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After the initial takeoff, with the drive knee and the trail leg, why isn't it good to relax and drop the right knee (for a righty) back down to where the left leg is, then start swinging. If done correctly, it shouldnt affect the takeoff, it should help keep the hips back, and the swing should add more energy into the system because there are now two legs swinging.

if you relax the right leg and drop it, you are killing some momentum right there

fx wrote:After the initial takeoff, with the drive knee and the trail leg, why isn't it good to relax and drop the right knee (for a righty) back down to where the left leg is, then start swinging. If done correctly, it shouldnt affect the takeoff, it should help keep the hips back, and the swing should add more energy into the system because there are now two legs swinging.

i broke 5 poles doing that... and it is very bad because it loads the pole too much (hence the breaking)

the drive knee keeps your foreward/upward momentum so you jump higher. why drop it when that only forces your momentum down, so you jump lower????

basically yea, your center of gravity and your body is gonna follow the path your knee drive makes for it, if it makes an angle into the box, thats where your body wants to go. If you aim it forward/upward thats where you will go.

Oh yeah I didnt really even think about the momentum that this leg drop would cause, I thought is would be more gradual and like a passive lowering instead of conciously dropping it down. I was basically thinking that this would help you to have a more powerful swing, as two swinging legs generates more force than one.

fx wrote:Oh yeah I didnt really even think about the momentum that this leg drop would cause, I thought is would be more gradual and like a passive lowering instead of conciously dropping it down. I was basically thinking that this would help you to have a more powerful swing, as two swinging legs generates more force than one.

well yes it would, but in the big picture you want to go UP and IN to the jump. The drive knee and a correct take off will get you directly to what you want to do, and you dont want to change that no matter what. The straight swinging trail leg is like gods bonus to pole vaulting, giving you oportunity to add more force into the pole.... but not at the expense of losing the UP and IN momentum you have with the drive knee. It took my coach 3 days and probably 30 examples of drills to prove that same point to me, haha.