an individual who kicks a ball with the right foot is predominantly left footed...
that has been my "logic" since 1966........ but wasn't the common "logic" being passed around the world in the early days of my competitive and coaching career. Don't know if i can find the printed articles from those days but we had a lot of right foot takeoff long jumpers base on some "predetermined" coach or bio-mechanist "thinking".
But i do think we are on the same page... to change or not to change this athlete at this point should be determined by the coach and athlete based on the "feel" and function at this point.... provided the athletes "feel' has not already been altered by training a specific way.
Bruce Jenner. For some reason way back in the early days of my coaching career and even at the end of my competitive career i was asked, along with a handful of knowledgeable coaches, what i though from a "physics" standpoint of Bruce jumping (over 16 feet) with a right hand grip and a right foot takeoff.
Side bar..to "quantify" why i was in a position to be asked by some pretty good coaches my opinion. From my first year in college i "researched" physics, physiology and every type of "human" movement in sports, (even researched animals to compare to humans- the cheetah was my idol) from throwing a football, to speed, to jumping to strength. From the first NAIA national championship i went to, indoor and out, i went to the "clinics" with the coaches. I took notes from coaches like Payton Jordan, Wilbur Ross, Bob Timmons, Jimmy Carnes and coaches that i don't know their names that coached Jim Hines, Bob Beamon, Jeff Bennett, John Pennel, Bruce Jenner, Mike Mattox, John Craft, Jan Johnson, Oliver "Bubba" Ford and many more. I knew i was going to coach after my running/jumping career.
So i was asked about Bruce, by this time i was in Florida with the Florida Track Club, 1971. I had already "studied" and "tested" what he was doing. I never wanted anyone to have something that could make me better as an athlete or coach.
Advantage or disadvantage? First answer was it was virtually impossible to do on steel (remember real fibreglass vaulting was less than 10 years old.) why could he do it on successfully on fibreglass? My thoughts and answers were this.. he still had the plant up, he could still "jump" and transfer the "momentum" on to the pole and the pole would "move" away" from him so he didn't smack into it like he would on steel. Would a left takeoff foot be better, probably from a "reach up" stand point butt what was the greatest advantage to fibreglass??? My answer.. shortening the radius of the pole so you could swing easier into the pit but still have a higher "ending" hand grip to swing from, resulting in potentially higher vaults.
The discussion ended with probably not enough advantage to change at this point.
Could Stacy have had a better run if she carried the pole as a "rightie" and jumped from her left? That is something that should have been determined in her first couple of months of vaulting.
dj