New video of the Sergei Bubka World Indoor Record in Donetsk

[altius]

"Surprised nobody mentioned ' peg-length' yet... I think it was the 5.90 third attempt make where he rattled the bar pretty good.. but he did make the 6.15 bar clean.. Its clear that Bubka made 6.15 clean, but the bars leading up to that WR jump is debatable..."

I hope no one else mentions it because it is irrelevant! Surely it is about time that we let that old chestnut go!!! Let us see the film of the 5.90 jump you are talking about and let us make up our own minds if that jump would have been a fail if they had been using short pegs. We have all seen bars bounce up and down on the short pegs and stay on, so who is to say it could not have happened on that occasion, IF what you say is true. Anyway if he had not broken the record that day he could have done it the next. So instead of continuing to carp about it - why not do as KirkB has done and point out some of the elements of his technique that we would do well to try to emulate!!! That way perhaps we may see a vaulter break that 25 YEAR OLD record.

[VTechVaulter]

yeah theres really no point in making hypotheticals that cant happen and wont change anything. The pegs are shorter now. end of story. he made 6.15 without touching it anyway. he was/is the man. hands down. When the person comes along with the right set of physical tools and technique, we will see the record fall, reguardless of peg length.

[Pogo Stick]

That straight pole drill Bubka did in the longer version of the movie was amazing! Especially if he was holding that high on a 17' foot pole... holding had to be around 4.60 or 4.75! Unreal, and a great model to look at as to how to move a straight pole to vertical!

6.15 is amazing, but that drill needs to be shown to everyone (and included to 3rd edition of BtB ). I have had no opportunity to see Bubka doing drills before. It is like watching stiff pole vaulter - free takeoff, driving pole forward, dropping lead leg and swing with both legs - all from 6 steps (3 lefts). You can clearly see the origins of Bubka's technique.

[achtungpv]

WHAT!! I've been trying to get Jaap to give a bunch of his old stuff on digital for years. You wanna see some crazy vaulting get him to upload some old vids of Rian Boitha. Holy SH....

Botha was blazing fast. His entire technical model was run as fast as possible gripping as high as possible. He capped 5.20s regularly and supposedly had some custom 5.35s he was trying to cap. I've never seen anybody put more height on 5.70...including Bubka. The video I have of him, he must have 2- 2 1/2 feet over 5.70 and then kicks off 5.80 3 times. If he had a coach, he would've jumped 6.20+. I believe the season after he PR'd at 5.91, he broke both legs. Not too surprising.

[VaultNinja]

WHAT!! I've been trying to get Jaap to give a bunch of his old stuff on digital for years. You wanna see some crazy vaulting get him to upload some old vids of Rian Boitha. Holy SH....

Botha was blazing fast. His entire technical model was run as fast as possible gripping as high as possible. He capped 5.20s regularly and supposedly had some custom 5.35s he was trying to cap. I've never seen anybody put more height on 5.70...including Bubka. The video I have of him, he must have 2- 2 1/2 feet over 5.70 and then kicks off 5.80 3 times. If he had a coach, he would've jumped 6.20+. I believe the season after he PR'd at 5.91, he broke both legs. Not too surprising.

Yeah thats pretty much exactly what I heard about him. He is nuts. He's also broke his back, and even broke one of his wrist bones in europe then finished the euro season by taping his wrist with athletic tape.
I was fortunate enough to meet him out in africa and pick his brain a bit. But when I finally got to see footage, I was blown away. What a maniac. I've tried to get those guys (him and some coaching friends) to put it onto digital and post it or email it somehow. But its never happened. Jaap has some footage of Rian, but not much. Some is better than nothing though.

You know he would take off in meets at 12' gripping 5.20. Thats how he got the nickname elevator man. They told me a story about how Tarasov asked him to drop his grip in competition because he was scaring the other vaulters.