Top 5 College Vault Coaches?

[polevaulter08nw]

lacari, phillips and curran are in my top 5 for sure, but besides just listing, i feel like we should also discuss why these coaches are more successful.

Time of coaching/experience, and being able to set up a program(without having to move around schools) are obvious factors.

[vault3rb0y]

I think you need to include not all of the following:

1.) philosophies
2.) application of philosophies to training
3.) success of vaulters after college
4.) Ability to improve as well as maximize vaulters potentials (aka taking 15' vaulters and consistently making them into 17' guys is more impressive to me than bringing a 17' HS guy to 17'5")
5.) Commitment and enthusiasm toward athletes success
6.) Consistency of vaulters technique, with solid technique (high differentials and smooth take offs)

[divevault]

Pat Licari!!!!

Walker was a 15' guy who became a 19' jumper under his watch.
Roth, a 17' high school jumper became an 18'6" jumper after 2 full seasons.....

That is impressive to me.

Tom Hays at Kansas has also done well.

A lot of schools will get high school jumpers that are already jumping high only then to have them stagnate or see little improvement throughout their college careers. What impresses me most is to see a high schooler improve his first year as a college athlete. A college coach that can do that is the one with whom I want my athlete.

[rainbowgirl28]

Actually Brad jumped 16' in 1999, his senior year of HS. But either way, he improved significantly with Pat as his coach

[kev44000]

A lot of schools will get high school jumpers that are already jumping high only then to have them stagnate or see little improvement throughout their college careers. What impresses me most is to see a high schooler improve his first year as a college athlete. A college coach that can do that is the one with whom I want my athlete.[/quote]



I agree with that all the way. Coach Dial took Jack from a 17.02 PR indoors in 10 months and improved him 10 1/2 inches to 18.0050 as a freshman so far . A lot of people questioned why he went there, when he had his pick. Question now answered.

[KirkB]

... Coach Dial took Jack from a 17.02 PR indoors in 10 months and improved him 10 1/2 inches to 18.0050 as a freshman so far ...

Jack's indoor PR as a HS Sr. might have been 17.02, but in early March 2009 ... if I'm not mistaken ... he jumped 5.49 (18'0.25") outdoors ... coached by Tim McMichael. So I would think that most of Jack's progress in the past 12 months was due to Tim's coaching. Let's give credit where credit is due.

I think Joe Dial has done a great job ... so far ... in getting Jack over 5.50 so early in his freshman year ... and I suspect that this is just the START of his improvements under Dial.

Looks like a great one-two punch to me!

Kirk

[tsorenson]

Pat Licari also coached Matt Phillips over 18'6", I believe, as well as several good female vaulters. He clearly belongs on this list. I'm going to say that Dan West is doing pretty well at Lane CC, not exactly a big draw for national level vaulters, but he has six young guys going over 16'...not too shabby for the CC level!

Regarding improvement of vaulters once they reach college, it seems that getting big improvements gets exponentially harder as the height increases; so college coaches that get a lot of "blue chip" athletes coming out of high school probably don't see as much improvement overall. That doesn't mean that they are not helping their vaulters reach their potential, just that it's (theoretically, I don't jump that high) easier to improve from 15' to 17' than it is from 18' to 19'. As it's been said, little mistakes magnify exponentially when the bar is high.

It is hard to quantify improvements in a general way because they can achieved by doing so many different things (physical improvements, technique improvements, training strategies, maturity, injury prevention, etc.). Great coaches help their athletes reach their potential in all these areas.

Another great way to look at the quality of a coach, that has nothing to do with height: do your athletes become great men and women, and do you inspire some of them go on to become great coaches themselves?