Heather Millford Article

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Millford Knows How to Find the Way to Top

By Sean P. Flynn
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, January 13, 2005; Page D06

This Week:

Heather Millford

Chesapeake, Senior


Heather Millford became a co-record holder with a vault of 9 feet 6 at the state championship meet in '03. She's aiming for 11 feet. (Jonathan Ernst For The Washington Post)

_____Millford's Keys_____

• Be aggressive. To achieve the highest heights, Millford says she needs to be at full speed when she reaches the pit.

• Be an athlete. As important as technique, Millford says she needs to be a good sprinter with strong running form.

• Be prepared. In a meet, the actual vault takes a short period of time. Success, though, depends on extensive practice to learn all the intricacies of a very technical event.


Track and Field

First of all, Chesapeake senior Heather Millford is a track athlete. She does sprint training as well as strength training.

But to become the area's top pole vaulter -- she has vaulted an Anne Arundel County-record 10 feet this year -- Millford has to combine that athletic ability with careful attention to a number of details.

"It's a lot of coordination," Millford said. "It's a lot more technique and physics than a lot of people think. It's not just running and putting the pole over your head. You don't have to be the fastest person to be good at it."

Millford is the top vaulter for a Chesapeake program that has become a mini-factory for the event, which will be a scoring event at the Maryland state meet this year after a two-year hiatus. The Cougars have eight boys who can vault nine feet, and five girls who can make it over six feet, according to Chesapeake Coach Skip Lee.

Millford took up the event as a freshman, and two years ago was vaulting seven feet. At the state championship meet last year, Millford became a co-record holder with a vault of 9 feet 6 inches. This year, she is aiming for 11 feet.

Millford's style starts with her approach, 12 strides from the vaulting box. As important as the positioning of the pole and her grip is the quality of the sprint. "It has to be a good run, that comes from track," Millford said. "You don't want to slow up. You want to have good strides."

When she gets to the box, Millford has to make sure her momentum is enough to create a catapult effect without pulling down on the pole. "My coach always tells me there's no pulling in the pole vault."

Millford said that the hardest thing for her is to not bend at her hips. Instead, she needs to be as straight as possible so that she doesn't clip the bar with her legs.

"If I can fix that," she said, "that will help me get over 10 feet."