Backround to the Issue: The Correct Point for the Take-Off in modern pole vault technique.
The first official use (sanctioned international competition) of the forerunners of the modern flexible pole (composite material poles as opposed to the flex possible with Bamboo poles) was in 1952 by Bob Mathias and then George Roubanis in the 1956 Olympic Games, Melbourne.
From the hall mark year1960 until the present I define as, the era in which pole technology and manufacturing of flexible vaulting poles played a significant part in enabling vaulters year by year to steadily raise the World Record.
Starting with the records of George Davis in1961 and John Uelses in1962 progression came to an abrupt halt at the high plateau achieved by Sergei Bubka’s World Outdoor Record of 6.14m of 1994 and World Indoor Record of 6.15m set in1993.
http://youtu.be/ObkN0gU5JckAs the fortunes of USA, Soviet, Polish and French vaulters have waxed and waned the take-off techniques these vaulters used continues to be controversial.
The current thread is yet again debating the varying interpretations of free versus pre-jump versus under take-off concepts of the take –off technique as a key to unlocking the capacity of current elite male and female pole vaulters to surpass the current officially ratified World Records.
The question posed to me on this thread started by Kirk is:
“PVStudent, if you would be so kind, I would appreciate your reply to this - as you promised. You did clarify the free takeoff quite thoroughly in this thread, but you have yet to answer my question re the pre-jump confusion that I have (which is actually in this "What is your correct takeoff point?" thread: there, I have posed a serious, technical question that deserves a serious, technical answer. Thanks in advance."The Specific Question Kirk asked?“If a free takeoff is a mere millimeter (or thereabouts) off the ground and a pre-jump is something much more substantive than that (e.g. Fefanova's technique), why does Agapit say that anything more than a mere millimeter is inefficient? Or why does Bubka (via Altius) say that a pre-jump would be even better than a free takeoff?”http://youtu.be/y9Q4rL0PC-s
- Classic Free and Possibly a Pre-Jump Take-Off!
- Bubka Free Take-Off.jpg (109.47 KiB) Viewed 37265 times
Before I can seriously give my technical response there is a lot misunderstanding of the vaulting facts that are as researchers P. Vaslin and M, Cid in,
Les facteurs de la performance en saut ā la perche dans la litérature scientifique call
“les facteurs indiscutables ” that I have to disentangle.
I answer the question posed first by clarification of my preconceptions of the pole vaulting process and then will focus the lens of that perspective specifically on the take-off.
“On ne reçoit pas la sagesse, il faut la découvrir soi-même après un trajet que personne ne peut faire pour nous, ne peut nous épargner.” “We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us.” MARCEL PROUST.
The quotation above and videos cited below provide an embarkation point for a voyage from the distant past of 1920 and finishes at the end of the 1980’s. Along the route there are signposts for those with eyes to seek them out and furthermore to recognise the milestones along the
evolutionary road of flexible pole vaulting take-off technique.
The videos provide an objective empirical data base of recorded images of many (selected and therefore acknowledged as biased) of the World’s greatest exponents of the
“Art of Pole Vaulting” performing at the pinnacle of their prowess in the era leading to the concept of the
Free Take-Off as revealed in
1985 by Vitali Petrov and the
Pre-Jump by Alan Launder in 1989. http://youtu.be/w3UTcP5YUCAhttp://youtu.be/HyHHN-XvtvIhttp://youtu.be/QR5bauUM1ikhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elTvktlimMchttp://youtu.be/9_hzB33V8wEhttp://youtu.be/SS1mctHgeXEhttp://youtu.be/CHnIUaLUdBohttp://youtu.be/sach2OkFw4Ihttp://youtu.be/oenHR-GAq3Yhttp://youtu.be/-DSL06OyY94Having viewed the videos of the pole vault technique time capsule,it is evident that many coaches and athletes of the pre Bubka era, especially in Eastern Europe (Poland, The Soviet Union and East Germany), had, by 1983, abandoned the notion of pole vault take-offs with wide grips and the associated deliberate bending of the pole during the propulsive thrust whilst in ground contact during the take-off.
