PoleVaultPower.com

In a lot of the training discussions I have noticed a lot of young vaulters saying they don't have access to gymnastic apparatus or other training equipment. This may be true, but I don't think people are getting creative enough or looking for solutions they can create at their own homes. As we all know, pole vault cannot be learned solely on the runway, so having rings, rope, and highbar available and using them frequently is essential for young vaulters to progress quickly. I thought I'd start a thread discussing people's innovative PV training methods built out of everyday materials.

Disclaimer: Kids, make sure you are checking with your parents before you start building stuff in your garage or elsewhere, and make sure it's built out of sturdy materials (GET SOME HELP if you're not sure). Remember, swinging on something will generate a lot more force than just hanging, so it has to be very strong and should be checked regularly for wear. Also, all gymnastic drills should be spotted, and have some type of padding below covering hard surfaces, and have plenty of room. Once you get your apparatus built, look at the videos on this website for examples of how to use a highbar/rings properly! Just hanging and doing leg/knee raises will help...

High Bar
When I was in HS I did not have access to a highbar. I found a piece of strong steel pipe lying around and slid it into the notch above the trusses in my garage where two cross braces met in a V, and secured it (I think I used a whole roll of duct tape). Presto! High bar! You need to make sure you have room above you to swing up and use an old futon pad or something for safety. It wasn't ideal but it was better than nothing, and having it at my house guaranteed that I used it a lot more than if it was somewhere else.

Rings
Rings are expensive, but you can make your own. My friend and I have homemade rings hanging from the trusses in our garages. We just used two small sections of strong PVC pipe, about 6" wide and approximately the diameter of a pole. Wrap them with athletic tape for grip. Use a section of strong nylon rope, cord, or webbing narrow enough to fit through the rope through the PVC "handle". We use rubber tubing to protect the rope from abrasion at the edges of the "handles", but you could wrap the rope with tape or any other protective material as long as it fits through the PVC. Use a length of rope long enough to to tie a secure knot into a loop which will be girth hitched to the truss. The rope is then tied securely together into (try a double fishermans or a figure 8-join)...check out this link for animated lessons on joining ropes and the simple but effective girth hitch. http://www.animatedknots.com/fig8joinre ... dknots.com
Alternatively you could girth hitch your rings to a highbar or a sturdy branch on a tree. Heck, you can even do a lot of drills on a sturdy branch of a tree without adding anything fancy at all...I used to do bubkas on a nice maple at my grandparents' house. Ropes can be hung from strong tree branches as well.

The point of all this is...get creative and come up with solutions instead of just saying..."we don't have a highbar, or rings, or rope" etc. Dedicated athletes will find ways to do drills at home in their own time so they can dedicate limited practice time to doing vault drills and just vaulting. Every aspiring vaulter should have a stubby piece of pipe or pole (even a broomstick works) to practice the plant and get lots of repetitions.

I'd love to hear other people's "poor man/woman drills" that can be done at home. I know there's some great ones out there...let's hear what you've got

Tom

Kirk

Typical Vancouver weather is not like during first week of winter Olympics. It is grey, ugly and rainy - sometimes few weeks in row. You guys from Seattle and WA state know well what I am talking about. Most of this winter I trained at home. Some of my "training equipment" includes:
- bodyweight (single leg squats, one hand push-ups - thanks Tsatsouline, squat jumps and other jumps, all kind of core conditioning, light gymnastic exercises on the floor)
- doors (great for abdomens, and pull ups)
- armchair (to fix legs while doing situps and back)
- old car's battery (as dumbell)
- broom stick, hockey stick (for pole plant imitation)
- kids, wife (as a weight, for squats)
- chair (platform for depth jumps. That was very hard to me - I gave up after one session)
- bed (back roll to handstand - apartment's floor is little bit too hard for my taste)
- car (pure isometrics, the ultimate dead lift )
- playground's swing (for improving trail leg swing)
- other playground equipment (use imagination)

1 1/2 inch X 10 foot piece of PVP pipe with a cap on the end for pole plants and pole runs. About $10