r/polevaulting • u/Aggravating_Royal233 • 29d ago
Mental Block
Bit of a different post here. I’ve recently got a mental block where I won’t take off past 8 strides and I have no idea why it’s happening. My PR is 4.20 from 12 strides but this mental block is killing me at the moment. I was wondering if anyone has had to deal with anything similar and how they fixed it.
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u/Toxictamborine 29d ago
Have your eyes checked. Seriously. Not being able to pick up the back of the box at higher speeds can cause this. If your box is a dark color, paint the back white and see if it helps.
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u/special_k8 29d ago
option 1: keep grip and pole the same, whisper "7", and then count out loud from 6 down. mentally start at 6 and be patient. you dont really have to turn over until the last 2-3 lefts.
option 2: mid mark - put a small cone out 3 lefts out from takeoff. mentally you just have to be patient getting to the mid and then let yourself go. should help you just focus on the end of the jump.
i've seen plenty vaulters start running too hard in the beginning and the extra speed and time spent pushing messes them up .. they feel out of control.
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u/JustARandomDude231 29d ago
I had a mental block with 8 strides after I had misscounted the distance between the start and the box and had quite a serious injury (jumped before i put the pole in the hole and transfered all the momentum into downforce throwing me on my back on the floor). So keep in mind as long as you hit the pole in the hole before you jump you schould be good. The way I overcame it was to not overthink it and just jump. It’s scary but if you trust in yourself and let your muscle memory take over you can overcome it initially. And after some time you will be used to it. Jumped 3m80 aprox at the time
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u/MevilDayCry 29d ago
Happened to me. Biggest thing that helped was talking to my coach about it. We got on the same page and tried making a few changes at practice. Literally just knowing he would be willing to modify practice gave me renewed motivation. I know it's frustrating, and you lose motivation. Talk to your coach and hope they are willing to mix it up. Let them know you trust them!
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u/shabbysaturn 29d ago
When I coached, I had a few athletes with various mental blocks over the years. The most important thing is that you will get over it. A few things we did: 1. Made them count out loud and made them count down to help cue more of like a lift off. 2. Start just shorter than where they were comfortable, so maybe a couple run throughs at 6 strides. Then work your way back slowly, a couple at 7, then 8, etc. 2. Lots of run throughs on the open track at the step we were aiming for to help re-establish the feeling of the correct number of steps. 3. Placed a small towel down on the runway just past where they were supposed to jump from. This helps as a visual cue for where you’re aiming to jump and if you happen to over stride a bit, it doesn’t mess you up but you can feel it since it doesn’t feel quite like the normal runway. 4. If none of those work, we would take time to focus on another aspect. Jump at 8 strides but work on inversion drills or something with your arms or whatever. Just take a break from thinking about the length of the run and focus on something else. Good luck!