Help. I haven't PRed in 4 seasons and I'm tired of it.

[birdi_gurlie]

I've been having problems suceeding in pole vaulting and it's REALLY beginning to bug me! This is the 4th season that I haven't vaulted any higher than 7'0" and I'm tired of this crap. I'm the only one on our team who's been vaulting for 8 seasons and I'm the only one who's been stuck and I'm tired of consistently failing.

It seems that every time I cure one problem, something else comes up. Last year, it was fear. My technique was great but I was scared. I finally started getting 7'6" at practice...after my last meet. Then this year, I've toyed with a bungee above 7'6' (IDK how how it is above it; my guess is it's at 8' but I don't want to know bc then I'll get scared of it.) and gotten over it or almost over it in practice (within an inch or two). But then I get to the meet and I don't even get 7'. I was getting 7' consistently but at the last two meets, I've gotten 6'6". I'm tired of being the only one who's not getting any better. It's my senior year and I want to do well and make it to the state meet!

I'm in the process of putting a video up on youtube for people to see. These are not my recent vaults; they are from 2/25/11, 3/4/11,3/22/11. I haven't gotten my coach's videos from his flip camera; I'll try to get that tomorrow. I will take video at practice tomorrow and I will put it up tomorrow to show you the "recent-recent". I will add the links to this week's vaults and tomorrows vaults as soon as they are published.

Video of the weeks past: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pET8jUwi ... tube_gdata

[VaultPurple]

For starters, when you swing up on pole, put your left elbow to the right side of the pole and not the left. You are getting your body hung on the pole which keeps you from swinging more than just your legs up, limiting you to about a negative 3 foot push off.

[birdi_gurlie]

All right, well I'm adding the second video now.
The vaults are from 3/22, 3/23, 3/25, and 4/7, respectively.
Today, 4/7, I was working on bending the pole. I wasn't working on form; just getting used to the bend. The first time I went up and actually bent it, I curled up. As my coach told me after, "See? You bent the pole and didn't freak out!...well, you did but not the same...now we just have to get the curled up spider-monkey out of you..." and my teammate said "See?! You didn't die!"...Sigh...just another day on the track team. Really though, I moved up about 4 handholds. Not optimum, probably not the SMARTEST thing to do, but I don't have a good truck bed for platform vaulting and I can't find a shorter pole that's at/below my weight. I mean, I could hold that high; I just need to get used to it and get over the fear of it.

But it did what it was supposed to...show me I could bend it and not die.

All the others videos are of real vaults.

P.S. The video is taking longer to load than expected. I'll let it upload overnight and then I will add the link.

[birdi_gurlie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4P39ZU_ ... tube_gdata

[indestructo]

Before I comment on any technique stuff...

I am a big safety nut when I am out there coaching and running events. The very first thing I noticed in your videos is the exposed asphalt surface everywhere around the pads. The second is the exposed standard bases. Either of these exposes the athletes to catastrophic injuries and the coaches and the school to HUGE liabilities should someone fall, and I have seen people fall on standard bases that HAD protection. There is NO WAY I would EVER let ANY of my jumpers jump on those pads for ANY reason. If your coach is on this board please put him in touch with myself or any other experienced coach in here.

Ok, on to technique. My best advice is not on your bottom arm....forget that for now. Your TOP arm is bent at takeoff. This will kill your penetration into the pit every single time. You have enough runway speed to jump higher then 7', you have to learn to transfer the energy better. Raising your grip is the very last thing you should be trying at this point. That puts you in danger (and the video is proof that it is) of landing on the unsafe surfaces. You should be working plant drills against a wall and into slide boxes. Work on driving that top arm up at takeoff. You currently are putting yourself in a passive hanging position at takeoff. You want to be the aggressor (not the pole!). You have to drive the top of that pole through the vault.

Second, do drills without the turn. Part of the top arm problems could be attributed to you wanting to turn so early. Lets see some pop-ups where you just rock up to inverted and hold it. The top end (turn) isn't going to matter much is the bottom end(takeoff) isn't good.

I hope this helps and I hope its a wake up call as well. Good Luck!

[birdi_gurlie]

On the safety: We're getting the old high jump mats and putting them next to the pit. We just haven't had a chance. And usually, the bases are under the mat and mostly covered. (Partially bc we have very short crossbars) I don't know why they aren't covered now.

And thanks for replying. I am working on my top arm. I am also working on bending the pole; that's why I had such horrible vault videos at the end. That was the first time I held at the end of the pole and so the technique wasn't exactly what I was paying attention to. I was just trying to bend the pole and not freak out too badly. Just getting used to it. But yes, I'm working on the top arm.

