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I recently graduated and was fortunate enough to get picked up by a strong academic/athletic DIII college. Now coming out of high school i was accustomed to vaulting hard four days out of the week in season. I havent been exposed to many other training programs so I assumed it was the norm, but coming up here I've been told that we'll be vaulting two days a week max. That kills me! The other days will be focused on technique Im guessing but that still doesnt sound inticing to me. Does anyone have any opinions or can let me know if this is the way college training is structured? If theres any solid evidence maybe i can even convince Fletch to let us go three at least... Thanks.

-JRH

johnny ray wrote: ... coming out of high school i was accustomed to vaulting hard four days out of the week in season. I havent been exposed to many other training programs so I assumed it was the norm, ...

At your age and PR level, you still have a lot to learn ... technique-wise. You can learn it faster with drills that with brute pole vaulting 4 days/wk.

You probably jumped 4 days a week because you weren't aware of all of the other ways in which pole vaulters can learn to pole vault. Running ... gymnastics ... weights ... studying vids ...

Actually, it MIGHT have been much better for your HS career if you had done less vaulting and more running and gymnastics ... assuming that you knew all the drills to do.

Since your D3 college has a strong athletics program (and a good PV coach ... and a good gym ... and a good weight room), then you should have plenty of interesting and beneficial things to work on besides straight vaulting.

If you're wondering about all these drills, you'll find almost all of them posted on the Training Forum. I would expect that your coach will use lots of them, but you should also search PVP to ramp up your learning curve about them.

Just as an advance "warning" ... when you start peaking for your championship meet(s) late in the college season, you might only do ONE vault practice per week. That may be all you need.

Kirk

Vaulting is tough on the legs and they need time to recover. As you get older you will begin to appreciate this more.

rainbowgirl28 wrote: As you get older you will begin to appreciate this more.

Amen to that!!!

Its an unfortunate thing that most high schoolrs vault to train... and not train to vault... Anyhoo, as people age, (even from 17 years old to 25) the elasticity of their muscles and tendons diminishes. For the demands of the vault you need to let your body recover or you will injure your self plain and simple. It's not uncommon for injures at the collegiate level to be career end-ers.

I am in my 5th year, about 19 months ago I severely damaged my hamstring, I am better now, but that injury although didn't allow for a PR outdoors that year, taught me to take better care of my body. I really changed how I approached my training, because the damaged muscle fatigued much faster it forced me to get higher quality vaults in one day rather than huge volume days. Nothing like a near-career ending injury to open your eyes.

But yea 2 vault days a week is pretty standard for schools... But for me right now, drills and timing work happens 4 --> 5 times a week. The high school to university training method a rough transition but... But being reined in and learning to be more disciplined to achieve your goals (be it vault or school) is what college athletics is really all about...

cheers,
bel

bel142 wrote:Its an unfortunate thing that most high schoolrs vault to train... and not train to vault... Anyhoo, as people age, (even from 17 years old to 25) the elasticity of their muscles and tendons diminishes. For the demands of the vault you need to let your body recover or you will injure your self plain and simple. It's not uncommon for injures at the collegiate level to be career end-ers.

I am in my 5th year, about 19 months ago I severely damaged my hamstring, I am better now, but that injury although didn't allow for a PR outdoors that year, taught me to take better care of my body. I really changed how I approached my training, because the damaged muscle fatigued much faster it forced me to get higher quality vaults in one day rather than huge volume days. Nothing like a near-career ending injury to open your eyes.

But yea 2 vault days a week is pretty standard for schools... But for me right now, drills and timing work happens 4 --> 5 times a week. The high school to university training method a rough transition but... But being reined in and learning to be more disciplined to achieve your goals (be it vault or school) is what college athletics is really all about...

cheers,
bel

Kind of related to this, but this falls into almost anything with life, and the transition point happens to be college. You will find there is a drastic change in the quality instead of quantity of work by the time your senior year rolls around. Freshman year, you might get 15-20 problems a night, but by the time you are finishing up, a 5 part problem set can take more than a week...

My first assignment that I noticed this was in an electronics course--6 problems took 3 hours, instead of 45 minutes. Now, in graduate school, in one class I had to allot 4-6 hours per problem from start to finish...

I have no idea what you are going to school for, but if it is something in the physical sciences, expect there to be this kind of transition ahead of you...but its WELL WORTH IT!!

My kid is only jumping once a week and he is so sore from the weight room his jumps are terrible. We're only six weeks from the season. I hope they know what they're doing.

ORU only vaults on Tuesday and Friday very little long stuff. 4 to 6 step only. In high school Jack only jumped twice a week and only once if there was a meet that same week. I thought that was what all high school kids did. Jack had great supervision with Tim and great direction.

Jonathan jumped almost every day in high school. Anytime I took him off the runway, he would get an injury so I just let him vault. Every day.

My kid is only jumping once a week and he is so sore from the weight room his jumps are terrible. We're only six weeks from the season. I hope they know what they're doing.

Don't worry, he'll get used to the training. It's a long season and I don't know any college coaches that seem very concerned about the early indoor meets. They are looking at the long haul and right now they're just trying to put money in the bank so they will have something to withdraw from later in the season when it counts.

We have been doing drills 2 days per week for the last month. We will jump for the first time on Tues (Nov 23). Indoor conference is 3 months off and outdoor is 6 months away. Plenty of time.

Finally met Jonathans coach last night. You guys were right. He's not interested in the early indoor meets. He is preparing them for conference. However, as a dad, I want to see PR's and medals at every meet.