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Hi, I'm a first year college student, 18yrs. I have had some good progress over the few weeks. I kept getting "stuck in the bucket" and i fixed a vigorous top arm row which was a habit that was hard to break. However, it's not completely fixed and I still have issues with my top arm. When I look at professional vaulters their top arm stays in line with box the whole jump and they keep it WAY back and it stays way back. I can't seem to avoid rowing past my head and I don't know how to fix it or what exactly the problem is. So my question is how do I control my top arm/shoulders/upper body while swinging to get my hips over my shoulder before inversion? What sort of gymnastics/training can I do to completely understand this? When my body is fully extended at the tap swing the top arm will imediately come forward once I swing upward and then it uncontrollably snaps forward and turns into a bad vault.

Video: https://youtu.be/ULjI07_C_JE
in this video the FIRST vault is the common problem I have and the next 3 vault videos are videos showing I can get vertical and SOMETIMES have good jumps where the hips are high and I have a good inversion. The specififics are in the description of the video and if you have any more questions let me know.

spencershade wrote: I kept getting "stuck in the bucket" and i fixed a vigorous top arm row which was a habit that was hard to break. However, it's not completely fixed and I still have issues with my top arm.

You're way under, and you're not driving your chest thru on takeoff.

You're so far under that you're unable to jump into the takeoff. You have to jump on takeoff. Don't let the pole jerk you off the ground.

If you fix that, then you'll be able to work on a proper swing, and you won't get "stuck in the bucket".

I think if you fix your takeoff and stretch issues, your swing will improve, and you won't have time to row. So don't fret about rowing - just fix the problems that happen earlier in your vault.

Kirk

Thanks for the advice and I agree. It's hard to fix it my takeoff because it feels natural to takeoff under but what can I do to help get a natural feel for taking off on my mark? I can easily do it when vaulting from 3 lefts or less but once I am going from 5,6,7 it is a lot harder to avoid.

spencershade wrote:It's hard to fix it my takeoff because it feels natural to takeoff under but what can I do to help get a natural feel for taking off on my mark? I can easily do it when vaulting from 3 lefts or less but once I am going from 5,6,7 it is a lot harder to avoid.

It sounds like you're so used to taking off under that you've become complacent. You need to decide whether you want to improve your vaulting or not, then do something about it - don't just shrug it off as "it feels natural". If I was to use scare tactics, I'd tell you about some vaulters that killed their backs (and their careers!) because they got jerked on takeoff from being under. But I won't go there.

There's no easy answer here. It takes hard work and focus (a desire to improve your takeoff), and you're doing the right thing in starting to learn this from 3 lefts.

So move to 5 lefts, and get it working well there. If you digress (or just can't do it from 5), then move back to 3 for some more practice. The key is to add steps *gradually*, without expecting to all of a sudden have a perfect takeoff from 6 or 7 lefts.

And try some drills off the runway. One thing I found valuable (and fun) was dunking a volleyball. I really learned how to *jump* off the ground by that drill. And I learned how to time the swinging up of the arms (like a high jumper) with the takeoff. This works in PV too - but to a lesser degree. So what you do is time your plant so that you're driving your top arm *up* as you take off. Try this. If a 10-foot hoop is too high for you to dunk into, find a hoop that can be lowered to 8-9 feet.

Good luck!

Kirk

For a plant that is under, you can place a mini hurdle on the ramp just past where you should take off from. This provides a visual input of where you should be taking off from, and you can use this to get used to the feel of taking off correctly. Like any drill, this has limitations - you can become dependent on seeing the mini hurdle there and then not get a consistent run when it is not there. But the nice thing about this is that it is a safe way to get the take-off feel that you need.

I've used a short 3 inch box before placed on the take off mark before. Set the box on the left half of the runway it will force you to take off on Mark and not allow you to be under. It has worked on a few of my vaulters in the past getting them back on the mark. Kirk your thoughts on a short box?