Inversion/Rockback/Swing, or whatever you call it

[spike gibeault]

i need help with my inversion/rockback/swing. whatever you guys call it, i froze the shot where i feel like my hips arent getting far enough back and im kicking my legs up and kind of going into a V, i think its partly because im looking at the crossbar , i showed a drill i did to help me with that, so any constructive criticism on the vault, or the drill or maybe some other drills for me to try would be appreciated. This jump i was on a 13' 155 and i weigh 110 i was holding holding at 12'8"

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=25598121


and yes, that is snow on the ground...and i am wearing a t-shirt :)

[CavVaulter99]

how high is the crossbar?

[BethelPV]

Well in my opinion you perform how you practice...

You have no swing even when you do your rope drills... you just tuck your legs into your chest and then extend them... when you try and do this in your actual vault, you can't get your hips to move when you are just folding at the waist and knees to tuck your legs in!

You need to have an actual swing in order to get your hips to move... and you don't have a swing at all... you just tuck your legs in. You should practice reaching your legs as deep into the pits as you can while keeping them as straight as you can while swinging. This might slow your swing a little bit, but it will be much stronger and allow for you to apply more force into the pole, and use more of the energy it will give you...

You set yourself up pretty good in your plant, just work on swinging long and getting your legs as long as possibly during your swing!

[vault3rb0y]

on the rope, there is no trail leg. You actually have a better trail leg in your jump than on the rope. This should really never happen, you should always be able to recreate your jump in your drills at least as well as you actually jump. If your trail leg comes back, you will get a lot more power in your swing. You are in a good position in your actual vault, but keep that trail leg straight and long, and get it behind you in your drills and in your vault. That will speed up your swing, then just stay back and quit coming out on top, extend up the pole.

[spike gibeault]

yea, i saw my trail leg in the video, i was waiting for someone to say something about it, but besides that, BethelPV... are you saying that i should not bend my trail leg ever? because ive seen people vault like that, but when i do that it usually crushes the pole and the pole is already 45 pounds over my weight, the pole just bends too much and dosent give anything back

[BethelPV]

Basically that is what I am saying. You should keep your body and leg as straight as possible throughout the entire vault. This preserves energy and helps you to rotate the pole. When you say that when you do that the pole crushes and doesnt give anything back, good! If you are landing deep in the pit that means you are ready for another pole! The bigger the pole above your weight you can effectively jump on and land deep in the pits on, the better! Most Elites jump on poles 50-60 lbs over their weight!

But anyways... you should try and keep your leg as fast and as straight as possible! Look at bubka, his bent just a tiny bit but it was very long and straight the entire vault. This helped to load extra energy into the pole and allowed him to jump on stiff enough poles to jump 20'!

Just food for thought!

[spike gibeault]

hah, i understand now, im gonna definetly work on that because i spent most of my time working on my drive which has taken me this far but I've tabeltoped with my hieght that i can get from my horrible inversion with a decent drive, so im going to do the rope drill and keep my trail leg straight with my body and work on swinging faster. so you guys know any other good drills for this? because we have 2 indoor meets, so basically all i can do is drills, which isnt too bad because when outdoor comes ill be better