Your balance on the pole as you take off and swing upward is another key aspect of the pole vault. If you’re off balance on the way up you waste some of the momentum you’ve built during the approach run. The following discussion of balance and lifting issues is adapted from a February 2013 presentation given to the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association’s annual coaching clinic by U.S. indoor pole vault record-holder Jeff Hartwig
Assessing a Vaulter’s Balance:
Balance is the vertical position of the body as it leaves the ground. So, looking from behind, you want to see that somebody is not falling left or right. Looking from the side, you want to make sure they’re not falling forward or leaning back. And how you assess that is, you can watch it from the side and look at where they land. Nine times out of ten, if the kid’s not landing in the middle, it’s because he’s going in that direction right off the ground. He’s doing something really weird with his plant, where he’s getting pulled off the ground in that direction. You often have to tell beginners, and especially girls, that you can’t jump around the pole. You can’t jump in circles. And so many of my girls, they run and put their plant up and then they see a pole in front of them and they immediately try to jump around it, to sway. And I explain to them, if you get your balance and your alignment right, you’ll actually sway right past the pole without having any trouble. So when the vaulter hits the box, keeping balance is essential to a smooth transition into the air. The last thing you want to happen on the vault is, you’ve spent all this energy running down the runway to generate speed, and then you get to the takeoff and you trip and you fall down. You don’t want to trip right at the takeoff; you don’t want to lose your balance. Just the opposite, you want to be nice and stable and balanced, because you’re basically having an impact. You’re running into this pole, and if you’re balanced and stable, then that sets you up to swing and gives you the best chance to get upside-down.
Down the Middle:
One of the things about safety is, a couple years ago, they came up with that PLZ, the preferred landing zone, that big square box. That’s not required under the high school rules. But every pit manufacturer said, hey, this is a pretty good idea. Let’s effectively put a target on the middle of the pit. And I use it all the time with my kids. I say, ‘Look, you see that big white square right there? I want you to land right in the middle of it.’ On our crossbars, we have that center label. I say, ‘See that label? Right in the middle of the crossbar? I want you to go right over the center of that label. That’s your target. That’s the direction you’re trying to go.’
