Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

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Tim McMichael
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Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby Tim McMichael » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:48 pm

While I believe that the proper actions that would cause a free takeoff are essential, it is a fact that Bubka himself was only able to accomplish the physical feat of having his takeoff foot actually off the ground before the pole began to take load on a small percentage of jumps. Yet his vault was still spectacular even when this did not happen. I personally saw him nearly set a world record while fighting an under takeoff for the entire meet. What I am trying to point out is that if the greatest athlete to every employ this method could only achieve perfection with it occasionally, I don't believe we can expect, for instance, a young man with a 15' PR to achieve it on every vault.

I believe there are two risks here. The first is that an athlete with an improving approach and takeoff might become discouraged because he does not see his toe off the ground before the pole bends. The second is that an athlete may achieve what looks like a free takeoff by simply forcing himself to take off outside, which is disastrous. Some while back, I saw a picture of a young man with his takeoff foot more than 8" off the ground accompanied by the triumphant expression of the belief that he had mastered a free takeoff. He was griping 15'6" and jumping 16'. The only conclusion I could draw was that he had focused on the appearance of a free takeoff to the exclusion of the actual method of approach and plant that will occasionally, in a very great athlete, result in a free takeoff. The picture was impressive, but I am almost certain that the rest of the vault was broken and had almost no pole speed at the top.

On the other hand, I just recently worked with a young man who surprised me by very quickly developing about as good an approach and plant as could be expected of someone with his ability and experience. His vault, while ragged around the edges, had all the right elements in place, and I could see nothing but a very long stretch of consistent improvement in his future. He was familiar with what a free takeoff looked like before I started working with him, and for a long time had been focused exclusively on the fact that his toe was not off the ground before the pole started bending. He had become discouraged, and was in danger of losing the sense of accomplishment that is so important to the learning process. I told him the story of Bubka beating me by more than a foot while furious with himself for being sometimes as much as a foot under on his takeoff the entire evening; which I believe proves that the actions that will produce a free takeoff are still very effective, even when the actual free takeoff does not occur. The results for this young man have been very positive, not the least of which is that he has had some jumps with only his toe on the ground when the pole began to load.

This may bear on the lager issue of focusing on results instead of causes, which is a problem that applies to other things.

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby dj » Wed Mar 21, 2012 7:28 pm

hey Tim,

thanks for sharing this... there is no doubt in my mind that this is the right perspective for a "free takeoff"..

you have the experience, knowledge and "feel' from your jumping to support your explainations and points…

I have always said… the coach has to see what the athlete is feeling…. The athlete has to feel what the coach is trying to teach… only when that happens do we get the maximum result..

Thanks

dj

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby tsorenson » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:04 pm

Tim, you always have good things to say, in a well-thought out manner. Thank you!

I agree with what you are saying. It reminds me of one of Rick Baggett's comments, which are usually concise but insightful: "...it's not where you are, it's what you are doing..."

Good to not obsess over the takeoff mark, but rather make sure you are running fast, jumping, and driving up through the takeoff. We've all had plenty of "out" takeoffs that resulted in a very bad, even dangerous jumps due to a lack of follow through. And we've all had lots of under jumps that turned out great, because we executed the motion of the vault with confidence and no hesitation. Bjorn Otto is a good example of this!

I find that it's very challenging to keep my drive knee up when I do achieve a free takeoff, and so it's hard to achieve the same vertical position on the top of the pole, but the COM height and penetration are still there. I see this effect on Markov's WC jumps where the dropped knee slows down his swing, but his free takeoff still lets him clear 6.05 even without getting totally vertical. Bubka was amazing at keeping the knee up even when out...still working on that one.

Cheers,
Tom

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby AVC Coach » Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:56 pm

You guys make some good points. About 4 years ago, I went crazy over the free take-off, trying to get all of my kids to achieve it. Some did, some didn't. I found that some athletes are just not physically capable of it. The kids that could achieve it improved quite a bit on their swing and moved much stiffer poles but they couldn't hit the free take-off everytime. We still keep that as our goal though.

You can't deny the concept of taking off the ground with no connections to planet earth that can cause deceleration. I know there have been many success stories both ways but I can't help but feel that if you have the ability to do it, you should.

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that you don't have to be "out" to make this happen. Your hand placement when the pole tip makes contact with the box has a lot to do with it too.

Just my thoughts....

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby dj » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:01 am

hey

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that you don't have to be "out" to make this happen. Your hand placement when the pole tip makes contact with the box has a lot to do with it too.


Morry this is an excellent point... i have observed Bubka "under' but move the "hands' so the pole didn't "catch" him before he could "impluse" up...

the "action" is more important than the "exact" point.......

dj

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby dj » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:07 am

Becca

how do i get "PV Psycho" off my avatar!!!

please

I'm just dj or coach

dj

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Re: Free Takeoff Cause and Effect

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:46 am

dj wrote:Becca

how do i get "PV Psycho" off my avatar!!!

please

I'm just dj or coach

dj


It'll change eventually, I promise!


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