The Bryde Bend (Jump to the Split)

[volteur]

Don't tell me you are a Canadian?

nice rhyme in return
but the early bird catches the worm
and how can you own
a thread or a poem
so i can't start my own thread
as you wander towards bed
because we are in the public domain
and to own such is lame
as we all search for some fame
and play this word game.



nite

ps you are already conceptualising in the direction of metaphysics so i figured they can actually mix in together

A method is a madness,
as emerson says.
And principles are pure,
don't be caught unawares
By the trick of making solid
that which is always flowing
flowing like water
as bruce lee is knowing and bruce lee also says.

fun fun!

[KirkB]

Volteur, shortest post ever, coming right up - straight at ya!

Then one of my longer [but hopefully more enlightening] ones.

Kirk

[KirkB]

Touché!

[KirkB]

The topic of this post is "Writing", but it's much more than just that.

My main point is that keeping a training diary is something that's quite beneficial to improving your performances. Why?

Because ...

1. it's a place to set your training plans.
2. it's a place to log your training results.
3. it's a way of thinking out loud; it forces you to crystalize your thoughts.
4. it makes you think about your goals, and to write them down.
5. it reminds you of the goals you set, and each time you re-read them, you re-inforce them into your pysche.

It's point #3 that I'm emphasizing in this post.

I'm probably a little biased about this, because I happen to like to express myself thru writing. This is something that's always come naturally to me. I wasn't an excellent English student, I think I got straight Bs. It's just that when I'm trying to figure something out for myself, I found it easiest if I wrote down my thoughts. The writing process allows you to sort, filter, clarify, and refine your thoughts. In my career as a computer systems analyst, I've followed this same course of action. It works!

Many of you vaulters will not feel this same driving need or importance to keep a training diary, or to write down your ideas about technique, training, or whatever. However, I encourage you to TRY to do this.

You may find it to be quite therapeutic, and even self-enlightening.

I would go so far as to even say that you'll become a better vaulter if you keep a diary. It's just another part of your "mental training". Just as you wouldn't consider competing without first training physically, you also shouldn't consider competing without some mental preparation.

Yeh, you can just do it all "in your head" - you can get by by just thinking and talking, but it's not the same as writing your thoughts down on paper (or online). Try it - you might like it! You might surprise yourself!

Now, what does this all have to do with explaining my short run vaulting technique, and comparing it to my competition (long run) technique?

Well, I had an "aha!" moment a couple days ago! Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008 to be exact. And it came as I was writing a private email to a pole vaulting buddy of mine (who shall remain nameless).

Here's what I wrote to him (in part) ...

Re "soft" pole vaulting, I've alluded to making some mistakes in my career, which I'll be disclosing on my Bryde Bend thread soon. The crux of this is that my short run technique was closer to "optimal" than my long run competition technique. Like a fool, I didn't SCALE my vault properly between my short run and long run. So I had a very aggressive, continuous chain on my short run - with a quick trail leg kickback/swing and very little "passive" parts to my short run vault. Then when I got to my long run, everything went into slow motion, so I didn't get the boost off the pole that I expected. Had I just kept the same technique as on short runs, I'd have fared much better.

... I didn't have that problem on short runs (9 steps), and I cleared 15-9 with a 13-8 grip (33 inch handstand). Long run was 17-6 with a 15-4 grip (34 inch handstand). If I had scaled properly (kept the same technique, without passive vault parts), I should have had a much better handstand on my competition
vaults.

To be honest, I've had one-foot clearances before, which would put me at 46 inches, but I don't count clearances unless there's a bar under me. And actually, come to think of it, those were on jumps where I had less passive parts. I just wasn't smart enough (experienced enough?) to recognize that at the time!

The "aha!" part is the second last sentence in this quote! I only came to this realization when I wrote that!

