The One-Arm Drill

[vault3rb0y]

You guys are making a bomb out of a fire cracker. I have used a one arm drill in very specific instances when i have been pulling on the pole to help begin or continue my swing. Your leverage during a swing should be around your top hand, and i over-emphasize this by taking my ability to mess things up with my bottom hand. It helps a vaulter to get used to executing the off-ground phase of the vault with the core strength and swing speed, not bottom arm action. tell me what role your top hand plays during a stiff pole vault that requires it to be there anyway? Only to keep your top shoulder from being ripped out and to help pull off on top. In a flexible vault it neither pulls nor pushes, simply helps stabilize the forces applied horizontally to the top hand, however it is still necessary to swing around the top hand and not the bottom. So in some instances of rebuilding your jump, using a one arm drill would be helpful. Yes, its not crucial, but if it helps me form muscle memory for the execution of the correct vault before i put my bottom hand on it, im gonna do it. If you dont want to, then don't. If you run into problems with pulling/pushing with the bottom arm tho, remember that it's an option in specific circumstances.

[powerplant42]

Can someone please explain how removing the catalyst of a problem from a situation FIXES the catalyst? If not given the opportunity to do something wrong with the bottom arm, how are you training it?

[vault3rb0y]

Because you learn how to execute your jump without the use of the bottom arm. That means you are forced to engage your core muscles and top arm to invert. Then when you do put your bottom arm back on to stabilize, you know you dont need it there to execute the jump correctly, and the muscle memory is there for HOW to execute the jump without the bottom arm. It's like your same analogy with the basketball. Back in my basketball days, all the college coaches i went to for sports camps had us do one armed shots to realize that we dont need the other to shoot. Then they say "ok, now just use the other hand to hold onto it before you shoot". But i guess they are wrong as well.

[powerplant42]

I think it would be easier/more efficient to put extra emphasis on keeping the left hand still...but while keeping it on the ball... No?

[KirkB]

I think it would be easier/more efficient to put extra emphasis on keeping the left hand still...but while keeping it on the ball... No?

3P0, that's a great analogy!

There's not a college or NBA player alive that does the 2-handed set shot anymore.

You see that a bit with girls, or with 3-pointers for high schoolers (weaker arms), but it's a well-established, proven fact that the left arm should be used just to balance the ball, and the entire aiming and shooting action is done entirely with the right hand.

The reason for this might be a little different than the rationale for vaulting with the top arm only and using the bottom one just for balance.

Nevertheless, the reason in BB (I think ... from my personal experience) is that the brain can coordinate with a single arm more accurately than having to coordinate with both arms. You need just the right amount of aim/push with your right hand/wrist, and if you include your left hand in that equation, the shot isn't as precise. Anyway, that's a digression.

PP ... Like pole vaulting, when you're taking a BB shot, there's no time to think about what you're doing with either hand. You're relying on muscle memory alone ... and timing ... and balance.

Same goes for PV. Things happen so quick that if you haven't already built up your muscle memory to "do it properly", it ain't gonna happen!

PP ... you tend to overanalyze ... and since you're injured I suppose there's not much more that you can do ... but ... sometimes you just gotta get out there and TRY some of this stuff!

Then ... you learn by EXPERIENCE!

Kirk

[altius]

One of the problems with this great site is the inevitable repetition. Since this has already started on this topic I will simply repeat what I have said before . The one arm drill teaches beginner bad habits and does nothing to help experienced vaulters use their bottom arm correctly. I will also restate what Petrov told me when i asked him about this drill. "You dont vault with one hand on the pole so why train with one hand on the pole'. I remember this well because he made me feel like a dumb bunny for asking the question!

But folks just continue to do whatever you like, most US vaulters do.

[KYLE ELLIS]

Altius, what all bad habits is the guy doing one arm dills in the video i posted on page 5 going to experience? I am neutral on the topic but I just feel like some of the oposing people on here are not keeping an open mind at all on this subject? Some are treating it as a deadly sin to do this drill?

[powerplant42]

He is not a beginner. If you know how to stay behind the pole, then you won't necessarily pick up any bad habits with this drill, but it would make more sense to just put the other hand on the pole because that's how it is in a real vault!

Of course, this drill will not ruin anyone's career, but it is probably not useful for 99.999% of vaulters, so why waste time with it?

[KYLE ELLIS]

and i agree with you in that sense, but i feel like i was that .1% because of the way I was taught for 15 years. I am an experienced vaulter but I can't even do a correct straight pole. And it helped me develop the correct feeling, now its time to do it right with two hands, and so on...

[altius]

"Of course, this drill will not ruin anyone's career, but it is probably not useful for 99.999% of vaulters, so why waste time with it?" Yes - but!!!!

Apparently repetition does not always mean ideas are taken on board. The correct positioning of the left arm and of the hand on the pole is critical to the free take off. My observation of the majority of vaulters I meet in clinics and see at Reno is that they do not understand this. Indeed it is clear from many of the posts here that folk do not understand this!!! You will not master this crucial element of modern technique if you simply ignore it! Do what you like but - remember that every athlete only has only career.


But as my old mate Baggett says - WADDEVER.

[KYLE ELLIS]

I understand the point you are making Altius. And when my teamates did one armed straight poles it bothered me because they were wearing out the tips on my poles and they weren't really accomplishing anything...

[H.I.S.]

Just my 2 cents

I never did a one arm until a few months ago when one of the pole vault guru's in the state used them religiously. . .

in high school I was taught to block out with my bottom arm, It took me all last year to break that habit doing lots and lots of sand drills. . .

Since this season I have been blocking out again, and after reading this board I wondered if it was because I replaced my sand drills with one arms, my blocking out got so bad I couldn't even do a rock back drill

this week I stopped doing the one arms and started doing everything with both arms and focusing on proper bottom arm technique and I have stopped blocking out again.

I strongly advise against one arms, although I did see a lot of benefit in the drill, I do not think it was worth the loss in bottom arm technique

I'm probably wrong though. . .