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I have been working on trail leg getting inverted and I have heard some people say to kick it up there and others tell me to swing it up there. It is easy to kick it up, does this have many negative side effects?

I will atempt to help. My bio-mechanics may be slightly off, rip me if I am wrong.

The swing is different then a kick. I have a vualter that "kicks." His rotation is pretty much all from the hip, and no rotation above the hips. The abs play an imprtant role in the swing, lifting the bottom half above the top half. In an attempt to correct this, I have a couple of cues "draw a big cirlce with your left foot" this is to get his hips moving forward, then "bring the right knee to the chest" this helps him to rotate just above the hips and utilize his abs. The vaulter should now be in a position to "bubka."

Swing big circle with hips moving


Knee to chest, ready to "Bubka" out

I get around 10'. I attempt to do the swing, then kick, method, but this gets me somewhat stuck; my coach calls it the "C" position, which keeps me from completely inverting. I think I'm not in the air long enough to complete it smoothly. I've looked at vids a lot for the kick/swing stage, and it looks to me like the kick can be effective- maybe you just have to have more time in the air to do it well? My best guess is the swing for lower vaulters, and then maybe the kick works more for higher ones, b/c they also have a good swing at the same time.