It's bothered me for 37 years now as to why I didn't vault better in 1972, compared to 1971. In 1971, I had a break-thru vault of 17-4 (5.28) that was a 10-inch improvement over my PR from the previous week. That was May 21, 1971, in the Pac-8 Championships.

I then went on a downwards spiral for the rest of the season, which ended when I NH'd in the Canadian trials for the Pan-Am team, and the *&%$# Canadian T&F Association "selection committee" chose a vaulter whose PR was a foot under mine for the team, when I was the only Canadian vaulter that had a hope in hell of beating Johnson or Roberts. No, I'm not bitter!

The next year was an Olympic year, so my plan was to start out slowly, then peak in Sep 1972 in the Olympics. This plan was based on two critical considerations: (1) I had never vaulted past June in any prior year, so I didn't want to have such an unusually long season that my mind and body couldn't cope with; and (2) I had chronic ankle problems from 3 serious injuries in 1969-70 that hadn't properly healed, so I determined (quite correctly, it turned out) that I only had a limitted number of competitive vaults in me for the year before my ankles gave out.

So I passed up the indoor season, and I had a relatively good, steady outdoor Pac-8 season, but nothing spectactular. In fact, nothing over 17'. Then in June-July, I had a really good series of meets, ending in a new PR of 17-6.25 (5.34) to break my own Canadian and British Commonwealth record. It seemed like my plan of gradually peaking towards the Olympics was working.

But then the week after that I went into another downward spiral that didn't end until the Olympics were over.

Why was I never able to repeat my break-thru vaults of May, 1971? That's the question that's been bothering me for 36 years! I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT ON WEDNESDAY!!!

I don't call my 17-6.25 (5.34) PR a break-thru. I was on a much heavier pole, but it was an inferior vault to my 17-4. All of my 1972 jumps were inferior to my jumps in the 1971 Pac-8 Championships. On the jump before my 17-4, I cleared 17-0 by over a foot, according to the meet director of the Modesto Relays - who signed me up on the spot. To put this in proper historical perspective, the WR at that time - set in 1970 by Chris Papinicolaou - was 18-0.25 (5.49).

I've actually been quite modest about this all these years, because it falls into the "might have; could have; should have; would have" boasting category. However, I cannot be honest with myself about this if I cannot be honest with everyone on PVP.

I think it's less important to retain my modesty than to disclose information that might help you in your own careers. Like I've said, I'm too old and honest now to be modest. My purpose of making my career an open book thru this thread is to serve as an example (good and bad - let the chips fall where they may) to current vaulters.

And how does this relate to the topic of this post?

Well, it's been thru my WRITINGS on PoleVaultPower, and in private email messages to my PV buddies this year that I've crystalized my thoughts and now realize what the hell happened during my short-lived career.

I would not have been able to figure this out without the therapeutic benefit of WRITING.

Oh yes - one more thing ...

During my entire 4-year career at UW, I kept a METICULOUS Training Diary. I don't have it anymore - I lent it out to one of my protogés and never got it back, but I can tell you that my training diary was an integral part of my training regimen.

OK, that's all for now.

Kirk

[KirkB]

PP, how's that highbar coming along?

Kirk

[powerplant42]

All the materials (2 .25 inch walled 11' 6"x6" iron bars and some weld-jointed black iron piping) are sitting there in my backyard, waiting for next weekend... I was hoping to build it this weekend, but I have company. I fear the 14'7'' 175 pole I just had my school order will be too small... (But it's better to go too small than too large, right?)

I loved your post, and will begin constructing a training log on my computer starting tomorrow... in a month or two, maybe I'll post some of the better things I wrote down in it.

Oh, and by the way, I was wondering if you had any film of your vaults? (Although, I suppose you would have posted it by now if you did... kind of a metaphorical desperation toss. )

[Pogo Stick]

The topic of this post is "Writing", but it's much more than just that.

My main point is that keeping a training diary is something that's quite beneficial to improving your performances. Why?

Because ...

