PoleVaultPower.com

There's the problem!

Get yourself a stiff pole and do some sand work! Judging on the degree of difficulty you're having with your strides/take-off, you should be spending a heck of a lot more time in the sand than on the pit.

BadMotherVaulter wrote: ... If anyone wants the quicktime file of that first jump, let me know because you can slow it down much better with that. ...

If you have QuickTime vids, you should ALWAYS publish those to youtube. That way, viewers can step thru your jumps frame by frame - just by tapping the left and right arrow keys.

I would expect that the quality of our comments will increase too, since we can see EVERY frame in stop action!

I have an app to download youtube vids and convert them to QuickTime, but quite frankly, it takes way too long for me to do this for each and every vid analysis.

I think the onus should be on the person publishing their vid to use QuickTime - since they get the benefit of the analysis from EVERYONE. i.e. Why should each viewer/commenter convert the vids, when the publisher (you!) can do it once for all of us.

Kirk

KirkB wrote:

BadMotherVaulter wrote: ... If anyone wants the quicktime file of that first jump, let me know because you can slow it down much better with that. ...

If you have QuickTime vids, you should ALWAYS publish those to youtube. That way, viewers can step thru your jumps frame by frame - just by tapping the left and right arrow keys.

I would expect that the quality of our comments will increase too, since we can see EVERY frame in stop action!

I have an app to download youtube vids and convert them to QuickTime, but quite frankly, it takes way too long for me to do this for each and every vid analysis.

I think the onus should be on the person publishing their vid to use QuickTime - since they get the benefit of the analysis from EVERYONE. i.e. Why should each viewer/commenter convert the vids, when the publisher (you!) can do it once for all of us.

Kirk

...you can do that?
HAHA i really didn't even know....

Let me get on that and get back with you.

*EDIT* I've been searching around youtube and have NO clue how to do this... anyone want to help me out?

Ahhh now that we see your attempts at fixing your over-striding, we are making progress!!

The reason you are able to swing well in the first video is that overstriding causes your trail leg is be thrown much farther behind you than when you run efficiently. It FORCES you to stay behind the pole (at the sacrifice of more impulse off the ground) because running with larger steps inevitably throws each foot farther behind you than it should go. In the second video, you have gotten your feet underneath you so much more, and you have much more impulse at take off. Problem is, now you cant FORCE yourself to be behind the pole, and your hips "get sucked under" right off the ground. The solution is to get behind the pole farther, and once the pole makes contact, you need to accelerate your hips, instead of fighting your hips, to move them around the pole.

It's impossible to rely on your speed when you run from 6 steps (or 3L, whatever), and your speed can force your trail leg back and penetration as well. Instead, I would take PP's advice on the sand, working on staying far behind the pole. Make sure your top hand is directly over your head and you should feel the space between you and your bottom hand. If you have the facilities to do so, go back and forth between sand and pit, and dont change anything. When you get on a flexible pole, just move your step out so that you have a chance to be behind the pole before you swing, and remember that you should not rely on speed, but instead precision from 3L (and 10L for that reason, but its absolutely necessary from 3).

Just remember that sand vaulting is great to help you stay behind that pole, but once the pole makes contact with the sand or the box, you have finished your jump as much as possible, and you should be swinging from that point. You can delay this swing by allowing your shoulders to become flexible, but not by much. So getting behind the pole BEFORE it makes contact is essential. If your hips are in front of your hands at all when the pole makes contact, you are fighting an uphill battle from that point on.

vault3rb0y wrote:Ahhh now that we see your attempts at fixing your over-striding, we are making progress!!

The reason you are able to swing well in the first video is that overstriding causes your trail leg is be thrown much farther behind you than when you run efficiently. It FORCES you to stay behind the pole (at the sacrifice of more impulse off the ground) because running with larger steps inevitably throws each foot farther behind you than it should go. In the second video, you have gotten your feet underneath you so much more, and you have much more impulse at take off. Problem is, now you cant FORCE yourself to be behind the pole, and your hips "get sucked under" right off the ground. The solution is to get behind the pole farther, and once the pole makes contact, you need to accelerate your hips, instead of fighting your hips, to move them around the pole.

