Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-- George Santayana --
There seems to be a blind spot of at least 14 years to many Petrov Model followers - Altius and Agapit included. I trace this back from the late 1960s to about 1981 - when Bubka first vaulted internationally. Though we've had many discussions on the board over the past 5 years to dispell some of these historical inaccuracies, they still seem to persist.
Case in point is Agapit claiming in his New Thinking thread (http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=27165&p=170134&hilit=m640#p170134) that before Bubka came along, vaulters strived to take off "under".
He did clarify his comments by saying that he was referring to RUSSIAN vaulters in the MID 1960s, but this still proves my point that there's at least a 14 year gap in his history of the pole vault, since myself, Isaksson, Roberts, and Tulley did NOT - by any stretch of the imagination - strive to take off "under" in our heydays of 1968-1978 (the period of time from when Isaksson first vaulted on the world stage - in the Mexico City Olympics, no less - to Tulley's 5.71 WR).
While I can understand that Petrov had never heard of myself (I was 8" under Chris Papanicolaou's WR in 1971), I cannot understand why the technique that resulted in the WRs of Isaksson, Roberts, and Tulley have been ignored. Isaksson, Roberts, and Tulley were all Olympians, so their technique should not have been a secret to Petrov - and probably wasn't (since he was such an astute student of the vault who left no technical stone unturned).
Altius does recognize (here: http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25888&p=165709&hilit=slusarski+video#p165709), however, that Tadeusz Slusarski had a free takeoff when he won the Gold in the 1976 Olympics, but it took quite a bit of wrangling for us to jointly discover the old footage that proved this a few years ago. I'm wondering if Agapit has seen this footage? And if he has, if he still thinks that Bubka was the first vaulter to have a free takeoff?
You can see a couple of Isaksson's vids posted on this PVP thread: http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=17391&p=140981&hilit=isaksson+video#p140981. And here's a great vid of all the 1970s vaulter's that I mentioned (credit to Bruce Caldwell): http://www.essxpv.com/the-elusive-bar-remixed/
I'm not trying to stir the pot - I'm merely trying to ensure the historical accuracy of any claims made by Petrov followers that Bubka and Petrov indeed POPULARIZED some of these concepts, but certainly didn't INVENT them.
This is why I also remind the readers on this forum - from time to time - that Kjell Isaksson was the originator of the high pole carry. I may have been the SECOND, but I was certainly not the FIRST! And Isaksson never pushed with his bottom hand in 1971, and neither did I! The shorter distance between our hands (I don't know what Isaksson's was, but mine was 22") was also due to our high pole carries - yet Agapit has written that it was Bubka that first shortened the grip distance between his hands.
I discovered - by copying Isaksson's technique - that I could not only make the pole feel lighter down the runway, but I could also get into a better PLANT position with a higher bottom hand grip, and I could drop the pole almost WEIGHTLESSLY. These are significant advantages that anyone that uses this technique will discover.
Bubka and Petrov may have reached these conclusions independent of myself and Isaksson, but they certainly weren't the first ones to USE that technique - they just POPULARIZED it, due to Bubka's phenomenal success, and due to the publicity that surrounded his success (including the writing of BTB1 and BTB2).
On his new website http://www.m640.com, Agapit says ...
The early leader of this school of thought was Vitaly Petrov, who applied this New Thinking with Bubka with results we all know.
They have transformed the pole vaulting into the athletic event away from circus acrobatic. They have introduced many concepts that today people simply take for granted, for example “free takeoff”, or not resisting the pole with the bottom arm, and some others.
I think recognition by Altius and Agapit of the vaulters of the late 1960s and early 1970s re these historical issues would go a long ways towards their credibility. Personally, I already think they're CREDIBLE - and I love all of their writings - I just think they could be MORE CREDIBLE by being more historically accurate.
Kirk Bryde