Film Review 1- Part 2

Here are some more films from the film session we did on Saturday, Dec. 14th. Make sure ALL of you watch the film at the end and begin to grasp MOVING the POLE instead of hugging the pole.

Noah - Noah is a young athlete of mine - an 8th grader that is putting some good work in and is really getting some good technical pieces put together. Not only do I expect he will he do well this year in his competitions, but he is building a good, solid foundation from which some high marks will follow in the years to come!

1. Noah - you are making a good, smooth connection with the pole. For right now, I am quite happy with the "rhythm" of the vault for the first 2/3 of the vault. I love the long swinging trail leg - see how it doesn't break at all as it swings down. Very good.

2. I would like to see some more "space" at take off. There should be daylight between you and the
  pole at take off - there isn't very much now. We need to get both of your arms extending all the way - you can see that at their highest point, both arms are still quite bent, we need to finish that extension into a position like we did in our hollow walks today.

3. The "peek-a-boo" is seen again! See the last film review - I went into depth about it there... don't look over the bungee... swing over it!

Zandy - I see some things I like, we have made a lot of progress from when you were very scared and timid at the take off last year. Now it is time to start putting some muscle into it! The things I want you to see... and work on... are to help you establish a better connection with the pole. Watch the vault and watch the pole at the moment of take off. Remember that we want to be pushing the pole towards vertical. Watch the pole in your jump and you will see it stop at the moment you are taking off - your body keeps moving, and the pole stops until your body comes "crashing" into the pole. Really, we want the pole to stay away from the body. So I want you to work on two things to help improve that connection:

1. Keep the tip up. The timing of your flip is good, but the tip has dropped too low. We want the tip to be at eye level when we flip - yours is dropping way down to hip level. Keep the tip up.

2. I need you to put some pressure on the pole with your left arm. Time to starts USING it. This will significantly help with the rest of your vault.

Watch this video - it shows swings in slow motion, but I want you to watch the take offs and not the relation the vaulters have to the pole - see how they keep the POLE away from them... the POLE is moving... there is no hugging or crashing into the pole - this is what we need to get you, and a LOT of my vaulters -  to understand and do - move the POLE!

It's TOO COLD - Indoor Training ideas at home.

Down here in Houston, much of the year we are fighting the weather being too hot. This time of year our practices are also at the mercy of the weather - we are constantly dodging the cold or the rain. Saturday was a beautiful and warm day, but it rained all day. Today there is no rain in sight, but it is currently 33 degrees outside with some high humidity making it feel like 25 degrees... that is too cold to pole vault!

One day we will have an indoor facility to train in when it is raining, too cold, or too hot! Unfortunately that day is not today. So for not we are stuck at the mercy of the weather. So vaulters... that just means you get a day off, right?

Well, you could take a day off. But unfortunately the laws of physical and mental training aren't put on pause just because the weather is bad. Being in and staying in good shape requires CONSISTENT training. Two to three weeks is about the very longest a high level athlete in great shape can go before losing significant amounts. That is the athlete who has trained 6 days a week for the past 4 months. Now that does not describe the average high school athlete. The average high school athlete is only training maybe 2-3 days a week, and only most weeks. You will fall behind much quicker. So the moral of the story... DON'T JUST TAKE THE DAY OFF! Get some good work in at home or at the gym. Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Do your sprint work out on the bike.
A great way to keep you legs in sprinting shape is to get on a spin bike. Just translate that workout onto a bike. For example - instead of a 200 m workout you may do five 35-30 sec. bike sprints at 80% effort with 2 min. rest (light, easier spin) in between. This is a great way to manage injuries as well and still get your legs in shape.

2. Do some circuit work.
Circuits are a great way to still get some good work capacity in  and some general strength trained. Here are two options.

Circuit #1:
Body weight squats x 20
Pushups x 10-15
Toso Rotations x 20
Lunges x 10/leg
Long crunch x 20
Alternating SuperMans x 20

Circuit #2:
Long Crunch x 20
Reverse Crunch x 20
Fire Hydrant Bent Leg Side Lift x 15/leg
Good Mornings x 10
Torso Rotations x 20
Lateral Lunge x 10/leg
Body weight squats x 20

3. Visualize and/or Film Study
Study some film - you can start by learning more about the vault. Look back through the earlier posts and study the vault. Study your own film. Then go and study some great technical vaulters like Sergey Bubka or Maxim Tarasov. Then sit back and close your eyes and visualize yourself vaulting and try to do it perfectly... and clear the bar! You can start by "watching" yourself vaulting then move into visualizing from the vaulter point of view. It takes some practice to be able to do it, and to it at full speed. Training yourself like this can keep you sharp when you can't get on the pit either due to weather, schedule or an injury. I know vaulters who have been out for weeks due to an injury and by doing the right training and visualizing they PRed in their first meet back.

Pole Vault is an individual sport... so it is up to YOU to get better! Put the work in!

Connecting with the Pole - Pushing the Pole to Vertical

A common mistake that can limit your vaulting potential occurs at the moment of takeoff - a split second before to a split second after. It is obvious to most that the plant matters - and so we drill and drill the plant. And it is also obvious to most that the swing matters, so we swing on the rope, on the bar, & on the pole to get it right. But there is a critical element between the two that is often overlooked. You can do the plant motion well, and you can swing well, but if you don't get an active connection with the pole at the moment of take off, you are severely limiting how high you can jump.

