stuck at 14' heres a video need advice

[matthew2]

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=MVI_8822
I've been stuck at 14 for a long time and was hoping I could get some critiquing from you all.

[souleman]

This would be a good one for Altius. I know what you need to do but I don't know how to instruct you to do it. You have no push at the top. Your legs seem to come down too fast or just fall from your inversion therefore not allowing you to push off while inverted. From the video it looks like once you get inverted you don't (for a lack of a better word) pull yourself into the hand stand at the top, or as the pole is recoiling so that you can get that good upside down push off which will get you higher results holding on right where you're at. I'd like to see what you do with a crossbar up. Hopefully someone will write what I'm trying to say in "polevaulty" terms so you can do what I think you need to do. Later..............Mike

[VaultMarq26]

your are also fiber-faced (your bottom hand is on your forehead at takeoff) This is causing your hips to get ahead of your chest.

[MightyMouse]

my 2cents: Your taking off in, your foot is flat when the pole starts to bend, try moving your step back, or not overstriding when taking off. Theres not much video of your run up, but it looks a bit like your reaching out with your feet, instead of "clawing" the ground, to maximize power with short contact with the ground.

Also at take off, your right arm is bent real crazy, think about taking off tall.


I wouldnt mess with your top, its looks rly good
Hope this helps
Jump High!

[altius]

AS MM says you do a lot of things well -at the top of the vault - BUT you are taking off under -taking off flat and your right arm is weak -in fact it looks as though the whole body is soft when it hits the pole.. This in turn suggests to me that the pole you are using is nowhere near big enough and this is why you are dying on the top -even though as MM says you dont look too bad there.

So it is back to basics - tight cadence over last six steps to get tall , claw strike take off foot to at least get it beneath the top hand, strong STRONG body with HIGH right hand at take off, finish the upspringing take off to set up second phase -- the swing. This will allow you to use a much bigger pole and then you will ping off the top. Simple really!

[souleman]

Thanks for chiming in Altius, I saw what I saw but didn't know where to start to help him out. It's like you say, a series of little things done right which add up to the big thing..........or something like that (my words for things that came out of your head). I knew he had to do things before the top to get the top and as you say "the ping". Later...........Mike

[Stensol]

Matthew, if you provide more information about yourself here, then I'm sure you'll get even more responses that can help you out.

Let me give it a crack without knowing anything else but what I see on your video. My guess is that you're about 5'7", weigh between 135-145, and are on about a 15/140 or something close. Read carefully what altius has suggested above. If I'm anywhere close on the stats above, and you follow his advice, then I'd say you have the tools to eventually hold up to 6 inches higher (or even more) than you are now on a 15/165 - at least. HOWEVER, you (and your coach) are really going to have to put in a lot of work on your run, plant, and take-off before being able to master a pole with a test weight way over your own body weight. The concepts are probably not rocket science, as altius points out, but you gotta get your body to get the right neuro-muscular patterns down. This requires many, many repetitions and could take you a while to incorporate into your full-run technique. Applying the principles altius suggests will allow you to "exploit the recoil" and thus jump a considerable margin over your grip height. Take a look at video of Yelena Isinbayeva when you get a chance. See how she gets that explosion off the top of the pole? That could be you! You have the gymnastic ability to get your body in the right position in the final stages of the jump. I think she weighs about 130 lbs. and is on a pole with a test weight of 170 (I believe it's a 14'7" pole).

There are volumes of great technical information here on PVP. Are you familiar with agapit's "manifesto"? If not, take a look at that and see what you think. That's just one example of some stimulating technical ideas you can find in this Forum. Best of luck to you!

[Mecham]

Hey,
Everything that people have posted so far has been awesome to help you out. I think especially Stensol's last post. I want to point a video to you about you're take off. http://www.stabhoch.com/movies/20010809_Markov_595.mov It is Dimitry Markov's 5.95m jump. I want you to look at his take off foot compared to your take off foot. Frame by frame. When Markov's pole just starts to bend, he is almost a whole foot off the ground! When you have the same amount of bend in the pole, you are still flat on your foot. I know this is pretty obvious but still it makes a ginormous difference.

You and i have the same problem with our last few steps. We stride out and and jam our left foot. We both run in front of ourselves. Our body is trying to keep up with our legs, and our legs want to out run our body. Again if you compare your take off with the markov clip. you can see when he plants his foot on the ground, he is almost completley over the top of it. You are streeeeching you're last foot out and you are behind your foot. So basically i'm repeating everyone when i say clawstrike. But that doesnt mean really anything to just say it. How do you learn to do it on the run way? Easy. These two drills will help you out a lot. I call one of them quick feet, or a-skips, reaction drill, or whatever. But basically the drill is to kinda just move forward, Pretend you have a small rod coming out of your knees, bring your leg up around the rod and snap (clawstrike) it down back into place. Do that with both legs. The next one is called 20-20's. I learned them from Alan (altius). You might want to ask him for a better explanation because i suck at them (if you couldn't already tell).
With working on those two drills your run and take off will improve. You won't sink your hips in, your hands will be high at take off, you won't get fiber headed, you will have the opportunity to finish the take off and swing the heck out of the pole and get verticle. I dont think your top is that great right now. But that is because you dont have a great bottom. Once your butt, i mean bottom half improves your top will look better and you will get a push off the top. You will move up poles majorly when you get your run down.



Now i need to take my own advice.

[matthew2]

I'm 5'6 135 thats a 14' 150 holding 13'4-13'6 not exactly sure. I've another video with a crossbar I'll get and post whenever I can, might possibly have more run.

[Stensol]

Thanks for the info, Matthew. Your penultimate step looks OK, with a nice early plant. However, as the others have pointed out, you're reaching with your take-off foot to a spot that puts you under. Also, even though your plant is early enough, you don't get great extension of the top arm. Both of these elements means you're losing pole energy.

Punch that plant high and upwards from a non-reaching take-off. If you can get that down better soon, then you'll be ready to try gripping perhaps 13'8" on a 14x155. Your take-off leg swing to the top hand is actually in pretty damn good shape, so stay in control at the top of your vault with your legs and 14'6" should be in the bag for you real soon!

Moving up to 14'7" or 15' poles will come with the run/plant/take-off work that you need to do. A piece of advice: Take a close look at the top women pole vaulters today. Ask yourself what enables some of them to vault 15' or higher with about the same grip height as you.

[fx]

For one thing, you are under, the pole is bent before you are even off of the ground. As a result, your hips come through too quickly, instead of you holding the takeoff and keeping the hips back. Your swing and inversion look good, but your top is not active. It looks like you are just waiting to get shot up instead of trying to pull the pole along your body and then punch up into a kind of handstand on your pole.