PoleVaultPower.com

Hi all,

Former vaulter in hs, and now as a teacher, the track coach at my hs needs a new pole vault coach. I guess the old one didn't do any drills with the kids, and just sat there and gave advice as the kids jumped. Not much coaching. I want to do this and get each kid to improve. I don't remember getting much coaching in hs either, as it pertains to drills, conditioning, and technique. I am reading a lot on this forum and a lot of the terms and drills and advice is scattered, and I haven'r heard of many of them. I want to be a successful coach and do things right from the start. A few questions to the community:

1. What baseline should hs girls and boys have, if any, to be considered for pole vault? A lot of kids are excited to have me as a coach, and I feel like I will have a bunch of kids, that shouldn't vault. Certain 40 or 100 time, # of pushups/situps, gymnastics experience, body/build type, etc? Before I get started I want serious kids and a manageable number.
2. I have some vaulters that have been trying it for a few years now. I feel like I need to start with the basics with everyone the correct way. I read a post on here outlining what to do in order with a beginner. Should I just tweak the existing vaulters, or start with basics with everyone?
3. I am meeting 2x a week for a couple hours each. What should my day look like? Start with warm up, drills, vaulting? Work on conditioning and strength? Assign specific workouts during the days we don't meet? What would a workout look like if I had two hours tuesday and thursday?

Thank you all for your time!

peronis wrote: 1. What baseline should hs girls and boys have, if any, to be considered for pole vault? A lot of kids are excited to have me as a coach, and I feel like I will have a bunch of kids, that shouldn't vault. Certain 40 or 100 time, # of pushups/situps, gymnastics experience, body/build type, etc? Before I get started I want serious kids and a manageable number.

Never mind about a baseline. Just write a signup sheet (that emphasizes that it will be hard work and has certain "rules", but worthwhile for anyone willing to put in the effort), and don't let anyone participate until they sign up, agreeing to your "rules".

I have no idea how many kids you expect will sign up and show up, but whatever the number, just be prepared for any volume (it may be way less than you think now, or maybe way more). Once you get thru some hard workouts (not so hard that they hate it, but make them work hard for their spots on the team), the kids will weed themselves out.

Your objective should be to get as many kids into as many meets as are allowed by others (as opposed to you self-restricting participants). Why not?

You never know - the most unlikely candidate (based on physical attributes) might become your "most-improved", or become leaders on the team!

Kirk

Thank you for the feedback. Yes. I definitely agree with your perspective on being all inclusive. Reflecting on your response the answer to question three would be great. What should a practice look like. Are there drills I must have the kids do each day we meet? Is there a specific order to them? I'd rather not reinvent the wheel.

Thanks again.

peronis wrote: Reflecting on your response the answer to question three would be great. What should a practice look like ...

Sorry, I can't answer #3. My coaching experience has been with HS (and more advanced) vaulters with at least one year of experience, and not a brand new full school program beginners' program like you're embarking on. It would be better for someone with specific experience with what you're about to do to answer that.

Re #2:

2. I have some vaulters that have been trying it for a few years now. I feel like I need to start with the basics with everyone the correct way. I read a post on here outlining what to do in order with a beginner. Should I just tweak the existing vaulters, or start with basics with everyone?

You'll need to use your best judgement, based on how advanced those vaulters are. I would NOT treat them like all the beginners (they wouldn't be happy with that, and they would feel under-coached). Start each one at the point that's best for where he/she left off last season - where they can challenge themselves and their peers. You can use some of them as demonstrators, but don't tie them down to that duty too much, because they will likely prefer to train hard and spend more time pushing themselves to the max. Just give them the environment to do that - even if that means that you spend less time with them than with the beginners. Depending on numbers, perhaps schedule the "advanced" practices just before or just after the beginners'.

Kirk

peronis wrote:Thank you for the feedback. Yes. I definitely agree with your perspective on being all inclusive. Reflecting on your response the answer to question three would be great. What should a practice look like. Are there drills I must have the kids do each day we meet? Is there a specific order to them? I'd rather not reinvent the wheel.

Thanks again.

http://youtu.be/AD9ARW1i7HI

The best bang for your buck in this video. Do not allow them to develop bad habits and you'll make your life easier down the road. We begin our practices with abs and backs, warm up run, dynamics and plyos. We do not vary from the lessons on the YouTube.

I let the kids weed themselves based on their attendance. If they don't show up for Saturday practice and do not make a sincere effort to mitigate it, I tell them to not come back. If they are sincerely sorry and come back anyways, well I give them another chance. I ask them to be considerate of other teammates time, my time and lastly their own time.

I agree, the BtoB DVD is a great resource. It used to be available on PvP, but it looks like the PvP store only has the book now. Book - http://polevaultpower.tictail.com/products/books

Luckily for you the one chapter most useful for you is on youTube. Grandvaulter gave you the link already.
Another good online resource is here: http://artofthevault.com/pole-vault-university/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrl9bm ... Wun_U1T19g

Also, look at the drills they do every practice at this club: http://www.hvflyingcircus.com/facilities/
Unfortunately the sound was pulled due to a copy write problem with using the music they chose.

Let basically anyone try it out for a while.

Play in the sand... get them swinging over a bungee at the height of their own body within the first few practices.

BtB drills are real winners. And use common sense regarding other things, like running. Avoid making lifting a priority... Save it for a rainy day.

Get them on the pit at least twice a week.

Give them personalized goals in all kinds of areas, including standard field tests, like the 40yd dash and standing long jump.

Make it be fun but make it be work.

If you're trying to pick kids go to your high school basketball team watch practice find the kids that are so out of control shooting a layup that they fly past the Baseline those of the kids that will be able to pick up pole vault very fast

Make sure you know the technical model that you will teach. When I started coaching PV, all I knew to do was look at video of Olympians and then see how close I could get my kids to that. I suppose that wasn't the worst way to start, but I've spent a lot of time fixing problems I've caused because I didn't start with the technical model and therefore made some wrong guesses regarding what causes certain problems, and what causes things to go correctly. Other than BtB, the other technical model information I use is Bryan Clymers videos on youtube.

In a way, you can treat all your vaulters as beginners: the sand pit drills are good for everyone, it is just a matter of how refined they are, how much they can control their balance, how reliably they push up into the jump, etc. The same would go for rings, pull up bars, etc - the basic drill is the same, what you are looking for, the degree of refinement, changes based on the level the vaulter is at.

AS for #3, I start each day based on what the vaulter has already done: many of my vaulters come from track practice to me, and so when that happens, I try to keep warmup as low energy as possible, starting with something like walking plant drills. Regardless, I then move to some drills (volume based on prior work that day), then to the mat. I try to video each vaulter during practice several times to show them what they are doing, showing them the good, the bad and the ugly. And of course Coaches Eye or Hudl Technique on a screen larger than a phones screen are very helpful with this.