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Today, I was working on having a tall high plant.

I started out with 4 left approaches with a 13'7" 145 pole holding about a foot and a half down with the bungee at 13'6". I thought my plant was decent with arms in a pretty decent position but I feel I could have jumped up instead of out better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdmH2kAG ... ature=plcp

I then moved back to a 7 left approach, and started on a 14' 160 which I blew through last meet. The first jump was meant to be a "stay down" jump, where I would plant and hold that plant with no swing all the way through. But something weird happened that caused my pole rotation to stop, and I cannot really tell. But what I do know is that when these kinds of things happen, my plant is not as good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKSwc5hl ... ature=plcp

Any input on what happened in the 7 left approach to mess my jump up would be great, and any other tips as well!!

Check out the picture below. First frame is your 3rd step out. It lands underneath you and is a decent step. 2nd frame is the 2nd step out. Your foot lands way in front telling me you're reaching and probably loosing some speed. Then there's your last step. Lands way in front of you, huge reach. You then roll over your foot a good 3-4ft and collapse into the pole. My guess is, your run is long and you're striding to reach the takeoff mark. The pole hits the back of the box way before you leave the ground, you're low and get ripped off the ground and swept under the pole (5th frame). This creates a really low bend, which isn't good for vaulting even if you do manage to make it into the pit. Move your run in at least a foot and quicken your last few steps. This will help you stay tall and get at higher takeoff, which should help you penetrate better.

Also, in general keep your bottom hand higher on the run, you have to work really hard your last two steps to get your hands up because you drop both hands instead of raising the top one when lowering your pole. This is going to make you late and slow every time, which probably contributed to this takeoff. Instead, you should keep the bottom hand at chest level and let the top hand rise along your body as the pole drops. Let the pole fall itself, gravity works! Just let that top hand rise to compensate.

If you move the step in a bit (or maybe you were just tired and slower on that run?) and drop the pole better you should find yourself quicker and taller during takeoff which should let you crush that pole! Keep us posted...

at track wrote:Check out the picture below. First frame is your 3rd step out. It lands underneath you and is a decent step. 2nd frame is the 2nd step out. Your foot lands way in front telling me you're reaching and probably loosing some speed. Then there's your last step. Lands way in front of you, huge reach. You then roll over your foot a good 3-4ft and collapse into the pole. My guess is, your run is long and you're striding to reach the takeoff mark. The pole hits the back of the box way before you leave the ground, you're low and get ripped off the ground and swept under the pole (5th frame). This creates a really low bend, which isn't good for vaulting even if you do manage to make it into the pit. Move your run in at least a foot and quicken your last few steps. This will help you stay tall and get at higher takeoff, which should help you penetrate better.

Also, in general keep your bottom hand higher on the run, you have to work really hard your last two steps to get your hands up because you drop both hands instead of raising the top one when lowering your pole. This is going to make you late and slow every time, which probably contributed to this takeoff. Instead, you should keep the bottom hand at chest level and let the top hand rise along your body as the pole drops. Let the pole fall itself, gravity works! Just let that top hand rise to compensate.

If you move the step in a bit (or maybe you were just tired and slower on that run?) and drop the pole better you should find yourself quicker and taller during takeoff which should let you crush that pole! Keep us posted...

One of the best responses ever on this website, by at track. Nice first post! It is hard for kids who are used to striding into the plant to get the hands up and the feet down quickly. Work on plant drills with a stubby pole or broomstick at home, emphasizing speed and timing of the hands/feet. You can be standing still for this drill (running and planting "in place"). Standing pole drops also help your hands learn how fast they need to rise during an optimal plant.

Good luck,
Tom

tsorenson wrote:
One of the best responses ever on this website, by at track. Nice first post! It is hard for kids who are used to striding into the plant to get the hands up and the feet down quickly. Work on plant drills with a stubby pole or broomstick at home, emphasizing speed and timing of the hands/feet. You can be standing still for this drill (running and planting "in place"). Standing pole drops also help your hands learn how fast they need to rise during an optimal plant.

Good luck,
Tom

Thanks tom, gotta make a good first impression
good call on the drills, even elite vaults do these all the time so andy you should to!

Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer! I am doing pull runs today and will focus on getting my feet under me and quickening those last steps. I have two weeks before my next competition so I will just continue to focus on my run and plant and hopefully the rest will be corrected when i try to work on the ground phases of the vault. I will update soon here with new jumps as soon as I vault again!

So today at practice, I thought mainly about trying to run tall, fast, and getting my last steps underneath me better. I moved down one pole just for this practice. I'm using a 14' 155 holding a foot down with the bungee at about 14'6 to 15' for each jump except the first one. The first jump is from a 4 left using a 13'7 150 pole holding a foot and a half down with bungee at 12'6". What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F66wrK39acI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lb4VgpPPzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW-DVTLIQkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcYAeboxOOg