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I'm 5'10" and 140 lbs. I am 17 and a senior. On these jumps I am on an old 15' 165 spirt holding down about a foot. So about a 13'6" hand grip or so. As you can see, my main problem is me throwing my head back. On a small pole, I don't throw my headback and I have a nicer trail leg. Any suggestions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6uTR-x6AgE

Your trail leg honestly isn't too bad, but whats happening is that during your turn you are coming away from your pole and not turning around it, ergo its possible for you to go over the bar more vertically than you are, either way nice jumping considering you are holding at 13' 6", but keep that chin tucked in and it should be easier to see that how close you need to stay to the pole.

Depending on what type of pole you have when you hold that low on a pole the sail piece is in a strange place compared to when you hold on the end of the pole, if and when you start to bump up that hand hold you are going to have difficultly with timing in my opinion. Start to bump up your hand grip, you are going to need to get your grip to 14' --> 14'9" if you want that 16' 4" --> 16' 10 jump. Be careful when trying to bump up your grip.

Meanwhile to get handgrip up, you need more running speed, and for that you need to work on your sprint technique. You are running with your knees low, not really cycling through... Being 5’ 10â€

Nice jumping man
It's nice to see another fellow lefty

top three things that i notice are 1.) the pole carry is way to low
2.) your plant is very low and you are under
3.) you are pulling down on the pole after takeoff
all of these things are related and the first causes the second and so on and so forth. you need to focus on getting the pole carry higher to help you be able to take off up into the pole rather then plowing in to the pole. this causes a higher bend and also sets you up for a fast "whip like" swing. getting the pole carry higher will help to fix the low takeoff and make it easier to not be under. all of these things need to be worked on before you can really attempt to not pull down on the pole. once you are taking off TALL and your step is either on or even OUT a little then the focus should be on moving the top hand, in your case left hand, long and up over the top. I mean by that you need to be constantly applying pressure up and forward with the top hand in order to move the pole better. i am tired and this as far as i think i am going to get right now but if you have any questions about this please ask.

A few fundamental things are hurting you, but youve got a nice extension and top to get height. Other than what was said before:
1) Pole drop is too early leaving you leaning back on your last 2 steps. PV is a height sport and you need it every step of the way. Stay tall through takeoff pushing up constantly, never pulling down.
2) Your leg separation, in my opinion, is a bit much. This is a result of your leaning back. When you takeoff, instead of jumping up and forward, maybe 45 degrees or something like that, most of your energy is horizontal causing your legs to over separate.
3) The biggest fault with your vault is that you give up on the swing and trail leg extension right after takeoff. This takes away forward movement, and does not allow you to rock back and get completely vertical. Thus you are not able to move up on poles, "load" the pole properly, and get shot off the top.
That being said, its easy to see you jumping up an easy foot just by changing any one of these things. Good luck.

The biggest fault with your vault is that you give up on the swing and trail leg extension right after takeoff.

Not so much... Think about it: he can't possibly swing with the take-off he has. There is a ROOT to this problem, I know it!

1) Pole drop is too early leaving you leaning back on your last 2 steps. PV is a height sport and you need it every step of the way. Stay tall through takeoff pushing up constantly, never pulling down.

There's your biggest problem (that I can see), but it is not exactly this... we have a wolf in sheep's clothing here! Your PLANT is LATE because you allow your bottom hand to drop too LOW as you transition from pole drop to take-off.

You are one heck of an athlete, because you're power vaulting 15'6". If you fix your plant, you won't tend to take-off under so much any more. (You are taking off with your foot underneath your BOTTOM HAND!) Once you are taking off free, striving for a pre-jump, you can actually begin to swing instead of 'rocking back' (I hate that term, but that is pretty much what you're doing, it's not really a swing) into a tuck-and-shoot. It will take time, possibly years, to correct. Your typical competition clearance may even drop for a period! But if you really want to vault high... consider it.

You're reaching forward and holding the pole there for a split second before you plant. i.e. You lower your pole to horiz, pause as you reach, drop it to complete the plant, jump ...

Holding your pole in that horiz position causes you to lean back in your last couple strides, which causes all the subsequent faults.

Try dropping the pole into the box in one motion - no pause. To do this, delay the initial drop a bit. Work on it on short runs, then move back to full run.

Also, as already pointed out, your pole carry is too low. Bend the elbow of your left arm more, for a higher carry. That way, you don't have so far to plant, and you can work the timing of your plant into the timing of your jump a little better. You don't have to reach forwards as much as you do either. Planting in one harmonious motion should fix that, but it will take time, so be patient.

As far as dropping the head back, there's no good reason for that, other than at some point you or your coach must have thought that it was a good idea. Now you know it's not. Do what Amy does on the rings, and you'll discover after a few thousand reps that your head just naturally sits on top of your shoulders - not looking down or up.

I don't think the head problem is caused by anything before it, but it sets up the dominos for lots of bad things after it. You do need to fix that! First in the gym, then on short runs, then on full runs.

This is all academic, of course, since the vaulter in question was a one-time poster.
Kirk

PP42, You are completely accurate in everything you said. What I was saying about the leg is that, rue the drop is bad, and that is what it all stems from. However even with a trash takeoff I would still expect to see a strait trail leg if that were normally part of his vault. I have seen plenty of people (including myself) who have the occasional bad takeoff (mirroring his vault)but still have a nice long trail leg. The first step is to definitely fix the drop, but I think that is relatively easily, change the start of your drop to a step or step and a half later and focus on not dropping the bottom arm (repetition). For the long term I think a long trail leg will give him a ton more at the top and really allow him to reach potential.
Good point though, the whole vault stems from the runup and plant.

To stop dropping your head try watching your hands in the invert and turn. That usually helps most kids I work with. Otherwise, correcting your run, pole drop and under takeoff should allow you to get on bigger poles with a higher grip. Nice job as a junior!