Hi Tyler,
Good jumps!
Just a couple of things. I think you're really "wheeling around" your plant. You bring the pole really far down and back behind your body during the drop and then you have to bring it around to the front and above you for the plant. This causes your plant to be quite slow and cumbersome. After all, it's faster and easier to move in one direction - up and forward - than it is to move in two directions - down and back and then up and forward! As a result, your plant is late and you are not fully extended at the point of take off.
- Wheeling.jpg (30 KiB) Viewed 5928 times
- Take Off.jpg (27.99 KiB) Viewed 5928 times
Note that your top arm is still bent quite a bit even though you've almost left the ground. Additionally, it's not a free take off and you are under. As Starkey mentioned, you're getting sucked under and losing your posture - it's very difficult to swing well from this position. Although I may suspect that your distance (97ft) is good and you may just need to quicken your feet even more on your last steps. And having a quicker/more explosive plant will definitely help you out with that.
- Bubka Plant.jpg (30.16 KiB) Viewed 5928 times
What you should be trying to achieve is to keep everything nice and compact at the body. You need to move "as one unit" - that means mitigating a big separation from the pole. Anything that separates the pole from your body will slow you down. Separating from the pole during the run will slow your run down and separating at the plant will slow your plant down. You're doing a pretty good job in the run up but just in the plant I think that little thing is causing a lot of consequences.
With your plant style I think you're forced to hold the pole almost horizontally for 6 steps (3 lefts) and that will make your strides longer because you have to compensate for the weight of having the pole at horizontal. This will make an otherwise good take off spot go under considerably. IMO, you could probably take off about a foot further out if you can fix these things even with the same 97ft run. Also take note of how Bubka carries the pole with the left hand compared to how you carry it. He's using his natural limb support to cradle the pole as much as possible rather than having to muscle it through by dropping it way down and bringing it all the way up. This probably isn't the best picture to show that but at least you can see the difference. That plant is much faster and actually requires less energy. Your faster plant will also benefit your feet allowing you to step down quicker. Additionally, I think it'll give you the space to attack the jump even more - you're already doing a fantastic job with that and it can get even better!
For this particular problem I suggest you take a look at Dave Butler's video from Reno 07'
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 052593028#I think he goes over this particular problem at around 5 or 6 minutes into the presentation. It's very straight forward; how to do it really well, what are the problems and how to fix the problems.
For a more in depth look I suggest getting a copy of Beginner to Bubka, lots of extended explanations about this subject.
One last thing, jump up at the take off! Right now I think you're just ramming right into the jump.
All the best with that! You're doing great!
-Andrew
