Free Takeoff Cause and Effect
Posted: 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.
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.