PoleVaultPower.com

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=jxGR1THxwZA

there's a good closeup slomo from behind around the 3:00 mark.

I feel her jump was better before Petrov, with all due respect to Petrov..

"I feel her jump was better before Petrov, with all due respect to Petrov.."

Would appreciate it if you could provide a detailed rationale for your opinion.

I can sit here and write a long message on how I feel her jump was better before. I wont do that because I don't feel it is necessary. The bottom line is that she's not jumping any higher. May sound kind of mean but this is true. Not bashing on her or Petrov but her jump was much better before and there are many people all over the world that say the same.

Her swing and extension to fly away were much better when she was with her other coach. Her approach looks a lot better now, and her takeoff seems stronger, but her swing and extension definately are not as strong or as powerful as they were before petrov... If you watch video of her 5 or 5.01 jumps, she swung up past her knees to her thighs and extended out of it immediately. Now she swings up to her ankles/shins and it almost seems like she gets stuck half the time and can't extend out of it as easily...

Just my .02

Ye of little faith..... She will get the top back soon. Once she does, she will be holding higher on bigger sticks and we will see some impressive things. Petrov is the best thing for her.

Her run up and take off have improved but the rest has suffered. Yes her swing and fly away is much slower. Run up is nice and relaxed working on the first six steps just like Petrov likes it, and her last six are great also resulting in a good take off. But, her swing is not the same which is one thing that Lena did great, was swing better than anyone including the boys. As for her gripping higher and getting on bigger poles, she has already done that since she got with her new coach. Getting on big long poles does not always mean you will jump higher. Have you guys ever heard of the sane "if it is not broken, why fix it". I do feel she will break her world record again, that is a given. Do you think she would be jumping higher if she would have stayed with her old technical model?

mjb wrote:Do you think she would be jumping higher if she would have stayed with her old technical model?

I think it's kind of a moot point. There is no way she could have stayed with her old coach, their relationship had fallen apart. I think if they had tried to force staying together she would have been miserable.

If she had to go with a new coach, I think Petrov was a good way to go!

It's not fair to try and look at things from a completely technical angle. You have to coach the whole athlete and that includes all of the emotional stuff.

You are right, if you have to leave your coach, Petrov obviously was a great choice maybe the best one. Emotion does play a great part, but technique is what we are looking at here not emotion. That would be a whole different topic.

How can you say that anyone is a better technical coach than Petrov? People may say that Bubka simply had more talent than anyone else, which might be true, but Petrov coached Bubka towards doing things that have never been seen elsewhere in this sport, regardless of how high the bar was. Bubka had the best swing of all time, but it all came as a process starting with the first 6 strides. Lena's process is still coming along but as she frees up her run and takeoff, eventually her swing will be more fluid and powerful as ever and we will see her get that feeling that only Bubka talks about of "I leave the ground and BOOM I am coming off of the pole". I have faith in the Lena+Petrov relationship above any other Lena+_____ out there.

Coover old son -I hope you are coming to the Slippery Rock coaches clinic! I think you will fit in well there -and it is not too far away from Bloomington

All I can say is that time will tell if this change was the right one. I don't think it was, but once again my opinion only.