1. it's a place to set your training plans.
2. it's a place to log your training results.
3. it's a way of thinking out loud; it forces you to crystalize your thoughts.
4. it makes you think about your goals, and to write them down.
5. it reminds you of the goals you set, and each time you re-read them, you re-inforce them into your pysche.

It's point #3 that I'm emphasizing in this post.

Kirk

I still have my diaries from 1982 to 1988. Before I went to Canada 6 years ago, I left them in my parent's house. Few months ago, I've asked parents to send them back to me. Reading these diaries again was as exciting to me as reading the best book. I can see how was my training, what I was doing good, what bad, what I was trying to perform, my thoughts, hopes, my goals, how my results align with those goals. It is like my own time machine.
I keep that habit later in my life - I was writing to myself about learning during university years, then about job(s) and what I learn and what I did, about kids (I give up this few years ago)...
In my opinion, you cannot improve if you cannot put itself in retrospective and establish feedback with past. Your memories and feelings fade too fast and if you did not write something immediately, it is lost.

[KirkB]

... waiting for next weekend... I was hoping to build it this weekend, but I have company. ...

Hmm ... looks like I have a clear lead on you then!

Oh, and by the way, I was wondering if you had any film of your vaults? (Although, I suppose you would have posted it by now if you did... kind of a metaphorical desperation toss. )

I'd give my eye teeth to get a copy of my vault film, especially my Pac-8 1971 meet. Shannon and I went over those jumps umpteen times over the next year, and that's why I have such a vivid memory of my technique.

When Pat Licari asked Shannon four years ago if he still had the film, he said that it had worn out long ago. In those days, it was analogue Super-8 film, and just the wear-and-tear of replaying the film was enough to wear it out. Worse yet, if you paused for too long (we called it freeze-framed), you'd melt the film from the heat of the projector's lamp. This would occur, quite naturally, at the most critical frames of the vault. Shannon had played the film for Jeff Taylor and other UW vaulters for quite a few years after I graduated, before it finally wore out.

I really kick myself for not getting a copy of that film, just for my own nostalgic memories. And I certainly would have shared it on PVP by now if I had it.

Back then, it actually never occured to me to ask Coach for a copy. I graduated, moved on with my life, and never looked back ... until about 4 years ago.

This is another "Lesson Learned" for you kids. Even for coaches ...

Keep an archive of your treasured vids. Your vids won't wear out like mine, but they're easily lost. Don't just depend on your coach or parents to keep a copy, and don't just consider YouTube to be your master copy. Keep your own masters! If someone else took vids of you that you'd like, don't be shy about asking them for a copy. The sooner the better, because you might lose touch with that person (especially if you're not related.)

You never know when you might want to see those vids again - even 30-40 years later. Your interests change over the years, and if/when you become a Master vaulter (for example), you might just want to look back on your old technique. Or you might want to show them to your wife, kids and grandkids. "Look, there's Daddy! See Daddy jump! Jump, Daddy, jump! Yay Daddy!"

There is more to this story, though, and I'll get to it in due course. You see, when I described my Bryde Bend over the past few months, I was NOT just describing my vivid memory of my Pac-8 1971 vaults. I didn't realize it until last Wednesday, but I let my subsequent 1971-72 vaulting technique creep into those descriptions. I certainly didn't mean to mislead anyone. I simply had not recognized until last Wednesday that my Pac-8 1971 jumps had very good non-passive technique (exactly as I had discovered the technique on my short runs), but then my technique (and subsequently my conceptializations and descriptions of it) started drifting to too much bend and too many passive parts.

It's not that I had forgotten. I never knew. In 1971, I didn't even use the term "passive", even tho I believed in the "continuous chain theory". Roman published his continuous chain theory in about 1992, I think it was, so clearly I didn't even know what THAT was "back in the day" either. I just knew that I wanted to swing my trail leg as quickly as I possibly could, and once I got it moving, I wanted it to keep moving, right on up thru the extension and fly-away.

