A Recent Barn Burner

[ADTF Academy]

Ok! Before I begin I just want to state I don't coach this or never have.


Who was the first person to stat the takeoff is Right hand & right knee or Left hand & Left knee.


I had a young vaulter ask me this and the more I thought about it the more I couldn't really see the total logic.


As I ponder this some more I am curious what some of the other coaches and vaulters think why RIGHT RIGHT or LEFT LEFT.

And before you just answer get past the notion of thats how I was taught.

[Skyin' Brian]

an additional question i thing this brings up is: how high has anyone vaulted taking off of the "wrong" foot.

i doubt i'm knowledgeable enought to answer your question, but other movements like making(or missing in my case) a layup in basketball involves jumping off of your left foot with ball in right hand, throwing a baseball right handed is consistant with vaulting in that the weight ends up on your left foot.

[ladyvolspvcoach]

I've never heard it put quite like that before.

[vaultman18]

the extension from the left foot to the right hand is greater than right foot to right hand. Thus allowing for a higher take-off.

[PaulVaulter]

I met a guy once at a pole vault camp, cant remember a name or a country, but he was from abroad and had taught himself to vault, and at that point had vaulted 5.50 or 5.60.

His problem though was that after take-off he swung up the wrong side of the pole.

His top hand was his right hand, he took off, then swung to invert on the left off the pole, must obscure.

Dont think he took off the other foot, but just a story of what can happen in vaulting if not guided by convention.

[ADTF Academy]

Or it shows you how high someone can go doing a lot of things supposedly wrong.

[pvdad81]

I started pole vaulting in the 8th grade. At my first track meet, I started taking off on the wrong foot for some reason. I ended up winning the meet going over the bar butt to the bar. However, my exicement wore off quickly as my coach approached me and told me, "I don't care how high you jump. You're not going to compete again until you can take off right." It hurt my feelings but by the next meet I was doing it right.......Thank God for that coach!