The Drop-Tip Technique

This is a forum to discuss advanced pole vaulting techniques. If you are in high school you should probably not be posting or replying to topics here, but do read and learn.
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altius
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Unread postby altius » Tue May 10, 2005 2:12 pm

Go to Chapters 22 and 23 in BTB.
Its what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden

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Unread postby altius » Wed May 11, 2005 12:51 am

A sage once said "If your enemy has a good idea, steal it!"

Surely the good ideas in the vault eminate from the Petrov/Bubka technical model. IF you accept this notion, take a closer look at Bubkas pole carry and plant -and try to steal it! They make the idea of the drop tip model seem ridiculous and certainly confirm that Bubka did begin a gradual lowering ot the pole from the beginning of the run . Look at any video of him and check out figures 6.1 through 6.6 in BTB. They were taken at the 95 World Champs on Gothenburg. However there is little doubt that Petrov believes that the lowering of the pole over the last six steps helps the athlete increase the cadence of their run up at a crucial point - this is one of the advantages of this method over the pole pushing approach which seems to have begun a comeback in the the USA - for some peculiar reason!

Thought for the day. "Sok kicsi socra megy". Hungarian saying
Its what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden

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altius
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Unread postby altius » Fri May 13, 2005 8:20 pm

Since no one has responded to this post - I will go on and reply to Kirk. If the only criteria for the width of your grip is how comfortable the pole feels in the run up - you are going down the wrong track! You are also forgetting what petrov and bubka showed us. Remeber that they would be very happy for you to steal their ideas -there are no secrets in the vault as far as they are concerned.

Since the run, carry and plant are only a means to an end ie an effective take off - they chose to use a NARROW grip -as becca suggested - they did this because this is the best way of maximising a high pole ground angle at take off -an important consideration in getting very stiff poles to flex AFTER, not BEFORE take off. To deal wih the problem of torque forces when carrying a long pole with a narrow grip they used an initial high carry, a structured run up and a controlled lowering of the pole -a lowering which was accelerated from around six steps out because petrov believed that this caused the athlete to increase their cadence at a point when this was important -for reasons I will not deal with here. THE TIP WAS NEVER DROPPED! It was always a controlled lowering and positioning of the pole always under control. This makes any discussion of the tip bouncing when it hits the box irrelevant.

This approach to the vault was clearly demonstrated by Tarasov and is demonstrated by markov on every vault. However if you want to understand the limitations of a wide grip take a look at Quinon and Galfione - both Olympic Champions - the latter a 6.00m vaulter in 96. Both have missed the opportunity to maximise pole ground angle at take off and so have missed the chance to jump higher, Galfione did many great things but this one tiny element arguably cost him the chance to jump 6.10.

Perhaps that weird Hungarian bloke was right when he said that small things make difference. ;)
Its what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden


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