Wait, I shouldn't have it so wide? I got used to the handgrip being the length of my arm. My first coach taught me that, and I've used it since then - apparnetly its easier to bend, but harder to invert...

Yeah, I mistyped; I was thinking bottom during the run would be my right hand, so that threw me off, sorry about that. The thing with my swing is, is that usually I will just let the drive go pretty quickly, except since I was just doing this all practice, I may have gotten used to keeping the drive...

[PaulVaulter]

Dude, have you read the pole vault manifesto?

There is absolutely no way you should be trying to vault with both arms straight.

Read the pole vault manifesto, and if you find it difficult to emulate, there is a very good book out there that can guide you through all the steps on the way to that model.

[Ming3r]

No, thats not actually me trying to vault! Thats me at practice - more or less getting the feel for the bend, as thats my second day bending it.

Erm, when you jump, you're supposed to have both arms out, until the point where you feel the pull kind of pull you up, then you collapse and invert - thats correct, right?

[bvpv07]

look at some pictures of Bubka when he plants....his arms are definitely not locked out

[JTred]

I'm pretty sure that your handgrip should be either the length of your hand to your elbow or your chest width. If you want an easy way to find it, hang from a horizontal bar with your arms straight and in line with your body. Thats how wide your grip should be becuase it will maximize your pole/ground angle. There's a good article on it on www.pvei.com , but it's not working right now. If your grip width is already like that, then it was an error on my part. It's just a suggestion too.

[Ming3r]

Well, my grip definately isn't that - Its the length from my arm to my armpit, so about twice the length you recommended.

That may explain why I need my arm locked out to bend it as I'm doing it now - prior to learning the bend, I collapsed immidiatedly (probably even before my jump).

[souleman]

Ming, try this in practice. Concentrate on driving your right hand to your right hip when you jump. One of the reasons you don't turn is you're driving your right hand to your left hip. If you practice driving that top hand to your right hip it will start your turn and you'll go over belly first. You have to get this part of your jump rectified. Your are giving up at least 2 feet in height by going over on your back. Remember what I said. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards. Later.......Mike

[Ming3r]

Do you mean drive my Right hand torward my left hip? It'd be kind of hard to get my top hand to drive toward the wide of the body, or are you talking about inverted?

Anyways, no practice for a little while - outdoor starts in 2 weeks; right now its gain sonme strength and lose weight hopefully.

Er, I just read your post again, and I'm not sure how I should drive my right hand to my right hip - wouldn't i have to be on the other side of the pole? Unless...you mean trying to do that will force me to turn...Now I'm a little confused I think I may understand it though.

If I try to do that, then the only way it will happen is if I do turn!

[souleman]

Yep, the thinking for you will be a little backwards. Think about it this way, the only way to go over the cross bar with your right hand on the same side as you right hip is if you are going over belly down. So maybe visualize instead of driving your right hand to your right hip, drive you right hip to your right hand. You've got some time to work on this and the swimming pool is a great place for it. Go to this thread http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/vie ... light=pool
and Becca has 4 topics listed about pool vaulting. Read them all. I'm sure at least 1 or two of them will show you how it's done. Your whole focus between now and outdoor season is to go over the bar with your belly down. The pool is a great place to work on it. Later..............Mike