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I'm entering my last year as a collegiate vaulter, and am doing so at a new school. Part of the warm up here involves straight pole drills, which, for whatever reason, I suck out loud at. I am a reasonably successful vaulter (15'3) when bending the pole, I have a pretty good swing, and have hit very big jumps in practice. My question is, if I can vault well when bending the pole, is it worth it to me to invest extra time into these straight pole drills, or will their benefit be far less than I would receive when bending the pole.

If it helps, areas I'm working on
- Moving my takeoff out more (3" inside of plum, want 3-6" outside plum)
- Jumping off the runway more
- Patience at the top during extension, I tend to flag somewhat

Thanks. Peace.

You will learn those three things much faster with a stiff pole from a short run.

"The bending pole allows you to hide technical mistakes." - Bubka

With a stiff pole, problems are exacerbated by a constant cord length. If you aren't doing something nicely, you will feel it right away. Do you have any video?

Basically all I did this Summer as far as jumping goes was with a stiff pole from never more than 4 lefts into the sand... My old seven step grip on the pole I was using has become my comfortable 3 step grip.

yeah, I now what you mean and I agree, absolutely. My only fear is that it would take too much work to get to the point where I even benefit much from the drills. I think my straight pole grip is like 9"6, and my 4 step grip when I bend is 13'6". It's just very frustrating.

What poles are you 3 stepp'n on now?

I can grip around 12'6" on a 13'7" 160 in the sand (with a little bit deeper 'box' than the real box). This is up from maybe 10'. I'll measure if you want me to.

For now, I would tell you to go to the sand and do Jagodins from 1 step. You should be gripping around 10'. Carry the pole over your shoulder, get your hands up high early, jump, then 'plant'. Emphasize staying behind the pole in a controlled manner and hitting the pre-jump... Eventually, (after maybe 10-15 repetitions,) move back to 2. Then 3. Don't go to 4. If you try this, I can almost guarantee that you will see major improvements in less than 3 days.

When taking off should I concern myself with the collapse of the left arm? Can you NOT collapse the left arm when stiff poling? I've always been a bit confused, because it would seem that at such a high pole angle attempting to resist the collapse would cause blocking, but I don't really know how to stay behind the pole when I do collapse so.... yeah... I'm fine with the arms when bending the pole, although my ability to stay behind the pole is probably a B-. Thoughts?

If you can't stay behind the stiff pole, you have been staying behind the flexible pole incorrectly. Next time you do the drill, take a jump where you actively try to force-bend the pole with your bottom arm. Then take-off with your bottom elbow relaxed, pointing OUTWARD. Then see what happens.

You need a comparative number to determine the efficincy of your takeoff.
Find your standing grip (pole tip at you feet, reach up as high as you can and mark that place).
From 6 steps jump a straight pole to vertical landing in the pit with the body behind the pole. Keep raising your grip to the point where you can barely get past vertical while still landing safely in the pit past the box. Do not let go and fall. Measure the difference between standing grip and this place of the top hand. Here is my evaluation:
This is for Boys
>3' sucks, can't run or jump. Maybe needs to change events! LDR would be good.
3' to 4' developing, needs a lot of work
4' to 4'6" Beginner
4'6" to 5' Intermediate Takeoff
5' to 5'6" Decent high school
5" 6" to 6' Got some stuff
6' to 6'6" Now we are talking
6'6" + Ooh lalala
!

"From 6 lefts you should be able to jump a straight pole to vertical holding where your bottom hand is on a bending pole from a long approach" Vitally Petrov to me in the Reno Pole Vault Summit while playing at the Slot machines and talking peacefully.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

uh..oh I'm only at 4' 5"
I guess I've got a lot of work to do.

- master

"uh..oh I'm only at 4' 5"
I guess I've got a lot of work to do."
Is the data valid for old guys like you!!!!!

6 steps or 6 lefts?

IAmTheWalrus wrote:6 steps or 6 lefts?

6 steps. I haven't tried from 6 lefts but it seems I might be able to meet that if my calculations/measurements are correct. From 6 steps I can take an 11' 3" grip into the pit. I think my bottom hand is at about 11' 9" with my full run (13' 4" top hand grip). So I would only need to increase my grip by 6". Maybe that would be harder than I'm thinking. I'll have to give it a try the next time I'm jumping from a full run. But then again maybe I don't want to put my old shoulders at risk!

- master

altius wrote:Is the data valid for old guys like you!!!!!

I wondered that myself. Anyone think I deserve an age-adjustment? ? ?

- master