In other words, my own personal version of the "continuous chain theory" began at the Split. I had no concept of it starting on takeoff (or before).

With the help of Coach Shannon, I started developing these ideas in 1969-70, but was not healthy enough or strong enough to execute them very well. It evolved with experimentation over time, incrementally and iteratively. So it wasn't until the indoor season of 1971 that I became a good "working model" of the Bryde Bend technique.

Kirk

[KirkB]

This post (from Sep 5, 2008) was buried on page 6 (above), but it's quite pertinent to the theme of how I screwed up my technique after May/71, so I'm reposting it here, before I post more WHEAT about this theme. Remember, I posted this BEFORE last Wednesday (Oct 15, 2008) - my "aha!" day, so I now retract some of the things I stated. I'm not editting it here. Instead, I only highlighted the parts where I screwed up, which I'll refer to in subsequent posts. Here it is ...

To continue on the discussion of how I might change my technique today, if I had it to do over again ...

There's a few sub-topics I'd like to raise about this. The first one is what I'll call "EXTREME POLE VAULTING". It's the sole subject of this post.

There's no doubt that pole vaulting could easily be classified as an extreme sport. It's dangerous, it's difficult, and it takes a dare-devil type athlete to even WANT to vault. But this isn't really what I mean in the context of this post. For this post at least, I have a much narrower meaning.

I thrived on training and vaulting to the extreme. I trained hard - to the extreme. I knew situps were good, so I did 100s of them several times per week - to the extreme. I knew that I needed to have loose shoulders for a smooth "through-the-shoulder" plant, so I stretched my shoulder muscles every day - to the extreme. I felt that the split/hinge/snap/rockback highbar drill was a very close simulation of the split/whip part of the vault, so I did 100s of those too - several times per week. So many and so often that it became "automatic" - my muscle memory took over to the point that I didn't have to remind myself how to swing on the pole. I could just jump/split/hinge/whip as powerfully as I wanted, and all my body parts would go in the right direction - automatically. All I needed to focus on was jumping effort and whipping speed - an extreme jump and an extreme whip. And so on. Everything I did during training was "to the extreme". I'm quite proud of the fact that I left each practice totally exhausting, knowing that I'd trained as hard as I possibly could - that day and every day.

Every meet I entered, I entered it with the thought that I was more prepared than any of my competitors - simply because I had trained harder. I didn't even have to ask them how hard they trained. I knew how hard I trained, and I knew what's humanly possible, so I knew I was ahead of my competition on that basis alone. Now actually, today, I must admit that I competed against some very hard-training vaulters, and most of them were physically more talented than I was. But my mindset was that they might be faster or more talented, but they didn't train as hard. That mindset put me into a mental state of mind during a meet that didn't allow me to concede anything to my competitors. True or untrue, you must BELIEVE that you're better than your competitors, or you'll have a tough time beating them.

You have no idea of the self-satisfaction that this gives me today - 36 years later. Sure, I'd like to have vaulted higher. But I have absolutely no regrets. I surpassed my highest self-expectations.

Just as I trained to the extreme, my Bryde Bend technique was "to the extreme" ...

Some of this is typical of all vaulters, but some of it was "just me".

A high pole carry is good, so carry it as high as possible.

The faster the run, the higher the vault, so run as fast as you can - to the extreme. (This one is rather obvious, but maybe not if you add the clause "under control".)

The stronger the jump off the ground, the better, so jump as hard as you can, as hard as if you're long jumping in a competition - to the extreme.

Driving the chest forwards is good, so drive it as far forwards as you can - to the extreme.

Stretching the trail leg back (a natural consequence of a good jump) is good, so stretch it back as far as you can - to the extreme.

If you lift your trail leg back and up after stretching it, you can get even more of a whip during the hinge part of the vault, so lift your leg up/back even more than just a stretch - to the extreme.