It's impossible to rely on your speed when you run from 6 steps (or 3L, whatever), and your speed can force your trail leg back and penetration as well. Instead, I would take PP's advice on the sand, working on staying far behind the pole. Make sure your top hand is directly over your head and you should feel the space between you and your bottom hand. If you have the facilities to do so, go back and forth between sand and pit, and dont change anything. When you get on a flexible pole, just move your step out so that you have a chance to be behind the pole before you swing, and remember that you should not rely on speed, but instead precision from 3L (and 10L for that reason, but its absolutely necessary from 3).

Just remember that sand vaulting is great to help you stay behind that pole, but once the pole makes contact with the sand or the box, you have finished your jump as much as possible, and you should be swinging from that point. You can delay this swing by allowing your shoulders to become flexible, but not by much. So getting behind the pole BEFORE it makes contact is essential. If your hips are in front of your hands at all when the pole makes contact, you are fighting an uphill battle from that point on.

So basically... work in the sand... and be leaned more forward at takeoff while also concentrating on getting my strides right... right?

I'm not sure about being "more leaned forward"... That sounds a little "off", I don't know.

But yes, you must start working in the sand (and on the track too) with a stiff pole!

Here's what I see:

Looking at all of your runs, it's clear that the entire weight of the pole is out in front of your center of mass. This is causing you to control the pole drop, elongating your strides at the box.

Watch your right hand in the video. It stays next to your hip throughout the run. Balance the pole and your run will balance itself. Until you can fix this, your last few strides are not going to change.

On your swing ups, don't let your trail leg pass your drive leg.

AVC Coach wrote:Here's what I see:

Looking at all of your runs, it's clear that the entire weight of the pole is out in front of your center of mass. This is causing you to control the pole drop, elongating your strides at the box.

Watch your right hand in the video. It stays next to your hip throughout the run. Balance the pole and your run will balance itself. Until you can fix this, your last few strides are not going to change.

On your swing ups, don't let your trail leg pass your drive leg.

Thanks for taking a look... I know i really need to work on a free pole drop along with everything else.
Its one of my demons i guess... But i'll get it. Someday.

Looking at all of your runs, it's clear that the entire weight of the pole is out in front of your center of mass. This is causing you to control the pole drop, elongating your strides at the box.

Watch your right hand in the video. It stays next to your hip throughout the run. Balance the pole and your run will balance itself. Until you can fix this, your last few strides are not going to change.

A little heavy on the technical stuff, but this will give you all the information you'll ever need about this (especially the beginning):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 931901117#

That video's good for technical advice, but i wouldnt bother with that unless you have a month to really conceptualize it. Keep it simple- free pole drop. It's the only way to truly get your steps under you, unless the pole you use is less than about 1 Ib. AVC Coach is right, and any sand vaulting or run work is only going to be getting you CLOSER to the ideal, but without a free pole drop it wont happen. I only avoided that conversation because you said you'd had that carry since birth, and i figured you wouldn't want to hear me say you have to fix that to vault high from 3 steps!

vault3rb0y wrote:That video's good for technical advice, but i wouldnt bother with that unless you have a month to really conceptualize it. Keep it simple- free pole drop. It's the only way to truly get your steps under you, unless the pole you use is less than about 1 Ib. AVC Coach is right, and any sand vaulting or run work is only going to be getting you CLOSER to the ideal, but without a free pole drop it wont happen. I only avoided that conversation because you said you'd had that carry since birth, and i figured you wouldn't want to hear me say you have to fix that to vault high from 3 steps!

Haha... I want to hear what's going to get me over 5m.

It's sounding like the first step is my pole drop.

This thread is interesting... I started it thinking i was doing terrible, then i started feeling like i was close to being where i need to be on my vault... then i went back to feeling like i'm doing terribly again.

I concur on the pole drop. AVC knows his stuff!

Kirk