Nobody teaches the carry properly and it is the reason half of beginner plants are late. A pole that starts too low has nowhere to go. A pole that gets dropped all at once forces you to catch up in two steps. A grip spacing that feels comfortable standing still can make the tip bounce at full speed. The carry is not a preamble to the vault. It is the first half of the plant, and if it is wrong the plant is already late before you reach the box. Here is how to set it up and what to check on video.
The pole has to travel from carry position to overhead in the space of a few strides while you are still accelerating. That only works if the drop starts on a fixed count and finishes on a fixed count. Vaulters who start it whenever the pole feels heavy end up finishing the plant after the takeoff foot has already landed, which is the definition of a late plant.
Start the tip too low and you spend the run fighting the weight, then rush the last steps. Start it too high and the drop has too far to go. Most vaulters carry with the tip clearly above head height early in the run and let it come down progressively. Film your run from the side once and you will see immediately whether your tip is drifting down on its own.
Wider hands give you more purchase for driving the pole up but make the carry heavier at speed. Narrower hands feel light on the runway and give you less to push against at the plant. Most vaulters land somewhere between shoulder width and shoulder width plus a hand, and the right answer is whichever one lets you finish the plant on time at full approach speed.
The whole carry is judged by one frame: where your top hand is when the takeoff foot lands. Upload a runway rep and the AI finds that frame for you and grades the plant timing, so you are not scrubbing a video back and forth on the infield.
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Do this with a coach and a pole rated above your body weight. Set the carry first, then add speed, then add the box.
Take your grip with the top hand where your coach has set it. Bring the bottom hand down the pole until your hands are somewhere between shoulder width and shoulder width plus a hand apart. Mark the spot with tape so you can find it every session rather than guessing.
Top hand sits at or just behind the hip on your top-hand side. Bottom hand carries in front, roughly at the bottom of the ribs. The pole should run diagonally across your body with the tip well above head height. If you are gripping hard to hold it there, the tip is too high for now.
Walk 20 m holding the tip steady. Then jog the same 20 m. The tip should not bounce and it should not drift down on its own. Bouncing means you are carrying with your arms instead of letting the pole rest on the hip. Drift means the pole is too heavy for the height you have chosen.
Take a full approach on the runway carrying the pole the whole way without dropping it. This tells you whether your run is actually the same run you have without a pole. Most vaulters shorten their last steps once the pole is in their hands. Fix that before you add anything else.
Pick the step where the drop begins, commonly around 4 to 6 steps out, and start it on that step every time. The drop should be continuous and smooth. By 3 steps out the tip should be visibly below your top hand and still travelling down.
Over the last two steps the hands travel up and forward while the tip goes into the box. The top hand should be as high as it will go, arm extended, before the takeoff foot touches the runway. If the top hand is still rising at touchdown, the plant is late and you will feel it as the pole hitting you rather than you hitting the pole.
Film side-on, level with the last four steps, so the box and the takeoff foot are both in frame. Freeze the frame where the takeoff foot lands and look at the top hand. That single frame tells you more about the carry than any amount of feel does.
Step counts are the most common coaching pattern, not a rule. Programs count and cue this differently, so match your coach's count rather than this one.
| Point in the approach | Where the pole should be | What usually goes wrong here |
|---|---|---|
| Start mark, standing | Tip well above head height, top hand at the hip, hands taped at a fixed spacing | Grip spacing changed since last session, so the whole run feels different |
| First third of the run | Tip steady and high, no bounce, pole resting on the hip | Carrying with the arms, tip bouncing, shoulders already tight |
| Mid mark, around 6 steps out | Tip beginning to settle, run still accelerating | Slowing down to prepare for the drop instead of running through it |
| Drop begins, around 4 to 6 steps out | Continuous downward travel, hands starting to move forward | Dropping late and then rushing it in two steps |
| 3 steps out | Tip clearly below the top hand and still moving down | Tip still high, which guarantees a late plant |
| 2 steps out | Hands moving up and forward, tip closing on the box | Reaching for the box with the tip instead of driving the hands |
| Last step | Top hand at full extension overhead, tip entering the box | Top hand still rising, elbow bent, plant not finished |
| Takeoff foot lands | Top hand already at its highest point, tall through the hips | Foot lands first, pole arrives second, and the pole hits you |
Common questions athletes and coaches ask about this topic.
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