The more your trail leg is stretched (long/straight) during the whip, the better, so stretch it and hinge it entirely straight (no knee bend at all) - to the extreme.

Whipping your trail leg thru to the chord quickly is good, so whip it as fast as you can - to the extreme. Work on the speed of this on high bar and rings - to the extreme.

Getting inverted early is good, so invert as early as humanly possible - to the extreme.

Adding energy to the pole during the extension is good, so PULL LIKE HELL - to the extreme.

I admit to some exageration here, by saying "to the extreme" after each part of my vault. I do that purposely, to make my point. By intent, I vaulted TO THE EXTREME. That was just me.

So, so far, so good, eh? Nothing wrong with what I've said so far?

Actually, there is!

You shouldn't do EVERYTHING to the extreme. For some things, you need to find the best BALANCE. Volteur alluded to this.

As I was writing the description of my Bryde Bend a couple months ago, I began to reflect on what I might have done differently, if I had it to do over again. There were certain parts of my vault that I now realize I was too EXTREME at. I should have had a better BALANCE.

I'm not referring to the "Jump to the Split" part of my vault, nor my whip. Even with my 2008 new-found knowledge, those actually remain as the 2 BEST parts of my vault , even after careful reflection today.

In my next post, I'll compare my short run vault to my long run vault. They were EXTREMELY different.

In the meantime, feel free to comment on what I've disclosed thus far.

Kirk

[KirkB]

The lesson of this post is that no competitor is unbeatable, as long as you have the self-confidence that you can upset him - unlikely as it may be. If you believe in yourself, you have a chance. If you don't, you don't.

I didn't win many meets against world-class vaulters, but when I did, it was a definite upset. But if you go into a meet with the attitude that you're the underdog, then you're half-beat already. That's one mistake that I never made!

From an earlier post in this thread ...

Every meet I entered, I entered it with the thought that I was more prepared than any of my competitors - simply because I had trained harder. I didn't even have to ask them how hard they trained. I knew how hard I trained, and I knew what's humanly possible, so I knew I was ahead of my competition on that basis alone. Now actually, today, I must admit that I competed against some very hard-training vaulters, and most of them were physically more talented than I was. But my mindset was that they might be faster or more talented, but they didn't train as hard. That mindset put me into a mental state of mind during a meet that didn't allow me to concede anything to my competitors. True or untrue, you must BELIEVE that you're better than your competitors, or you'll have a tough time beating them.

As told by P-I reporter Michael McLaughlin, in 1968, Casey embarked on a pole vaulting journey to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics that was simply incredible, considering that he was just a junior in high school!

As a junior, he hit 16 feet in state competition, and with the Olympics approaching, his father petitioned the AAU to allow his son a chance to compete at the pre-Olympic trials. At the trials, he jumped 16-8, setting a national high school record, and was invited to train at Lake Tahoe.

To the surprise of almost everyone, Casey vaulted his age (17' at 17 years old!) at the US Olympic Trials in Lake Tahoe, to earn the third spot on the team, along with WR holders Bob Seagren and John Pennel. In the Qualifying Round in Mexico City, he cleared 4.60 (15-1) and then passed to 4.90 (16-0.75).

He had some adjustment problems on his first two attempts, but on his third attempt, he is reported to have said ...

My third attempt was one of the best vaults of my life. I cleared the bar by almost a foot and a half, but I didn't push my pole back.

That was back in the days before they changed the rule. If the pole went under the bar, it was counted as a miss. That ended his Olympic journey, but then in his senior year, he went on to vault 16-7 (5.05) in the Washington State Class A Meet, and then 17-4.75 (5.30) in the Golden West meet in California.

Side Note: I intend to try to contact Casey soon, and talk to him about his phenomenal 1968-69 seasons. As a teenager, he clearly had developed a world-class technique, which I believe deserves its place in PV history.

