The downswing is a critical part of the vault that I was extremely effective in using in my Bryde Bend technique. It is a term that I coined, and if you've searched PVP for it, you will have seen that I emphasize it more than any other vaulter or coach.
Essentially, it's the part of your swing before your trail leg passes the chord of the pole. The counter-part to the downswing is the upswing, which ... naturally ... is the part of your swing AFTER the chord. When the trail leg passes the chord, we call that the "
whip" ... altho the whip is not instantaneous. The whip really starts when the downswing starts. It's at its fastest at the chord, and then as your hips rotate and rise, the whip decelerates. So to answer your last question, some coaches refer to the downswing as the whip.
Other than my emphasis on the pre-stretch and downswing aspects of my vault, the rest of my Bryde Bend was essentially pure Petrov (tho Bubka is 14 years younger than me).
Every vaulter has a downswing ... no matter what technique they use. It's the vault part directly after the pre-stretch. Every vaulter SHOULD have a pre-stretch, so every vaulter SHOULD have ... and DOES have ... a downswing.
If you have a GOOD pre-stretch, you're able to have a GOOD downswing. If you have a POOR pre-stretch (or no pre-stretch at all), then your chances of having a GOOD downswing are significantly lessened, but you STILL do have a downswing. Why? Becuz no matter how far under you are on takeoff ... and no matter how poor your swing is ... you're ALWAYS behind the chord ... until you swing past it.
Thus, you ALWAYS have a downswing. The duration of the downswing is your moment of opportunity to accelerate your swing. If you wait until your trail leg passes the chord, then it's too late.
In the Bryde Bend, I had a very exaggerated pre-stretch. Thus, I set myself up for a very GOOD downswing. And by whipping the trail leg DOWN vigorously, I was able to generate a HUGE amount of power in my swing ... resulting in a very early inversion. In turn, the early inversion set me up for a very powerful extension.
This is the Intermediate Technique forum, so I'm not going to get into the details of the Bryde Bend ... that's already on the Elite Technique forum. But everything I've said thus far in this post ... and everything else that's discussed in subsequent posts ... are totally within the capabilities of an Intermediate vaulter.
For boys, I classify Intermediate as anyone that's roughly in the 4-5m range. I started to realize the power in my downswing when I was in the 15-foot range. YMMV. I wish I discovered the power of the downswing when I was in the 12-14 foot range. If you're in this range ... or even lower ... then it's not too early for you to learn this.
For girls, I'm not sure ... someone else can define that. But essentially, if you're capable of a pre-stretch, then you'd better learn how to turn that pre-stretch into a powerful swing, so you'd better figure out how that's done in the DOWNSWING!
Kirk
She has a nice pre-stretch, but surprisingly, she doesn't have a very powerful downswing. Odd that I would find such a major fault in the WR holder, but that's how I see it. 