Oklahoma Pole Vault Manifesto

[dj]

hey

what pole is burgess jumping on..??. is it possible the pole design is contributing to his "style"?

so far it seems we have been describing the "free takeoff" from a visual standpoint... i feel it is a physical action and will post about that later....

about the pole... if the vaulters poles do not have the same bend gualities as bubka's poles the jumps will look different because of that .... regardless their different physical characteristics..........

later

dj

[altius]

VIOLA???? What has a musical instrument got to do with pole vaulting??

[dj]

???

[Bruce Caldwell]

VIOLA is American slang just like the Aussie's calling business cards BULL SH*T cards when I handed you one.

grin

[vaulter870]

haha i have never heard that one before that is hilarious

[Tim McMichael]

Here are some things I said about my run and plant in other posts. That picture of Burgess is, and always has been, my idea of a perfect plant. Joe Dial’s plant looked a lot like that. It seems to me that we were working on a free takeoff without knowing it. Perhaps my ideas are not so far apart from Petrov’s as I thought. I’ll talk about the issues of the hips being beneath the pole instead of on top of it after the swing in another post. Anyway, here is our formulation of the run that we developed back in the early eighties:


In my jump I definitely try to maximize the active phases. I work with my arms throughout the motion. I cannot, however, jump straight up off of the ground. I get my heel off of the ground before the pole starts to bend by leaning slightly forward at the takeoff so that my top hand is a little in front of me. After that I am active through the entire jump. My chest drives forward, but I do not drive it there; it just happens.

The best measurement of plant height is the distance between the top hand and the takeoff foot the instant the pole starts to bend. It is best when this happens just as the toe leaves the ground. For most vaulters this happens while the foot is flat on the ground. This makes a huge difference in plant height.

I found that when I got as tall as possible while still being able to accelerate coming in to the plant that this was easier to accomplish. I did this by pulling my abs in and my chest up and then slightly shortening my stride as I came in to the takeoff. This made me feel that my foot strike was more beneath me than in front. I was able to accelerate while doing this because as I got taller my turnover increased by more than enough to compensate for the slight decrease in stride length. I also inhaled as much as possible just before takeoff to spread my ribcage and gain a few more centimeters of reach. In my experience, if there is any slack in the body when the pole hits the back of the box, that slack must be taken out before the vaulter can leave the ground. This is an energy leak. The pole is bending and nothing positive is happening to the athlete. The pole and the vaulter become mistimed, the trail leg is short, and the swing is late, and all kinds of awful things result; anything from flagging out to coming up short.

This is different from the long jump takeoff in that there is no deliberate penultimate step. It is about getting tall and then driving in and up off of that tall position. The ideal feeling is that you get lighter and taller and faster coming in to takeoff till you are so fast and light and stretched out that all you have to do is push the ground away without giving up anything in terms of forward momentum.

I once asked Mike Connolly about this technique, and he told me that this was the only other way to do a world class long jump besides the conventional method of lowering the center of gravity in the penultimate step and then jumping up off of the board. He also said that it was very rare.

Don Hood once asked how it was that Joe Dial and I had plants as tall as Billy Olson when we were so much shorter. It was a trade secret at that time so we didn’t tell, but this is how we did it.

This was long before the days of the free takeoff, and Bubka was still a total mystery, so take it for what it is worth. I suppose you could call this a proto-free takeoff. We were on the right track, and I wonder how these ideas would fit in with modern theories.

[master]

Tim,

I am not an authority on any model but I have tried to study what altius is teaching/sharing. To my mind, you describe both the action and the reasons for the action very well. Your description of the body preparation leading to the plant and the body position during the plant seems right on. It appears to me to be consistent with the Petrov model. I will watch and learn how others view your description. I will also try the "tricks" you mentioned to help me learn to be as tall as I can. I'm only 5'9" and 143 lbs so I need all the help I can get.

- master

[OUvaulterUSAF]

Just imagine what would happen if actual tall people tried all of Tim's little tricks to make them even more tall. I'm going to make a huge generalization, ready...I think tall people are lazier at the take-off then short people. More so they take for granted that they are tall and the take-off is easier for them.

[vault3rb0y]

Maybe its all part of the pole vaulting model, but because a certain person has a certain body type, they can exploit different parts of the jump better than others. For instance, a shorter vaulter could have a faster and more powerful swing due to his body type, while a tall vaulter can get on longer, yet less stiff poles, and jump slightly higher. Thats just what thought pops into my head when i see the different "models".

[polevaulter08nw]

not always just longer and less stiffer, but your point does come across well.

[decanuck]

Maybe its all part of the pole vaulting model, but because a certain person has a certain body type, they can exploit different parts of the jump better than others. For instance, a shorter vaulter could have a faster and more powerful swing due to his body type, while a tall vaulter can get on longer, yet less stiff poles, and jump slightly higher. Thats just what thought pops into my head when i see the different "models".

Just because a short vaulter may have a faster swing due to reduced pendulum length doesn't mean it'll necessarily be more powerful. Remember, engergy is function of mass times the square of velocity (E=1/2mv^2), so while velocity (swing speed) is very important, mass (leg size) is too. Plus, a longer pendulum may move slower around the centre (quad) but faster at the outside (foot). As an analogy, think of twirling something on the end of 6" string. You'll need to spin it fast (high RPMs) to keep it in the air. Now imagine the string is 6' long. You'll be twirling it way slower in terms of rotation rate, but the object on the end will be moving way faster.

Case and point, according to the 6 meter club, Okert Brits is the tallest of the 6m vaulters, yet he was also on the stiffest pole--even stiffer than Bubka, who was second.

[vault3rb0y]

Ok then scratch the analogy.... but different shapes and sizes of vaulters may benefit more from doing things a certain way based on their capabilities. Not to say its now a different model, but there are things certain people can exploit more than others due to, as Tim seems to have said, necessity of HAVING to get the timing and the swing perfect and as powerful as anything. Or opening up your chest to allow you to take off just a few cm taller than you normally are, to progress. I do believe a shorter vaulter can swing FASTER than a taller vaulter. But you are correct, it may produce the same amount of power. But nevertheless it proves that different vaulters have different timing on poles based on their size and shape. Thus they may have separate details to work on to allow them to progress. Again, just my thoughts. No one ever took a 17 yearr old vaulter seriously and i dont expect you to right now.