Casey went to Stanford and competed for them in 1970-71. He dropped out of Stanford and the PV scene in 1972-73, and then in 1974 he was back - ranked #1 in the US!

It was in 1971 that I competed against him, in the Stanford vs. UW Dual Meet. There was quite a bit of pre-meet hype about Casey coming to Seattle to vault.

I was in awe of Casey's 1968-1969 record, but I certainly wasn't intimidated or psyched out about competing with him. You see, I had a little plan of my own, and my plan for the season was progressing quite well - other than a couple minor mishaps. I was healthier than I'd ever been, in my 3 years at UW. I was also a little stubborn and egotistical, and thought that I could beat anyone on any given day.

That meet was on May 1, 1971 - six weeks after the dual meet against Minnesota, where I cleared 15-6 (4.72) AND THE PIT (all in the same jump!) and two weeks after I suffered head and hand injuries after a standard fell on my head in the LA Olympic Coliseum, and I broke a pole. I already described the Coliseum accidents, but the one where I cleared both the bar and the pit in the same jump gave me a slight concussion (along with a broken nose and 2 broken teeth), which took several weeks to recover from. So I was just getting over these head injuries when the dual meet against Stanford took place.

Anyway, we both came in at 15-6 (4.72), and I made it on my first and he on his second. Then 16-0 (4.88), both on our first. When I cleared 16-6 (5.03) on my first, Casey was behind on misses, so he passed to 17-0 (5.18), where we were both XXX. And that was it!

The way to beat the favorite is not to compete head-to-head against him. Yeh, you have to consider passing strategy, but that's about it. Otherwise, you just need to focus on YOUR game plan, and just do it. It's you against the bar!

There's too many meets where there's no competition, or TOO MUCH competion, to worry about your placing. If you concentrate more on improving your technique and your PR incrementally in each meet, you're far better off in the long run.

This meet was three weeks before my season PR in the Pac-8 Championship Meet, and represented a significant stepping stone in the development of my technique, as my previous outdoor PR was 16-0. Indoors, I had cleared 16-4 (4.98) in the NCAA in March. I'll describe the Pac-8 meet in another post, as that was the day when my Bryde Bend technique "peaked".

I will also be describing my short run vaulting technique, and comparing it to my competition vaulting technique "soon".

This is just the build-up to that.

Kirk

[KirkB]

My short run vault was 9 steps. I don't remember how far that runup was, or what pole size I used, but it was exactly 9 steps. Why the odd number? Well, when I started my run, I always rocked back onto my takeoff foot, then pushed off to accelerate "out of the blocks". Since my takeoff leg (my right leg, since I vaulted goofy-footed) was stronger than my left, I could accelerate faster this way. I did the same with my long (19 step) run from 121-128'. It was 121' in early 1971, and stretched to 128' in late 1972 - due to my speed improvements over that time.

I never SERIOUSLY tried any other variations of step counts. 7 or 11 might have been useful, but I liked to keep things consistent, as I knew how much to accelerate, how hard to jump, and how much bend I'd get with 9 steps. But if I tried 7 or 11, I'd have some adjusting to do, I'd have to change my grip, and maybe switch poles. I could have, but I was so focussed on improving my TECHNIQUE that I didn't want to be distracted by any other fiddling around with poles, grip, or number of steps.

Likewise, I never did try to vary my long run steps. Today, in hindsight, I think 19 was too many. I wasn't that fast, so I didn't really gain much speed (if any) on the last couple steps. Maybe 15 or 17 would have been better. Jeff Taylor - who I trained with us my Sr. year - had a very short competition run, so I don't know why I didn't follow suit, other than for the same reasons why I didn't vary my short run. I liked to keep things consistent, and keep the number of variables to a minimum. Like I said, in hindsight I think this was a mistake. For similar reasons, I didn't vary my grip. I kept it at 15-4 for a full year.

