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

[indestructo]

Again, I strongly advise against moving up hand grips until you are clearing heights with your standards at 24-26 minimum. You run the risk of a stall, which you are already doing. I understand it may be fear that is stalling you, but I can assure you MOST of it is not fear but a bent top arm. To get into a little of the physics behind it, a bent top arm acts as a shock absorber that absorbs the energy you are trying to put into your vault. You then lose the energy it takes to get depth into the pits. When you move up a hand grip, you have to be that much more aggressive at that plant. You have a passive (bent) top arm that is going to hinder you jumping effectively even if you were not afraid.

I would get off the runway and get on the slide boxes and wall plants. Also do some vaulting into a long jump pit. Start from a standing grip plus one forearm hand hold. Slowly work up until you are forced to drive off the ground and get that top arm straight up. This will improve your plant immensely.

Truck vaulting will not help much as it isn't your swing phase that is the problem. You need work on your plant phase.

I hope this helps. You really do have some good things going with your vault. If you can fix this top arm, you will be in a great position to get to that state meet!!

Good Luck!

[xjoeyx]

I think another reason for the stalling out (it's a little more evident in your second video) is that you seem to be pulling yourself up some to clear the bar. Especially in the meets. As for your jumps the second video at 1:15 was by far the best one you had. You would benefit from gripping lower and making sure you get your last step down quick and get tall at takeoff. You need to make sure that you trust yourself and the pole enough to run all the way through and jump into take off tall. But just as someone previously mentioned (sorry I'm not giving the right person credit here) your arm is bent at takeoff. However I think this will start to fix itself once you begin to trust yourself and run without hesitation. TRUST YOURSELF! And try gripping a little lower. I would much rather see your videos where you don't have enough time to finish the jump because you're moving through the pole than see you stall out at the top and barely making the pit

[Nolan]

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.

as an irrelevant remark, not all colleges have the resources to spend on poles. I am a college vaulter and the only pole my school had anywhere near what I needed was 10lbs too heavy and over a foot too long.

[birdi_gurlie]

Well, my season is over. I still didn't get over 7'...until the day after my last meet. At practice, I easily get 7'6" and sometimes 8'. The day after the regional track meet, after all pressure was over, I started vaulting amazingly and pretty high with half-decent technique. Sometime I'll post videos of it.

[AustinFarwell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4P39ZU_NOg&feature=youtube_gdata

i fear for your shoulders. seriously you will not have any ligaments in your right arm. yooo dont be one arm girl

plant that stick