PoleVaultPower.com

The best school thread is played out, but it begs the question: What's the overall worst school to vault at? Which schools lack coaching, funds, poles, facilities, inability to develop quality recruits, etc.?

Yikes...I can think of a few, but at the risk of individuals at those schools seeing these posts, I will decline to comment.

The worst school is one where you don't fit in with the program.

I've known kids who were at schools that had a terrible program. Crappy poles, little to no coaching, etc. But they were fine because they were just doing it to have fun, or whatever.

If you're serious about pole vaulting you need to go somewhere where your teammates and coaches take it seriously. If you are not 100% serious about it, go somewhere that won't expect you to be 100% committed.

I couldn't agree with Becca any more. There are some small schools that people live and die by how they perform, but on the otherside, there are some bigger schools that it appears they don't mind as much about how they compete.

It might be helpfull to put a list of schools that get shafted when it comes to vaulting, based on coaching funding or otherwise. Even with a coaches meeting many HS Seniors are going blind into a new school

MightyMouse wrote:It might be helpfull to put a list of schools that get shafted when it comes to vaulting, based on coaching funding or otherwise. Even with a coaches meeting many HS Seniors are going blind into a new school

It may be better to contact someone who has already gone through the process and knows the programs within a particular state. For example, if you wanted a run down of programs in Virginia, I could tell you who has facilities, money, coaching etc...and who has nothing and is willing to buy nothing....but PM me for that as I don't want to offend any one from any schools that might be lurking on the board.

Vault&Flip wrote:but PM me for that as I don't want to offend any one from any schools that might be lurking on the board.

Exactly. None of us want to piss somebody off at another school, especially when some of the kids might be perfectly happy there.

...well, i'll list a school.....Concordia University in RiverForest, Illinois, they don't have any indoor facilities, their outdoor pit is as hard as a rock and they don't have the best pole selection, and NO COACH!!!! Its either DIII, or some community college.... there i said it, now lets see if i get bashed by anyone
(waiting feverishly for someone to strike me in front of my computer screen)

No bashing here! I'll offer a slightly different spin on worst.....You jumped 13' in highschool. Your freshman year in college you jump 12' 6" your soph year you jump 12'8", your junior year you jump 13'........that's not bad that's h*ll.

ladyvolspvcoach wrote:No bashing here! I'll offer a slightly different spin on worst.....You jumped 13' in highschool. Your freshman year in college you jump 12' 6" your soph year you jump 12'8", your junior year you jump 13'........that's not bad that's h*ll.

Wow, that would be a bummer ...did that ever happen to you, or anyone you knew?? I hope it doesn't happen to me in college next year, but i already jump dirt garbage now, so i don't think i have anywhere to go but up (knock on wood)

I've seen a lot of kids jump lower their first year in college after high school do to the change in the nature of training and/or coaching style. But to not reach your high school PR until your junior year of college means something was either wrong initially (technique wise) coming out of high school, or the college situation (pole selection, training etc..) is not right.

It happens a lot!!! Pole selection is not the issue. Given the prices of pole there are very few schools that will not purchase a pole or two. I know of an of a wonderful lady from down under that didn't PR until her senior year. The previous three years were very difficult and had a truely negative impact. The difference was the coach and the coaching. She was able to find a coach the she could put her trust into and really did well. Too often the polevault coach hasn't ever vaulted. In some cases (very rarely) it works, but there is a psyche that we all share who have run down the runway and faced and fought the pit demons! Without that experience polevault coaching is much more difficult!! Just my thoughts!