My PR for 9 steps was 15-9, with a 13-8 grip. That's a 33" handstand (or push-off, as Barto recommends I call it). To put this into proper historical perspective, this was when my PR was at 16-4 (4.98). So my short run was only 7 inches under my long run PR! I knew I was due for a break-thru on my long run - if only I SCALED my technique and metrics properly to my long run!

My best OFFICIAL push-off for 19 steps was 34" (17-6 with a 15-4 grip). If you count hip height (not bar clearance), then I suppose I had a 39" push-off on my Pac-8 17-0 vault - a couple months after my short run PR. (I had earlier reported this as 46", but that calculation had a math error.) I don't want to make any false claims of having "cleared" 18'-0.25 (the WR at the time), so I'm pegging my hip clearance at 17-11 to compute my push-off (not for any other "coulda/shoulda/woulda" reason).

But really, If I had a 33" push-off with 9 steps, don't you think my 19-step run push-off should have been better than 39"? If I SCALED IT properly?

I do. And it's not so much that I thought I should have > 39", it's more that I had not yet cleared 5.50m (> the WR). Stubborn as I was, I wanted to perfect my TECHNIQUE before I moved my grip up. To me, improving my technique so that my push-off was > 40" was more important than inching up my grip. That would come later - or so I thought.

So one of my mistakes (since it's confession time) is that I never did improve my technique so as to improve my push-off. I actually didn't realize WHY until last Wednesday (my aha! day). Now - TODAY - I realize that even tho I emulated my short run vault in the 1971 Pac-8 meet, my technique digressed after that. I'll explain in the next post - or soon after that.

The sensation I got in my 9-step vault (in both 1971 and 1972) was that of accelerating into the takeoff, JUMPING extremely hard into the Split, lifting up my trail leg BACKWARDS/UPWARDS for just a split second, then IMMEDIATELY BRINGING it forwards again. ABSOLUTELY NO PAUSE!!!

I HAD to do it that way, because there was NO TIME to pause in the Split (with chest driven forwards), and no time to pause with my trail leg raised backwards/upwards. With the lower grip and less takeoff speed (due to the shorter run), I had no choice but to do everything quicker, WITH NO PASSIVE pauses during the Jump to the Split.

And because of my extremely quick swing (initiated by lifting/stretching my trail leg back/up), I got inverted very early and very quickly. I remember a "sinking sensation" when this happened, where my shoulders seemed to drop. I know they didn't actually drop. I know that my hips were continually rising, so it just SEEMED like my shoulders were dropping. But just like I tried to [and was unable to eloquently] describe my Standing Shoot-to-a-Handstand Drill on the highbar, I couldn't tell you EXACTLY what I was doing during that "sinking sensation". All I know is that it felt very much like the "no-man's land" of the Standing Shoot-to-a-Handstand - everything happened so quickly. It had to! No passive actions!

That's actually how I learned the Bryde Bend technique. First on the highbar (various shoot-to-a-handstand drills). Then on the short run. Then on the long run.

Since you can do so many more jumps in a practice with a short run, I just kept incrementally improving my technique to the point where Coach Shannon put the bar up to 15-9 one day, and I cleared it. We had started at around 15-0 (even lower before Xmas, but I jumped quite a bit without the bar before Xmas, until I felt the "continuous flow" of my legs and hips), and worked our way up to 15-9 - inch by inch. I was absolutely thrilled with clearing 15-9 with only a 9-step run. I couldn't wait til I got back to a full run, and SCALED my vault proportionally!

18 feet here we come!

The sad part is that it never came.

I'm unravelling the reasons why it never happened, post by post.

I hope you can learn from my mistakes.

Kirk

[powerplant42]

Wheatful...

Got it: 'scale' your short run vault up if it's better than your full vault, but can it work in reverse? If you feel that (relatively speaking) your long run vault is better than your short run, could it work the other way around? I think it would, I'm just asking for your opinion... I have learned that perhaps I'm not ready just yet to snatch that pebble, so I'd like Kan's input!