Alignment Trouble

[Lilmicmike]

Hello PoleVaultPower,

I am a college vaulter that has asked many questions on this forum before and here I am again today asking for some help. The problem that I am feeling and seeing in my vault is my alignment with the pole. I am sure that many will see other issues with my run, take-off, drive, swing, and top end, when you see the video posted below. I encourage all discussion on my vault. I am here asking what I need to change to get into alignment with the pole. My terminology may be different than others, so what I am referring to when I say alignment, is that I am not getting a full swing back to my pole and this is forcing me out of the vault and into the bar.

What I Feel; I feel that I get my trail leg to my hands and bring my drive leg together with my trail leg. Once this occurs I feel the hips begin to rise and I start extending my legs and hips up the pole. During this extension, I am trying to keep my hands as close to my body even though it may not happen everytime. When I am completely inverted I can feel my top/right hand on the outside of my right/drive leg. In this position, I feel stagnant waiting for the pole to do the work.

What I See; When reviewing my videos I notice some of the things that I can feel. Starting from the bottom up, First I see a tendency to lean back at take off. Also I am rather consistent on taking off under. In my first jump on the Video I was actually a tad out to my standards. I took off at 13'7 on a 5m pole which is good but rare for me. Continuing to work in the sequence of the jump is my jump and drive knee of the ground. When I jump off the ground I get good extension in the trail leg and a strong drive knee. The swing in my jump is starting to look more fluid and less jerky. I see that I swing to my hands but it looks like I stop there with the swing. In the extension with the hips and feet, I am staying away from the pole and not wrapping it with my legs and hands. The top end is a result of my flaws in the lower part and will come when I fix the issues.

What I Think; As I look at my vault I know that I am losing effort in the pole when I shoot towards the bar. I am looking to get my hands on the inside of my body rather than on the outside of my hip. I think that if I can get my top hand in between my legs and to follow all the way down close to my body I will be able to stay in line with my pole. I have been working on swinging back more to the pole and my hands to help with getting aligned. I do not know if I am bringing my drive knee to my trail leg too soon or if it's a lack of my hand movement towards the pole. I just know that it does not feel efficient to have my top hand on my hip. My coach is having me find my hands with my eyes instead of throwing my head back to early and this is helping when I remember to find my hands. Also when I try to fix my hands, my right legs flares off to the right to try and get my hand in the center of my body. I believe this is because I am trying to get my legs around my hands instead of applying pressure with the hand to get into a better position. You will see this in the last few jumps in the video.

What I am asking; I am here to ask for knowledge, opinions, cues, and all help. I am wanting to learn on how to fix my jump to get the best of results.The video link below is a compilation of recent jumps from competition and practice. I have created a still shot in the video to show you all where and what I mean by out of alignment and hand on the outside hip. Please let me know what you think I should try or change to get a better result.

https://youtu.be/LWtvecqGS_E

Thank You,

-Drew