SLumps Suk

[uconnvaulta]

I dont know about you, but the worst thing in this sport is being in a slump, and trying to figure your way out of it, right now i have been jumping like crap, i just no heighted this weekend at IC's and the weekend before that only cleared my opening height at conference, which was good enough for third. But how do you guys as a whole get your selves out of slumps, i need to hear some ideas, dop you practice differently , do you think about certain things, what is the best way to go about doing this. I am ready for a breakthru day , which hopefully will becoming to me in two weeks at regionals

[jcoover]

i always try to isolate the problem that I seem to be having. Usually in practice i'll jump at bungees and work on lots of things or at least a few. If im in a slump, ill look at the video, find the main problem and isolate it during practice. For instance, if i'm not finishing my swing i'll put up a high bungee with the standards way forward. If i'm not penetrating ill work on moving my arms almost to the point where you're going overboard to train muscle memory. the key for me tho, has always been VIDEO! hope this helps but if not i hope you find something that helps you get out of that slump i know how that can get frustrating!

[VaultNinja]

I am the slump king.....when it comes to getting into them, getting out is pretty tough.
The mental game of pole vault can be a real killer.
I realize everyone is different and something that works for one person may not work for someone else and vise versa. But I would like to contribute to this topic and here other replies because it hits home for me.

One thing that really helped a few years ago and has continued to help me is rock climbing. I started climbing on a consistant basis a few years ago, fell in love with it and began lead climbing within a few months. For me being out on a big wall is the best way to reset your brain, you completely return to a primative state of mind, climb or fall. I guess it gets you into the fight or flight mode that we all had to learn about in psych 101, but its the truth. After fighting through a few hard climbs that scare the piss out of you, you feel like you can do anything and all of the sudden pole vault seems so easy again. You can just shut your thought process down and let your subconscience take over and all of that drilling and jumping you have been doing for years suddenly meshes together into something amazing.

I'm not saying that climbing is for everyone but more the principal of fear. Forcing youself to do something that scares the living s*** out of you and reseting your brain. You might get hurt.....but what does that matter if your jumping like crap anyway. Vaulters are risk takers.