Barlocking

[Vault101 Boy]

My mentality has changed from just getting over the bar to becoming technically sound, but my habit of barlocking has become serious annoyance. Ive fixed my plant and take-off to be tall hold a long trail leg, but when i swing up, i get stuck in the bucket unable to drop the shoulders or head. Why? Because i'm unconciously fixated on a bungie. I don't remember even seeing it as i swing, but seeing videos of my vaults shows it quite clearly. Whenever i drop the bungie to a lower height for other vaulters to practice with it, im too lazy to even finish the vault once i feel myelf sail over the bungie by 3-4 feet. Any ideas or nifty drills to fix this problem would be appreciated

[superpipe]

You're not alone. Very typical problem for lots of young vaulters. Number one key is to focus on the FASTEST straight trail leg swing you can make happen ALL the way PAST the pole. Assuming you get a fully finished take-off, you MUST ACTIVELY swing the fastest trail leg CONTINUOUSLY until the foot passes the pole. Vaulters in your position often swing a fast trail leg initially until the "L" position and then stop letting the swing "die" which stops loading the pole and makes it impossible to get fully inverted. To swing fast and fully, you must make a conscious swing movement that is a fast as possible CONTINUOUSLY past the pole. You do that and you will get fully inverted whether you like it or not. The key is DON'T stop that ACTIVE swing until the feet are past the pole. Again, this all assumes you committed to a FULLY FINISHED take-off with a full pre-stretch to allow you to swing as fast as possible. Without a full pre-stretch, you are forced to "muscle" the swing and it becomes a slow movement that won't cover the pole in time before it recoils on you.