[shockaman]

shockaman on March 14, 2005 at 11:36 pm #10560

I read in an article that the Russian Method to Pole Vaulting is/has been know to be a more superior way to vaulting than the modernized vaulting methods here in America. The Bubka Russian Style Vaulting..which is typically one fluid movement from when the vaulter picks up the pole until he lands in the pit, is that the key to becoming a successful vaulter is to position the pole as high to the vertical as possible at take off. The tip of the pole is dropped into the MIDDLE of the box as the tip slides to-wards the back of the box the vaulter forcibly punches both hands high overhead and leaves the runway before the pole hits the back of the box, this increases the vaulters energy and the pre-jump enables the pole to reach its highest point vertically at the instant it hits the back of the box.
Does anyone know anything about this?? and what do you think about this method which i think is great because it has really helped my jumping alot.

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on March 17, 2005 at 4:22 am #43058

I’m very familiar with this concept and while it is theoretically the best way to vault because it will transfer the most energy to the pole, it doesn’t seem to work in practice. The Russian vault school did in fact instruct there vaulters to be in flight before the pole made impact with the back of the box but slow-speed video and full biomechanical analysis indicates that no one actually did it (Bubka included). While it didn’t achieve the ultimate goal, if it prevented them from taking off “under,” the teaching cue was still doing quite a bit of good.

ELITETRACK Founder