Is depth perception affecting the take-off step and posture?

[coachstark]

This was recently brought up in a separate topic, and believe it can be discussed in more detail.
Does a vaulters (beginner-intermediate) depth perception affect take-off step and position?
A high percentage of my incoming freshmen have their “comfort zone” 6-8 inches under their take off mark. This includes those with great cadence in their approach run and those who need to hit the drills a bit harder. It wasn’t until three years ago; a light bulb went off while working with one of my freshmen female vaulters. Like most, she had a wonderful approach and no matter how many drills we do, she would tend to over stride her last two steps (penultimate). Then the words were said “Coach, I would feel more comfortable if pole vault mats included a pad in-between the box and my take off location, I just feel so far away from making the pit”. I am not implying to ever put a mat in-between the take-off location and the box. It was clear that she was unable to tell how far away she was from the pit, however every time we did slide box drills her stepped was consistently on (with no over striding penultimate). With some head scratching and a few trips to the pole vault store (home depot), I was able to come up with a two new training ideas to help this issue and bring success to that vaulter (two time conference champion) and multiple others.
1.) Due to a lack of indoor facilities, a lot of our winter season focused on our approach run…. 20/20s, mini hurdles and slide box drills in the main basketball court. There was a lot of success and confidence built by each vaulter’s steps being on, however when jump day came; it seemed the confidence depleted and the steps started to over stride as they approached closer to the planting box. What was I missing??? Literally two days before jumping steps were on and now on jump day things have changed. That was enough, I removed the front buns of the pit and placed them next to our slide box, wouldn’t you know, that adjusted everyone’s step. Having the front buns next to the slide box help give each vaulter a better perspective of where they were and where they should be. From then on, each drill day, included the front buns of the slide box. It wasn’t instantly, however overtime that comfort zone became the proper take-off location and I truly believe it was due to the visual clues of the vaulter taking off in the correct location and viewing the distance they were from the front of the pit. Something we did not have in the past with just a slide box in an open basketball court.
2.) I have seen a lot of schools/clubs/coaches use colorful tape or small objects alongside their vaulters take-off mark as a visual, however I didn’t like this idea as it increased the chances of the vaulters head to be down on take-off searching for their proper mark. Instead, I crafted up what we call the “take-off gate”. It’s basically a 10ft by 4ft PVC construction (looks like a door frame) wrapped in bright colored pool noodles. This is then placed over where the vaulter’s proper take-off mark should be as a visual guide for their peripheral vision. Even what I view as intermediate vaulters (Female 12+, Male 14+) enjoy using the ‘take-off gate”. Not intended, but this device helps with those having a late pole drop as well.
Hope this gets a few more creative minds thinking in order to advance this sport as much as possible! Are there other coaches struggling with this problem, or is it a true problem???
I apologize with the lack of wording; my strengths are not in writing and prefer to share these insights in person or through video.
Fly high!

[coachstark]

Just to note, the "take-off gate" is just used for approach drills with and without a slide box. I fear and will not use this during actual jumps for safety measures and am encouraging others to use the same percussion if they plan to utilize this training aid.

Thank you!

[KirkB]

One fly in the ointment that I see is when your vaulters travel to away meets. If they've become accustomed to the front buns being a certain distance in front of the box, but at other schools or colleges the buns are longer or shorter, aren't you afraid that that would throw them off?

When you first raised this topic (in the other thread), I thought you were referring to the fact that as vaulters gain experience - eventually becoming advanced/elite vaulters - they would judge if their steps were on or off by depth perception, using the box as the fixed reference point.

I can see how your visual cues help beginners and intermediates, but that's not what I was thinking of.

From my own experience, as an intermediate vaulter (HS and college freshman), my run was quite inconsistent, and thus my takeoff point would be inconsistent.

Through thousands of vaults, and good training on how to run fast (and consistently fast), my takeoff point was rarely off by more than 4 inches (and on a good day, no more than 2 inches). I attribute most of that to running with more consistent strides, but I also believe that there was a self-adjustment automatically made by my brain (hardly a congnizant decision) to steer my takeoff foot to my target takeoff point based on (1) realizing that I've caught a head wind or tail wind; (2) recognizing that I'm either tired or energetic (the amount of adrenalin being burned in the runup); and (3) a sort of built in radar that caused me to stretch or shorten my last few strides, based on my depth perception of how far away from the box I felt I was.

I'm not sure that I can explain it any better than that, but it was a LEARNED skill, through thousands of vaults.

And I don't ever recall even looking at the buns to gain this depth perception. I ignored them completely.

Yes, I would put tape across the runway at my takeoff point, but that wasn't for me to watch - that was for a spotter to catch my step. As you say, you won't have good posture on takeoff if your head is down, watching your own foot hit the tape.

Oh, BTW, GV, Coach Stark never used the word "posture", but I was paraphrasing. :;

Kirk