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I'm having a problem with bending/pulling with my right arm during jumps. An old habit from high school days 38 years ago when I had zero coaching and picked up bad habits.

Started up vaulting again a few months ago at 56 and can't seem to shake it. I have coaching now and am doing my drills regularly - called Phase I and Phase II by my coach. But, during jumps I go back to old bad habits.

Was wondering if someone else out there has had this problem and if they were able to overcome it and how.

a short video of a jump below.

Thanks. Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmJL0O0IGBA

To post videos, you need to upload them to another site like YouTube, then post the link here.

It's a fairly common problem with masters vaulters, in my experience.

Pulling with the right arm to impart more bend in the pole was a technique used by Dave Tork, a world record holder in the early 1960's.

Yes Dave Tork did indeed set a world record of 4.93m in 1962? I believe. However the danger of using vaulters of that period as models - and I am not suggesting that is what you are saying - becomes clear when you realise that Svetlana Feofanova - all 5'3", and a little bit, of her -jumped 4.90M - and she was definitely not pulling with her top hand to bend the pole -at take off at least. She was using the top hand to drive the pole up and forward - to move it and not to bend it and that point. Of course as the athlete swings on the pole the top hand does load the pole but not through any definite attempt to make it bend. It just happens as the centripetal forces generated by the swing are transmitted to the pole through the top hand.

So while it is often very difficult to alter over learned movement patterns it is worth trying to change this element of your technique. To do that you go even further back into history, to the point where the world record holder - say Warmerdam - tried to rotate the pole up and forward at take off. Start at the beginning in a sand pit, jumping from two steps with the focus on driving the pole up and forward - and continually increasing your grip height. When you begin to max out there - i.e. you cannot get the pole past the vertical - go to four steps, then six. Use a rubber band on the pole to check your max grip height in each stage as it moves up and measure and record that height as the target for the next session. Improving grip height reflects that fact that you are improving your take off - and off course any attempt to pull with the top hand on a stiff pole will destroy the take off. This is an autocorrecting drill.

Added a short video of a jump from a couple of days ago. See original post above. Mike

At this very early stage of your comeback I would focus on a better swing with both your legs and a pull turn push over the bar.

What is obvious to me is your left arm is on the "wrong" side of the pole or you are getting stuck with your left armpit. That stops your swing, bam ! Then impedes any chance to get inverted. Practice pop ups getting the left arm through and try to get inverted. It appeared that your top arm was straight until you pulled or "rowed" over the bar. All that aside, great job! Don't think about pulling or turning until you are satisfied with your progress getting inverted.

While more modern technique does not advocate the bottom elbow being on the outside of the pole, many a world class vaulter did just that with great success.

If you study Warmerdam to Uelses, their lower elbows were on the outside, not the inside of the pole.

By the way, their invertions were adequate enough to generate 3 foot push offs. You are mistaken to think a swing up cannot occur.

One other observation is the take off position and foot are much later than the plug contacting the back of the box. This creates a passive phase (re: continuous chain). As far as the left arm position on the outside ("wrong") quote unquote side of the pole, I don't believe that the "model" advocates this technique. I was told in 1978 to let my left arm go through.

Ritter's pulling/rowing with the top arm is an effort to lift his hips over. Not to try and bend the pole as stated in an earlier post. More practice with a good approach plant and swing and don't try so hard just to get over the bar. So lower it to 7'0 or 7'6" and work on not lifting your butt over the bar but swing and clear the bar.

I would not encourage a beginning vaulter to work on the pull, turn and push until they master the progressions of run, plant and swing. I don't even have them push the pole back in the early stages because they will let go with their top hand or throw the pole back before their hips are as high as they can get them. Break it off one piece at a time. In the spirit of learning and mutual respect, I'll take a look at Warmerdam and the other video.

You are absolutely correct on the left arm position of Warmerdam and Uelses. I stand corrected. Here is a link to a related video. John has helped me at masters meets. This video is a couple of years old. John is 62 in this video. We can still set our sights high and to the future with people like John. http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/62-year- ... g-11106461

altius wrote: Start at the beginning in a sand pit, jumping from two steps with the focus on driving the pole up and forward - and continually increasing your grip height. When you begin to max out there - i.e. you cannot get the pole past the vertical - go to four steps, then six. Use a rubber band on the pole to check your max grip height in each stage as it moves up and measure and record that height as the target for the next session. Improving grip height reflects that fact that you are improving your take off - and off course any attempt to pull with the top hand on a stiff pole will destroy the take off. This is an autocorrecting drill.

Please disregard my previous posts and refer to this section of Altius post. Also I suggest the book" Beginner to Bubka and Isenbeyeva too" . The video shows the beginner drills, great starting point. (I again stand corrected).

The cheque is in the mail!