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When you're getting that much pole speed, you should begin to grip up as needed.

You are pulling. Stop that... "The solution is not to pull in, it is to extend more." (quoted - roughly - from Petrov)

You must stay behind the pole. You can not swing (in a good way) if you don't stay behind the pole. What do you think creates the bend in a pole? Perhaps you already know that it is inertia channeled through the top hand, but perhaps you don't realized that you can not transfer this inertia efficiently without staying behind the pole.

Stop aiming for height. Aim for a take-off into a good swing.

Keep the videos coming.

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Pole speed is the angular momentum of the pole. If your pole rotates onto the pit quickly, you have a high pole speed. In order to work on the swing, you must have good pole speed, but you must have enough time to swing! To do that, what do you think you should do? Raise your grip! Can you tell me 4 factors that would slow pole speed if you raise your grip? Can you tell me 1 that increases pole speed if you raise your grip? (NOBODY try to answer that except for ATCG. Please. Thank you.)

The goal is to move the pole. How do you move the pole in the vault? You PUSH it up and forward (with your top hand ONLY). There should be no attempt to do anything with the bottom hand. (It does do something other than help you stay balanced behind the pole, but you can concern yourself with that in a year or so. It would straight up stop your progress dead if you started to think about it at this stage in your development. You shouldn't even think about it anyway, regardless. So for now, don't go browsing through any of agapit's threads, ok? For you, for now, the left arm should do nothing except help to keep you behind the pole.)

If you stay behind the pole, are gripping high enough on soft enough of a pole, (and the pre-bend is facing the correct way of course,) the pole will flex quite a bit.

EDIT: Raise your grip up in small increments until you can still land safely in the pit, but have plenty of time to swing. (Remember that if you raise your grip, your run needs to be moved back a few inches/proportionally to however much you raised your grip up. Does that make sense?) Now, simply: run, plant, jump, STAY BEHIND THE POLE, and swing. Try Jagodins too, which are: run, plant, jump, stay behind the pole, ride the pole into the pit. That way you can focus mainly on staying behind the pole.

I would like you to try to answer my question though... I think you can get most of them if you really think about it!

PP you need to calm down, this kid is obviously new to the wonderful sport of pole vaulting and your scaring him away with you pole vault jargon.

to Atribe, to clarify a little bit what PP was saying.....

1. stay behind the pole through the jump
2. raise your grip so that you have time to swing, your pole is moving too fast from when you plant it from when you land(pole speed) thus you must raise grip to make it move slower

i must go to school but heres a little bit of info. ill edit it later

Yeah KB PMed me and said the same thing... I'm a little too 'excited' I guess. I just want to get him to think! I will simplify my future responses.

alrite nice edit, yeah you were going a little overboard haha

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I noticed I was getting the pole to bend, but I also noticed that I have no idea what I'm doing once I make that happen.

The same thing as when the pole was not bending: stay behind it, don't pull, keep your drive-knee up, trail-leg long, etc.

More specifically, although I'm higher on the bar and bending it, I don't feel like I'm getting higher because I'm upright most of the time.

You mean the pole?

Upright? That's a good thing. You want to stay 'long' as you take-off and begin to swing, which makes me worried about your next comment:

I'm not quite sure when you are supposed to tuck into the drive swing.

What does that mean? All you need to do is run, plant, jump, and immediately swing! Make sure you 'finish' your take-off... that is, point your toe back down the runway after you jump, really pushing up and away. By then, the pole tip will have hit the back of the box, and you should immediately swing LONG... no tucking, and no driving of any sort. Tell me when Bubka 'tucks into the drive swing'... ? Teriminology IS inconsistent (terms for the same thing often vary from coach to coach), but I'm sure you've been reading/listening to/watching something anti-Petrovian. Who/what told you that you should 'tuck into the drive swing'?

And you should really get some standards. Trust me, I thought they were a bad idea too, but I do think that they're beneficial.

And did you think about my 'grip/pole speed' question?

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ATribeCalledGreg wrote:So basically what you're saying is that the athlete once they jump and the pole is bending should "swing long" and do what exactly? Aim with both legs like they are kicking the air straight ahead of them? I'm just trying to get a clearer mental picture because sometimes what you tell your body to do and what it looks like you're doing is different.

the swing phase should go from ....at take off your take off leg(leg you jump with) in your case left because your a righty, should be straight and your body should from a nice "C" shape (having a slight curve going from your head to your trail leg( your left foot).

so at this point you are off the ground with the "C" shaped body and the pole is bending, you should feel some sort of force pushing you forward and you swing, trying to keep that trail leg straight, some people "tuck" the legs but Petrov model forbids! the trail leg should get all the way to the top of your pole, then you drop your shoulders and you are inverted.

however for you i would focus on staying behind the pole and getting the "C" shaped body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81rASVhFR4U
^good video for you

I actually don't like the way he does those... I hate to sound like a braggart, but you should check out my recently posted video if you want to see how to do that drill correctly (the BEST correctly).

the athlete appears to tuck in and bring their knees closer to their chest like someone does when they do a backflip.

Only the not-so-good ones do that right away, like I think you're suggesting. It shouldn't happen period, but some very good vaulters do/did 'tuck and shoot' (they only 'tuck' after a very nice long swing!). You CAN jump over 6m with a tuck and shoot... But it is easier to use the Petrov model. I will not outline the entire model for you, because it is long, and has been done already. Do you have 80 bucks to spare? I promise, you'll get your money's worth right away...