PoleVaultPower.com

I've been looking for the previous thread about cross and pole vaulting, but my search is working for me right now.
I remember reading though that cross country ruins your pole vault stride.
Football is going to be really demanding of my time this year, so I'm thinking of taking cross country as an alternative to it. This way, I can stay in shape for track season.

Just need to know if its beneficial to pole vaulting or not.

It just depends on what kind of workouts they have you do. If you can get the cross country coaches to give you shorter distances but higher intensity as more of a cross training thing, you'll be fine. You just need them to view you as someone who is using it for cross training, not as a serious distance runner.

Don't do football or cross country! Train yourself running hills, long jumping, weight lifting, and gymnastic type activities.

If you have to choose between the two, go with football. But play a lighter weight sort of position, not like center or something like that. Training for wide receiver would certainly be beneficial to pole vaulting later on in the year.

Rhino wrote:Don't do football or cross country! Train yourself running hills, long jumping, weight lifting, and gymnastic type activities.

I disagree. Most high school kids are not motivated or knowledgeable enough to train themselves. Besides, high school sports are fun.

I guess it depends on the athlete. One of my greatest regrets is having played high school football. That would have been different, however, if I had been any good at it.

I agree with Becca. High school sports are meant to be fun. There is way too much specialization in youth sports at all child hood ages. Other than injury, there is no sport activity in October that will ruin a high school athlete's ability to peak during the indoor or outdoor seasons. Pick any fall sport and play it, if you are willing to commit the time.

i wouldnt say it RUINpole vault... But it certainly does not help

I ran cross country and pole vaulted from sophmore to senior year and really noticed how the cross country training killed my sprint speed.

Last summer i trained with sprint workouts only and got up to using like 13'6 160lb poles (which were really big for me at the time), I then ran cross country, where we did about two 5 or 6mile runs a week and 600 and 800s the rest of the week. When I started back pole vaulting in November I was slow as crap and was struggling to get on a 12'6 pole. But I eventualy got back up to the 13'6 poles by mid outdoor season and then 14 footers by the end of outdoor. So i did pr by the end of the year, but only by 6in and i believe that i was at that level durring the summer anyway, but cross country just made it hard to get back into pole vault shape.

But u do have rare occasions where some people are just good at both... You have decathleats that can run 10.xx for the hunderd and then pull off a 4:15 1500, but that still isnt 3miles.

In NC this year the guy that won the 2A pole vault with 13'6 also won the 3200 and consistently ran under 10min.

Well, I've been doing XC for a week, and tomorrow I'm going to Pole Vault again.
I'll tell you how I feel tomorrow.

I wish I'd taken distance running (e.g. cross country) more seriously in high school. I was a poor runner, and a poor sprinter, so I shied away from it. I played football one season, and volleyball the next 2 seasons. I played basketball all 3 years.

When track season rolled around, I could only do ~20 yard sprints (the distance from key to key on a basketball court). My warmup for PV, LJ, and TJ consisted of a single lap around the track. Any more than that, and I'd be too tuckered out to have a good technical workout.

In hindsight, I don't see why I couldn't have run XC while playing volleyball. I guess I don't like to lose, and I would have lost in XC. But if I had more foresight, I would have been able to use my XC experience during the "off-season" so that my track season would have been better. Who knows, I might have even got on the 4x400 team if I put my mind to it and trained harder! I certainly would have become a better runner. Not only faster, but also able to handle the endurance of longer workouts and long meets.

The reason I know a bit about distance running NOW (now that I'm older and wiser!) is that I retired from PV when I was 23, but in my mid-30s I started jogging around the SFU trails, which quickly turned into competing in 10K road races (strictly recreational). I really began enjoying running (the high you get from finishing a hard workout or race), and my general body conditioning was great! I was playing Senior B basketball in my mid-30s too, and I found that my 10K training helped my basketball conditioning immensely! I could play all 4 quarters and not get tired (as much)!

So my personal opinion is that XC during the off-season is very good for aspiring vaulters - to get that core conditioning and running experience that you need. You should then focus more on sprinting during the actual track season - an essential part of PV. Had I done more off-season running, I would have been willing (and able!) to do more sprinting during track season.

And the bottom line ... I WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER VAULTER!!!

Here's another idea: If you don't have enough time during the week for XC (due to other school sports), you can always run 10K road races on the weekends. There's no age limits for these races, and anyone can enter for a small entry fee. In fact, there's often a couple age categories for teeenagers. Set a goal for yourself on how fast you want to run a 10K in, then just get out there and do it! It will not only be fun, it will keep you motivated and in shape during the off-season! Don't be discouraged after your first workout or first race. It takes awhile to "get your wind".

Kirk

I actually feel a little faster in the 400m, and feel very confident in running a 2 10ish 800m right now. Although my sprinting speed (<200m) appears to be slower. I've made sure to do plyos though, so I don't lose any explosion in my legs while doing XC.

i would serious reccomend at least still doing some sprint work outs and diffrent strides to improve sprinting form because long distance running and sprinting are two diffrent styles of running. you cant run heel toe when pole vaulting and you deffintely cant run a whole 5k on ur toes and still be able to walk by the end of the season.