Need Help not looking at crossbar

[TMcClain5]

I need any ideas that will help me with not looking at the crossbar during my jumps. It is taking massive amounts of height from my full vaults and I really need to break this bad habit and am unsure of anyways to help me in doing that. I just went 14'6" with a hand grip at around 13'7" but with my attempts at 15 I would have the hip height but as soon as my eyes came in contact with the bar I turn awkwardly and my hips drop off losing a lot of hip height. I do this unconsciously not even realizing I am doing it. Here is a vault of me about a couple of months ago with the same problem. This is from a three step on a 13'7" 145 holding around 13' with a bungee up at 14'6" I believe any suggestions that could help would be great full. I also know that my plant breaks down and i have fixed that in my current jumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCAt7coJNNE

[KirkB]

I wouldn't worry much about where you're looking - that's not your main problem.

What I see is that your hips don't get all the way above your shoulders before you extend. That makes you flag out towards the bar. I think you would do that no matter where you were looking. You should focus on continuing to rotate your hips further back before you start extending.

You may notice that you're "piking" just before you extend. That's sub-optimal. If you rotate your hips a bit more, then your extension will become more straight up the pole (more VERTICAL). You will flag less.

This is easier said than done, and you can't magically fix this in mid-vault. What you need to do is to start your swing a tad bit earlier, and WHIP your trail leg DOWN as quickly as you can, and then continue swinging it UP. I call this the downswing and the upswing, and that's where you get the momentum to swing your hips up higher. Downswing is to the chord, and upswing is once your trail leg passes the chord of the pole. That should be your focus. And when you WHIP your trail leg, it's not just hinging at the hips - it's using all your gut muscles too.

This is best learned on highbar or rings, and you develop the muscles needed for this CRITICAL swinging action by doing lots of reps, swinging under the highbar or on the rings - in sets of 5 or 10 at a time. This not only builds up the right muscles, but also gets your swing going SMOOTHER. A SMOOTH swing will rotate you quicker, so that your hips are above your shoulders. Do lots of reps. So many that you will forget all about where you're looking. So many that you will feel totally comfortable handing upside down on the highbar or rings, and you won't feel the urge to look anywhere in particular. You will KNOW where your body is by the feel of gravity. You will SENSE your body position in the air.

When your hips get above your shoulders (after hundreds of reps of the highbar and ring drills), then you will be able to extend in the right direction - straight up, without flagging towards the bar.

While you're doing these highbar and ring drills, it doesn't really matter much where you're looking. Just worry about what your trail leg is doing, and what your hips are doing. Ditto on the pole.

If you want more info about the highbar drills, search for "Kirk highbar" (not "high bar" - no space). You might have to go back about 5 years to find full descriptions of these drills.

Kirk Bryde

[TMcClain5]

Thank You for the reply I will starting working on this and hopefully it will help me fix some of the flaws in my vault.