However, anecdotal evidence and more recent video recordings would suggest the majority of elite vaulters, particularly in the USA and France, (an assertion on my part) continue to “actively bend the pole” at some stage in the take-off foot ground contact time.
http://youtu.be/_Agh6AaJlwIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfI6OT7ap8http://youtu.be/9dpzGOAu6bs(Elite pole vaulters I define as those who in any single year, between the year 2000 and 2012, were ranked by the IAAF to be in the World Top 20 male and female exponents of this athletic discipline.)In the 1960’s to the early 1970’s it was widely advocated that in the propulsion phase of the take-off the vaulter should deliberately initiate some pole bend whilst in firm ground contact during the take-off.
The classic source of wisdom of the 1960’epoch is in R.V. Ganslen (1963)
Mechanics of the Pole Vault. (5th and 6th editions) confirm that this notion was widely accepted and strongly believed, based on reports of vaulter’s opinions and their interpretations of their empirical experience as recorded in this highly influential and broadly disseminated vaulter’s Bible!
Today,
we must not forget the changing state of the art of fibre –glass pole manufacture at that time was such that the poles could be unreliable, inconsistent in recoil, had high stiffness along with the heavy weight of the poles influenced the empirical experience of the vaulters and coaches.
The empirical experience of vaulters of that period strongly confirmed their “belief” in deliberate bending of the pole during the ground contact of the take-off. They also believed the pole weight was best managed by a wide grip, a low angled, almost horizontal pole carry throughout the approach run.
What then was the state of belief / understanding concerning the take-off amongst some coaches in the USA circa the late 1970’ and early 1980’s? During this period the fibre –glass poles were becoming more reliable, more flexible and more widely accessible in Western and Eastern Europe.
Guy Kochel in the USA, coach of Earl Bell, has this to say on the take-off in 1981 in
Practical Coaching Techniques for the Pole Vault. Publisher, Championships Books, Ames, Iowa. (Pages 13-14) and I quote verbatim...
(pp: 13-14)... “
The take-Off There are many variations of the take-off because there are many differences in style, grips, speed and physique. The take-off should not require conscious thought, but should become an automatic action through the repetition of drills (which develop confidence).
During the take-off the vaulter should feel that he is too far out from the box. Although take-off may depend on some individual differences, there are certain basics required for a good take-off:
1.
The top hand should be directly above the take-off foot.
2.
The lead knee (right for right handed vaulter) should have a quick hard drive in leaving the ground. The drive is forward and upward.
3.
The right arm should be as high as possible.
4.
The left arm keeps the pole away from the body, but will collapse at a point to a right angle. This left arm is then the control point of the vaulter.
5.
The left (take-off foot) should keep as much split as possible as the right knee drives upward. The left leg should stay as straight as possible. This slows the vaulter’s swing, but accelerates the speed of the pole.
Most good vaulters actually sprint off the ground and drive upwards with the arms. This enables the vaulter to get a higher plant and increase the angle between the pole and the box which helps the vaulter’s momentum.”
(Indication in bold has been added by me and did not occur in the original)I have outlined, by reference to a visual database record and an extract from a very successful USA Coaching Manual on Pole Vault, a précis of the state of empirical knowledge of pole vault technique of the late 1970’s to early 1980’s in the USA.
Critical qualitative analysis of the video recording evidence in regard to the take-off component of the performance I referred to, will allow readers to judge for themselves what they consider the state of play to have been.
The samples, though not representative of the total population of vaulters of that time, do give some visual indication of the performances of USA, French and Soviet vaulters as to how they managed pole vaulting with the aid of a flexible pole.
This evidence I have provided as background to flexible pole vault take-off technique in this post I hope establishes a sufficiently factual basis to allow me to identify some indisputable facts that I will use to underpin my answer to Kirk with specific reference to the Pre-Jump in my forthcoming series of posts.
My stance on the Background to the Correct Take-Off Issue will follow in my next post where firstly I identify what the primary flexible pole vaulting objectives are from a coach and athlete perspective.
Secondly, I propose an analogy I hope will help to eliminate argument about style from clouding the technical proficiency aspect of the correct take-off issue being discussed.