PoleVaultPower.com

Clip title is 4/17/2010 6-9 to 10 out at 10-6
http://www.treemo.com/users/Hickman/cha ... m/1032948/

This is my 11th grad High School girl who cleared 10-6 last year and we are working back up to that pole (125lbs 12’) all of this jumps are on a 120lbs 11ft form 6 lefts.
9-6--Make and then the same jump on slow-mo
10-0--Miss
10-0--Miss
10-0--Make
10-6—Miss
She is short but a gymnast; Let me know if you see anything I have missed when I work with her. 10-6 should come this Saturday and then are season goal is 11-6.

Does anyone have suggestions for 11ft? Change of pole? Work on speed?...

From what I saw. She's great in the air. Those little gymnast-types (especially female) are so good in the air, it's all natural for them.

Her plant isn't up whatosever. It looks like her bottom-arm collapses and she fiber-heads it right off the bat. She's basically muscling the entire vault. I think she needs to really work on driving on her plant/take-off. She needs to hold her plant up just a hair longer. There are some good drills though that can help this. 1 is plant boxes. Have her do 2-4-6 step plant boxes and really have her concentrate on staying tall and driving. Her mindset should be to drive the slide box as far as possible, but make sure she isn't lunging or caving her chest in.

Another good plant drill is to have her take 2 or 3 steps back from the actual box. Have her run, jump, and take-off from that far back. You'll need to hold her trail leg back and steady her back with your other hand. ALWAYS check to make sure it's ok to touch her though, you just never know It's hard to see how she looks though since you'll be spotting her so have another athlete or coach watch from the side or just video tape it.

When she gets a stronger plant, it's going to throw her timing off a bit because she'll have so much more time on the pole and she won't be used to it. This is a GOOD thing because now you'll be able to either move her up poles if she is blowing through it or she'll figure it out and start popping off 12' jumps.

Her gymnastic experience is quite obvious ... I've never seen a girl at this level (10-6) have such a GREAT swing/extension! She's extremely precocious!

Tincup1215 wrote: Her plant isn't up whatosever. It looks like her bottom-arm collapses and she fiber-heads it right off the bat. She's basically muscling the entire vault. I think she needs to really work on driving on her plant/take-off. She needs to hold her plant up just a hair longer. ...

I concur with her poor plant. She needs to stretch it up as high as possible.

Her bottom arm DOES collapse, but I think that's just fine. It's GOOD for it to collapse! It's the top hand that's bending the pole ... as she proves.

Altho I'm sure she has good strength ... from gymnastics presumably ... I don't see her muscling much at all. She really does have a nice swing ... which SWINGS her into an inverted position ... and then she has an absolutely GREAT extension ... straight up ... coming off the pole! Her secret to this is in her SWING ... not in her MUSCLES.

Her run needs the most work. I guess the pole's so light that she's able to carry it quite far ahead of her body. Instead, she should be carrying it closer to her body. Maybe teach her this with a heavier pole (pole runs) and THEN go back to her lighter pole for vaulting?

With the improved pole carry, she will need a different style of plant ... one wherein she plants the pole closer to her body, rather than in front of her body. And of course, the plant needs to be ALL THE WAY UP. Experiment with various drills ... such as planting on the ground into a towel (I don't like planting boxes) and JUMPING off the ground as the top arm is EXTENDING. The timing of this is what she needs to improve most ... with the intent of having a better body angle on takeoff ... straight up-and-down or slight forwards lean ... not a backwards lean.

I know that once she gets this part of her vault fixed, the rest of the vault ... the downswing and then the upswing and inversion will come quite natural to her ... you don't have to teach that at all ... she already HAS that part of the vault down pat.

Kirk

She is at least 12" under - that makes it impossible for her to maximise her strength - the swing - which is inevitably shortened. Improve that - she can grip up at least 6" on a bigger pole.