Hugging the pole!

[Sharif16]

Hello I'm a 2nd year pole vaulter and my current PR is 10feet. I've recently been bending the pole a little bit but right from the plant my hips swing right in front of me and i'm quickly hugging the pole. My top arm is straight but my bottom one not so much. I know my speed and steps are fine but I just can't seem to jump with my chest out. I've been able to get 10feet with this sloppy form but I know to get higher I will need to fix this. Are there any drills I can do to focus on this? It's really frustrating me because I haven't really improved in the last couple weeks. Thankyou.

[KirkB]

Wait a minute. On another thread, you said ...

... Because of this pain I can't really keep my bottom arm straight, therefore, hugging the pole and leading with my hips instead of chest. Even if I have an extremely low grip it's almost impossible to keep my bottom arm straight. ...

Which is it? Are you hugging the pole, or are you trying to keep your bottom arm straight (before you were injured)?

You should not be keeping your bottom arm straight. There's quite a few threads here on PVP discussing this issue. Just search for "push bottom arm".

I'm sorry that you injured a tricep, and I realize I'm not answering your question about how to recover from your injury ... but this may be a good time to reconsider your bottom arm technique. While you're injured, read all you can about whether or not to "keep your bottom arm straight".

Now, if you're NOT trying to keep the bottom arm straight, then I might have different advice for you. Perhaps a vid would help ... to see what you're REALLY doing.

Kirk

[ECvaulter30]

i almost said the same thing on another post of his kirk
(oh and by the way i've been toying with some of agapits 6.40 ideas, and i'm really starting to see a difference in my swing because of it)


are you jumping when you plant or just letting the pole give you a natural swing? letting the pole do the work is prolly whats making your hips advance faster than you want. try jumping when your taking off

[souleman]

I know this is probably easier said than done but you must also concentrate on keeping things going forward and up. If I'm visualizing your situation correctly, you're letting your plant cave in because you're not moving things up and forward. I use a couple of analogies when explaining what I want to my vaulters. The first one is I tell them to picture that I have screwed a 1" X 4" X 2' board to their forehead going straight up in the air. When they plant I want them to keep that top hand in front of the 1X4 not letting it go behind the plain of the imaginary board screwed into his forehead. Next, I'm guessing his body angle his probably in what we'd call an under plant. in other words his feet are ahead of his head. When I see this I'd ask him if he's ever played basketball and done a lay up. Most cases my jumpers will say yes at which point I point out the body position for a correct lay up going forward and up and one where I'm leaning backwards basically going up but pushing off backwards.I ask which one makes for the better lay up. The one moving forward and up is the obvious answer therefore the analogy is in my vaulters head. The plants get better pretty much immediately once I've painted those two pictures. Hope this helps..............Later.................Mike

[Sharif16]

Which is it? Are you hugging the pole, or are you trying to keep your bottom arm straight (before you were injured)?

I'm doing both. I'm hugging the pole and trying to get my bottom arm straight. My coach said it would help me to stop hugging the pole if my bottom arm was a bit more straight...but considering everyone on this thread saying not to keep my bottom arm straight I guess he's wrong. I'll try to get a video of myself to see what else I'm doing wrong.

Also, thanks for the analogies Mike. I especially like the basketball one. I'll think about it first thing tomorrow when I start to vault and remember to jump.

[dnike13]

You are going to have to go back to basics. You are most likely not jumping when you are taking off, it sounds to me (in my amateur opinion) like you are running right under and not jumping up. I had a jumper doing this all winter and it can be a bear to fix. He couldn't even get into the pit, nor could he clear 9'. Wall plants, slide box drills, sand vaulting, and fly-away drills will help you keep your hips back so that you don't go right to your back. You probably are not physically "hugging" the pole, it just appears this way because your hips are moving so fast forward, your bottom hand is probably 2 cm away from your nose, and your top arm is almost in line with your pole. If your doing what my guy did, then the main thing to do is focus on jumping up at your takeoff, probably try straight poling firsts to get a feel for it. Hope this helps