Body Type vs Technique

[tseki]

Pole vaulters come in all different shapes and sizes. The most noticeable trait many people take into consideration is an athletes height and weight, but I personally like to observe the length of their limbs relative to the length of their torso. Do they have a short torso with long limbs or a long torso with short limbs or a balanced body? I find this information important because I believe it affects your body posture at takeoff.

When we throw something up in the air, you'll notice that it will only rotate about a certain axis (center of mass). Everybody has their own unique center of mass because of the way mass is distributed about our bodies. When a body is subject to a force, it will always rotate along its center of mass. So how does this fit into the pole vault? I was watching videos of Renaud Lavillenie and Sergey Bubka and realized that their body position at take off is very different.

Bubka finishes takeoff with his torso/chest region leading the vault. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UwBaf8f98)
Whereas Lavillenie finishes takeoff with his hips/lower torso region leading the vault. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfN_3LGUWGU)

Two very different jumps, but with outstanding results. I was wondering why there exists this "stylistic" difference in their vaults, but then the idea of center of mass came to my head. When we observe Bubka and Lavillenie's body, we can see how differently mass is distributed about their body. Bubka has long, lean limbs connected to a very wide/ large torso with broad shoulders (http://www.movingforwardtowin.com/wp-co ... -Bubka.jpg). This kind of body type suggests a high center of mass.
Lavillenie has a very lean body. He too possess long limbs,but one area that stood out to me was his thigh/hip region. He seems to have a lot of mass in those areas relative to the rest of his body (http://www.thestar.com.my/~/media/Image ... TICS.ashx/). In my opinion, that area almost looks like it belongs on a sprinter. A body type like Lavillenie's would imply that his center of mass would be lower relative to where Bubka's center of mass would be on their respective bodies.

During takeoff, pole vaulters will experience many powerful forces working about their body. As a result, this will cause some rotation to occur. When vaulters get into their "reverse C" position, that is the result of our body rotating about our center of mass. This would explain the technical differences between these two great vaulters and why different parts of their bodies lead the vault into the pit. It would be very unnatural for us to try and force a position that the physics won't allow. For example, I would say my body type is more like Lavillenies. My legs and glutes are relatively big compared to my torso and as a result, my takeoff looks very much like Lavillenies. My hips are slightly ahead of my chest and lead me into the pits. When my high school coach told me to try and penetrate with a big chest, it felt very unnatural and unstable. My vault was not smooth and I felt like I had to put in so much more work to achieve my normal heights. Now I'm starting to think that as long as our run is fast, our step is on, our plant is nice and high, and our posture on our last step is tall and upright, the little differences that occur after doesn't really matter. After all, there really isn't much you can do after your foot leaves the ground to increase your high off the pole (unless you intentionally do something stupid).

So there you go, I just wanted to give you guys something to think about or disprove by all means. I thought it was interesting to take into consideration the vaulters body type and how physics would support the actions of pole vaulting, since that's something I don't see done very often. I am open to all criticism and questions. Thank you.

[KirkB]

I see your point, and it's a valid one.

A similar point of view is the body types of females vs. males, and the styles of each.

I think it's fair to say that - like yourself and RL - females have a lower CoG than most males. Females just don't bulk up in the chest and shoulders like males do, no matter how much weight lifting they might do. Or if they do bulk up, then they don't become vaulters, because their strength to weight ratio isn't very good.

I see many/most females swing like a gymnast, a la Isi. This is classic Petrov style. I see very few (can't even think of any at the moment) females that tuck/shoot.

We should ask ourselves why this is.

My answer is not so much the difference in location of the CoG on the body, but the difference in muscular strength. I think females MUST swing more efficiently because they don't have the strength to muscle through the tuck/shoot vault parts.

This brings me to a different conclusion than what you are hypothesizing, Tseki.

My theory is pure speculation on my part - subject to the same scrutiny that you're asking of your theory.

Also, to me, there's yet another factor that may override the physical body type factors, and that's mental imaging of what constitutes a "good" vault, and the imprinting of this image over years and years of vaulting. So if a coach and a vaulter have the same mental image, their style is going to follow that image.

In the case of RL and D'Encausse, this seems to be the case. In the case of SB, Petrov started training him when he was so young that SB didn't have any preconceived images of what a "good" vault should look like, so again, there was compatibility between the coach and vaulter. In your particular case, there was a conflict in mental images between yours and your coaches, so you were incompatible.

Back to RL and his body type ... you will note that he has a body type conducive to a swing technique (a la Isi), yet he has the amazing strength to pull his lower body into an incredible tuck. He does this better than any other vaulter that I've ever seen, and if you haven't tried to do this yourself, you may not appreciate the phenomenal strength required to invert into a tuck so quickly.

Even if D'Encausse thought that RL would be better off to follow the Petrov Method, RL's imprinting (even though he started vaulting relatively late in life) would prevent such a substantial change. It would be inadvisable, perhaps even "impossible".

I could also say that the reverse is true. If SB happened to move to France and be coached by D'Encausse, after his first WR (just a theoretical scenario), he would not be able to emulate RL's technique, due to his imprinting of the Petrov Method.

But if SB lived in France all his life, and was recruited by D'Encausse at an early age, the history of PV may have been quite different - who knows. SB may still have set the WR multiple times, but with a very different method/style. And that may have resulted in the "scientific conclusions" and opinions of vault coaches around the world to be very, very different than what they are today. (It wouldn't change my opinion, as my imprinting occurred many years before Bubka, but it may have influenced the opinions of many others.)

So you have (1) CoG location; (2) strength; (3) influence of your coach; and (4) mental imaging and imprinting. In my not-so-scientific opinion, all of these influence your resultant vaulting method and style.

Again, this is all pure speculation on my part (not scientifically proven), but something to ponder. Your thought process may lead to other theories that hold more water than mine.

Kirk

[tseki]

I didn't even think about the mental imaging when I was coming up with this. That's a very good point. I have seen many great vaulters in my area, but now that I think about it, I do not have a solid mental image of what I want my vault to look like. I'm gonna have to take out the camera and record more of my vaults.

[KirkB]

I'm gonna have to take out the camera and record more of my vaults.

I don't mean a photographic image. I'm referring more to the mental image that gets imprinted.

At least in my own personal case, this mental image is in the form of the feel of my best vaults, and the tempo or timing of them.

Kirk