At the moment of takeoff, you want your arms to be fully extended and you want to be pushing the pole to vertical. The vaulter needs to push the pole and get the pole moving, then you can swing on it. Instead of focusing on pushing the pole to vertical, many vaulters focus either on 1) bending the pole, 2) swinging, or 3) the timid and scared vaulter hugs the pole at takeoff... thinking the pole will save them.

Here is a great example, if a little exaggerated, of what I mean by pushing the pole to vertical. This is Diachi Sawano warming up at the Reno Pole Vault Summit last January. He is a Japanese vaulter with a PR of 5.83 meters (that's just over 19 feet!).
See how at the moment of take off his hands aren't freezing and waiting for impact? Much the opposite - his hands accelerate and continue push the pole to vertical. And his body is tight - he is pushing that pole all the way from his take off foot extending off the ground.

That's what I mean by Pushing the Pole  or an Active Connection with the pole.

VE Film Review: Practice 12/14/2013 #1

Athletes, here is some film for you! Watch your jump, read my explanation, and watch it over and over. Try to identify the parts that I am pointing out. Then go through and look at some of the other vaulters and look through theirs. This is a marvelous chance for you to learn. Be a student of your event.. study it and learn it. A better understanding will help you jump higher!

Alan:

Alan has made a lot of progress over the last few months - he used to have a very awkward connection with the pole - he had stiff shoulders and the pole didn't move very well. He has learned to relax his shoulders and has created a much better connection with the pole...  This film is from last Saturday, and today we worked on these things and had another breakthrough day... so stay tuned to see today's film as well!

Here are the specific things I want Alan to work on.
1. Need to finish extending the arms at take off. The right arm stops before getting extended.. this limits his pole movement, his ability to go elastic, and the strength of his swing.
2. Need a higher grip. Alan is steadily improving and we need to get that grip higher, but I need him to be a little more in control through the latter half of the vault first.
3. Stop pulling with arms! I call this the "peek-a-boo". Unfortunately, you will see a lot of you do this - Watch and see him start to swing, then when he approaches the bungee, instead of swinging upside down he will pull his shoulders and head up with his arms to look over the bungee. Pole Vaulters... .WE CLEAR THE BAR BY GOING UPSIDE DOWN! Not by looking over it! Continue your swing and get upside down! The peek-a-boo stops the pole rotation, and stops your swing, causing your feet to come crashing down onto the bar. 

 

Hannah C.
Time to become an expert, Hannah!Here are some of the things I was talking about today.

1. Your arms are late getting up in the plant, and are moving slowly through the flip and extension. Likely because your feet are slow. We tend to move them at similar speeds. So you need to RUN, ACCELERATE, and keep your last steps fast and aggressive, instead of long, reaching, and passive.

2. I need to get you to connect with the pole at take off. At the moment of take off, you want to be pushing the pole to vertial... get it moving!
3. Swing long... and keep swinging. The swing is not adding anything to the vault because it is all tucked in..  you are picking your feet up and putting them up there instead of SWINGING there. And then the pull... the "peek-a-boo" again is stopping everything.

Cause & Effect - Improving the Swing

Vaulters are always excited to see film of themselves jumping.It is great to see what you are doing. It is also commonly quite painful... Film doesn't lie. The more educated you get about how you should look, the more painful it can be to see all the things you are doing wrong.

Before we get to my main point, let me cover this one. Never get too frustrated about all the things that need to be "fixed" in your vault. The way I see it, the more things there are that you can do better, the more opportunity you have to jump higher. As much as we want to see ourselves vaulting perfectly... it would be MUCH worse if you did everything perfectly and were still only jumping nine feet. So remember... flaws are opportunities.

Now, on to what I wanted to talk about. When you watch your film, you are bound to see things that aren't right. Young vaulters, whether watching film, or out at practice and jumping, like to focus on the "top" part of the vault - the swing, the pull through, the turn, the fly away. For good reason, that is the fun stuff! Flying through the air is why we all pole vault!

The swing is something that most people can "see" in a vault... even beginners and even parents, once they look. How far inverted are you getting? Are you swinging just to perpendicular or are you continuing to swing all the way upside down? Check out your film and see where your swing is.

Does it look like this?

If it needs improvement, then you would work on your swing, right? WRONG. Sometimes there is work to be done on your swing. Often, though, the poor swing is the result of things you did earlier in the vault. Your swing (and thus everything else in the vault) can be limited by your takeoff, core strength, arms, plant mechanics, head position, approach, and pole drop. You could be doing something in your first step that is limiting your swing. Finding the cause is critical to opening up your potential.

The last post was a Film Review of Jason Colwick and his incredible swing. We talked about his swing by learning about what he did before his swing with his arms... realignment. And we talked about realignment by talking about what he did before that - making space and going elastic. If you missed it, check it out here.

The next few technical posts are going to help you get a fabulous swing... by working on doing things well before the swing. We will look at being hollow at take off and an effective pole drop. 

Don't skip past these things, wanting to get on to the exciting stuff. Mastering thee more "boring" and "basic" elements will make  your vault much more exciting, and the proof will be found in the PRs!