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Nevada track hires two assistants


Staff Report RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
12/16/2004 11:17 pm

University of Nevada head track and field coach Shantel Twiggs announced the hiring of two assistants Thursday, Kurt Elias and Heather Hendrix-Holmes. The new coaches will take over the distance program and the throwing/pole vault events.


Heather Hendrix-Holmes has been coaching at the University of South Florida.

“Our program is fortunate to have coach Heather Hendrix-Holmes, a native of San Diego, Calif.,â€Â

I think i have met Heather before, very cool and nice girl!

so wait, does she coach both throwing and vaulting?
hmm that seems like an odd combination

I was going to comment on what seems like a mini cult of throws/pole vault coaches.

Soo, who suffers most?? Vaulters or thrower?? Or does anyone? I don't know many Good Vaulters who also threw anything other than the occasional pole.

ladyvolspvcoach wrote:Soo, who suffers most?? Vaulters or thrower?? Or does anyone? I don't know many Good Vaulters who also threw anything other than the occasional pole.

Pole vault and javelin has been a good combination for more than a few vaulters. Probably would be more, but most states don't have jav at the high school level

We tried that last year. Of my four athletes I lost three to rotational injuries one requiring surgery. I'm not an advacate unless there is some previous experience in the jav. Anyone else have any experience with this combo??

Or knee injuries. Watch javelin throwers and most have to wear a knee brace!

ladyvolspvcoach wrote:We tried that last year. Of my four athletes I lost three to rotational injuries one requiring surgery. I'm not an advacate unless there is some previous experience in the jav. Anyone else have any experience with this combo??

I believe Rick Attig was a vaulter/javelin thrower in college.

I did both in HS during the summer, probably didn't throw enough to cause any problems though.

ladyvolspvcoach wrote:We tried that last year. Of my four athletes I lost three to rotational injuries one requiring surgery. I'm not an advacate unless there is some previous experience in the jav. Anyone else have any experience with this combo??

Maybe they need a better javelin coach

Jav is kinda like pole vault. You gotta start small on a shorter run and not throwing as hard, so you can build up the muscles and flexibility you need. I would imagine you could get just as hurt (overuse injury wise anyway) if you gave a kid a jav and said go throw it, as if you gave a kid a pole and said go vault.

*Disclaimer: I can only throw the jav about 50', so I'm definitely no expert*

Being a good pole vaulter won't necessarily make someone a good jav thrower. I would not encourage vaulters to just randomly pick up the jav. It's just a combo that has worked well for a few people...

My coach from college, David Kaiser, who is now at Michigan, was a vault/throws coach. He did an excellent job with the vault, as well as the shot/disc/jav/hammer.

Dave Nielson coached Stacy Dragila (Pole Vault: You know what shes done) and Maureen Griffin (Weight/Hammer: Multiple all-american, USA National runner-up) at the same time.