[indestructo]

You're vaults look horrible because you shouldn't be "working" on bending the pole. Its not a technique you "work on". Its something that develops naturally. Don't work on the bend. Work on the arm and the posture at takeoff. When the top arm is straight, work on driving the bottom arm upward as well. This is when a bend naturally develops. You are forcing a bend to occur when you are not ready for it. If you do this with a bent top arm you run the risk of either stalling (which the video shows) or in the case where your coach pushes your hand even higher, you get rejected and thrown back to the runway or worse. The hand grip should ONLY be moved up when a vaulter safely lands deep into the pit. Hand grip should not be raise to "work on the bend". You are not there yet.

If you can fix these fundamentals, it looks like the top end of your vault will come quickly. But you have to break it down to the plant and get that right before anything else.

On safety....I hope you have a lot of high jump pads to cover the asphalt ALL the way around the pit. There should be NO exposed surfaces, that includes in front! I recommend gymnastic pads after you add high jump pads. This pit is illegal to jump on in SO many ways. Do you hold any competitions on this pit??

I can give you my contact information if your coach needs some help figuring out how to make the pit safe without spending a fortune. We have done some great things with our facility (easily the safest in mid-Michigan). Just let me know.

[vcpvcoach]

Indestructo is right. Cover all that asphalt before you jump again. As a coach, I wouldn't let my vaulters jump on that pit. See if your football team has blocking pads to put down on the ground around the pit.

As for your vaulting, have your coach video you from behind. You will see that you are jumping around the pole. What I mean is that your head is to the left of the pole and your body is to the right when you plant the pole. The pole should be in the middle of your body at take-off.

Indestructo is right about your bottom elbow. It should be next to the pole after take-off. Your top hand should be above your head not to the right. And, you should never pull down with your top hand. If you pull, your hips must go forward.

Check out the Dave Butler's drills in the Developemental section of this website. His sand vaulting drills will help you get into a good take off position. My athletes do these drills everyday as part of their warm-up.

Also, get a copy of Alan Launders "Beginner to Bubka" with the DVD. Another good resource is Jan Johnson's Skyjumpers. com. All of his DVD's would help you and your coach.

It's and old saying but "it's not pole bending, it's pole vaulting." I had a girls on Tuesday, clear 9' without a bend. She was holding at 10'. Don't worry about bending, that will come with a good run, plant, and take-off.

[birdi_gurlie]

Re-explain: When I say "working on the bend", I mean "working on not freaking out about bending the pole" because I wouldn't run up as fast as I could, as well as i could, with a solid body, because I was scared of bending it. So I wasn't really working on bending it (because I'm not purposefully pushing the pole to cause a bend; I'm letting the bend happen because of my speed and such). I was working on not being scared of the bend. The last ones look horrible because I'm scared of bending it. [Not because I don't know how to; I'm just not used to the feeling and am thus scared of it.] I moved up because there was no way to get a good bend to get used to bending it but I knew I have the speed to do it. Again, I was doing it to work on bending it but not in that sense; I was moving up to get used to it bending so I won't be scared of bending it and I can get used to it. The only reason I moved up was because I knew I could, I was just scared of the bend bc I wasn't used to.

Also, I stalled bc I semi-freaked out once it bent. Once I got in the air, the bend freaked me out and I stopped doing anything.

And I do have Coach Launder's DVD and book. I went to one of his camps and I do discuss this with him. My coach has both too, though I don't think he looks at them as much as I do. We should be doing some truck vaulting next week to work on this. (We use a truck bed instead of a wood platform.)

[VaultPurple]

If done right, the transition from straight poling should be smooth and you should barely even notice that it is bending so there is really nothing to 'get used to'. If you are suddenly bending the pole and it is enough to freak you out, then you are doing it wrong and probably on too soft of a pole. The bend that scares people is when a pole sinks. You don't want a sink, you just want the cord to shorten as it picks you up and moves into the pit, you can barely feel that.

[birdi_gurlie]

The problem is, that's the only pole my weight. I can't switch poles bc I'm already on one that's 10lb over my weight and it's the smallest one the school has. The next smallest is 25lb over my weight and 12'6", not 11'. I wish I had all the resources college students did but I don't so I have to work with what I have.

[VaultPurple]

then stay on the one 10lb over and just go up one hand grip at a time and it should never have the bend change drastically in one jump. 10lb is not really that far over your body weight.