any pole-vaulters out there?

BA

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 1999
5,004
1
0
My dad used to. He always tried to get my brother and I to start, but we're soccer players.
 

dcdomain

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2000
5,158
0
71
Right here :D

I vaulted for my last two years of high school... weird how I became a vaulter. My main sport was wrestling (winter). In the fall season, I played football, and after the wrestling season was over my freshman year I was going to go out for Lacrosse but decided I needed a break.

So for the spring season I lifted in the weight room, and the throwing coach on the track team came in and asked a couple of us if we wanted to get a letter for lifting, so a couple of us said what the hell and joined. I was an ok thrower as a freshman, but soon became too undersized for the event. I kept up with it since it was an easier and fun team to be on.

In my junior year, the team got a real jumping coach, terrific guy and he went through the team and grabbed a couple of us to vault. I'm a horrible runner and I had horrible form back then. My PR was 11' :eek:. Anyway, after a year and a half hiatus, I just signed up for the vaulting team here at Carnegie. Went to my first practice yesterday, it's going to take a while for me to get in the groove.
 

Delusion2001

Banned
Feb 13, 2001
1,370
0
0
a fellow vaulter. woohoo

i have a track meet tomorrow, and yeah, i'm competeing. but the thing is that i haven't really jumped the last 2 months, and i am really bad. i have been getting over a lot of leg problems. oh well

anyways, my PR is 10', and yeah, i know i could do better, but thing is, i don't really turn. only now am i starting to. and i don't bring my hips up really. i kind of ball up and stuff

any suggestions how i could get over this?
 

dcdomain

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2000
5,158
0
71
I had the SAME problems... when you are in the air, you feel like you are doing everything right, but when watching video, everything is different. I'm not that great of a vaulter myself, although my teammates were awesome (buddy jumped 15'+ his senior year).

My suggestion would be to videotape yourself jumping, then taking the time to just see what kind of positions you are getting in. I think my year hiatus does some good because it gives you a lot of time to reflect on the things you were doing wrong.

Some pointers I told myself recently for this season...
1) DRIVE... get horizontal and get the pole bending so it'll give you enough time to get inverted and push. Back in h.s. I don't think I drove horizontal enough, which resulted in the lack of time to properly get inverted.

2) Make sure your arms are extended/locked during the drive, if you bring them in, your center of mass switches from the bottom (hips) to your shoulders taking away the energy that would have been transferred into the bending pole.

Thinking about it now, when you jump staying in the extended/driving position until you feel the pole is bending back up. When you do, start swinging your hips into the inverted position and then collapse your arms. Back in high school, I would swing permaturely which resulted in almost NO pole bend. A fun drill for this is to just jump, but don't get inverted at all, stay in the driving position until the pole snaps you back into the pit.

I'll ask my teammates for some more pointers.
 

Delusion2001

Banned
Feb 13, 2001
1,370
0
0
hmm.....i'll do that. thanks

you konw those drills in the sand or whatever where you just have to hang on the pole and just like swing through (and not pull up)? well, on those i tend to pull up a little bit. any suggestions on how i could get over that?
 

Wingnut

Banned
Oct 11, 1999
1,538
0
0
Sorry, not here but, I once tried it with a long 2" pvc pipe and nearly gutted myself when the thing broke in two! (ever seen a piece of broken pvc? very sharp!) :D

But really, It's something I've always wanted to try when and if I come across the RIGHT equipment and IF I don't kill myself trying!
 

dcdomain

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2000
5,158
0
71
I've seen the poles break and shatter before. Think PVC piping is bad, wait till you go and try to dig out all the pieces of the fiber glass out of your skin. =)

Back in the old school days, people pole vaulted with METAL poles, and they didn't have mats either!
 

Zach

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
3,400
1
81
I thought you were making some sort of vulgar slang reference, so I came to check. Ooh, there's another vulgar referance.. I'm not having a good day I guess. Or is it a good day?