PoleVaultPower.com

I need some help. My son is the number 2 ranked pole vaulter in our state among returning vaulters for the 2011 season. He has a legitimate shot at the gold medal at our state meet next spring. Am I being unreasonable if I ask his high school coach not to run him in the 4X800 which is the first event at our meets? He ran the 4X800 this past season, among other running other events after the pole vault, usually the 4X400 and sometimes the open 3200 and 800. I watched his progression in the vault slide as the season continued. Not until toward the end of the season, when he stopped running the 4x800, did his heights get better again. Our high school is small and our 4x800 team did not qualify for districts. My greatest fear is that next year he again gets beat down by the 4x800 during the season and, if the 4x800 makes districts, my son will be required to run a hard 800m prior to any vaulting.

We do not want to be seen as not being team players. My son is unique in that he is good at the vault and also middle and long distance. He is also a state medalist in cross country. I can understand when a vaulter runs 100m or competes in another jumping event prior to the vault, but from the research I have done, the 800m is arguably the most energy draining event at a high school meet. There are other runners who can take his place on the 4x800, but he runs the fastest times. Even with that, our 4x800 team can, at best, hope to qualify for districts with a minimal chance of scoring and no chance at advancing to states. So, from purely a point scoring perspective it may be better to allow my son to pole vault to his maximum potential.

He is certainly willing to give 100% to any running event after the vault. We just don't think it is the right thing for him to run 800m prior to the vault given his potential in the vault event. I know many coaches and people very knowledgeable in track and field visit this site and we would very much like to know if we have legitimate concerns or if we are being unreasonable. Thank you.

First of all, your son is an impressive athlete to be ranked so high in the state in the vault and to be a very fast 800m runner. Secondly, I do NOT think you are being unreasonable by asking that your son not run the 4x800m. I ran the 400m hurdles my senior year in high school (a similarly draining event) and when the big meets started at the end of the year I asked that they no longer enter me in it. First meet that I didn't do the 400m hurdles I PR'd. I think they would understand, especially since high school is about developing and helping out the student athletes to achieve their best. It would seem wrong to hinder a child's potential at receiving a scholarship, or even just achieving his own personal goals, just to get 2-3 more points at the meet. I think a fair compromise might be to run the 4x800 at the dual meets if anything, but to do just pole vault at invitational and state qualifying meets. I hope my opinion is helpful. Congratulations on a great season and good luck in the future too.

Thank you. Your reply is very helpful.

Walrus has a good point. Help the team and be a "team playeer" in dual meets, but get to PV only at the chammpionship type meets on the week end. Probably the best thing you and your son can do is sit down with the coach and discuss this situation. Best if this is done way before the season begins, and everyone is on the same page so good things happen for the team and for your son. Best of luck!

Dan

I was that same boat two different years. With the first my son was the returning State champion and we "over did it" his Sr. year. Too many events and not enought time on just the pole vault. he was second his Sr. year. With the second he was the highest returning jumper. We did other events for the team points but spent most all our time on the pole vault. He did score team points in four events at the State meet but he won the vault by a huge margin. Therefore, my opinion is to work on points for the team, but concentrate on the vault. Side note I would never run a 800m or 400m before vaulting.

OK. You just touched a nerve. Parent to parent:

Do everything in your power NOT to have him run in any other event except maybe the 100m. Unless a State Championship is not something that is important to you. The training for the 4x800 would be like practicing yoga to learn how to wrestle and will degrade his run for the vault! The mechanics of the run are that specific. My son won 5A State his junior year with the highest jump in TX -- that's big! There are more than 700 high schools in TX. He had one of the best vault coaches (not from the high school) on the planet teach him how to run correctly. And his high school coach had him running in X-country the beginning of his senior year and doing 4 and 600 hundreds to work out during track season. I put that in the "stupid" category! I should have just killed the bast...d. The director of athletics was about as "creton" minded. My son's run was dramatically affected (as the run goes, so does the timing) and he didn't go to State his senior year partly because of that! I had that "team" crap thrown in my face and my son was torn because of it. Track and Field is NOT a TEAM sport in the traditional sense. It is a conglomeration of individual events that if all members are successful in their INDIVIDUAL events, the team benefits. Do what is BEST FOR YOUR SON--the coaches have other interests. If he wins, the team wins -- it's that simple! (THIS IS NOT AN ISOLATED STORY)

You might think I don't like coaches. That is not true. I have great respect for a "handful of them". But my personal experience (and I was a State athlete) is that "athlete oriented" coaching is very rare and when it comes to pole vaulting at a high school level, an extremely few (though there are some) even have a clue about the event much less how to properly train a vaulter. Even proper pole progression is a mystery to most. At the University level you would be surprised at the scarcity of truly talented PV coaching.

Get your son a "sled" (but don't use a lot of weight on it -- run with it using proper sprint mechanics, you're not training a draft horse) and have him do lots of pole runs. Upper body workouts and hanging leg lifts, with a med ball held between his ankles if he can. Want him really fast (and speed is king in the vault), try pole runs with a sled and a using big pole. Build endrance with 100's and 200's - no longer and do them correctly. Study the mechanics of the short sprint and build his hip flexors with "bounding" exercises. And, lastly, let me know when he wins STATE!

The rest of the story: My son is a successful elite athlete. He successfully corrected in his run and he is in the top 5 all time highest jumpers at his universiy. He still holds his high school record which he broke 4 times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQehsTrsaUU

PS Feel free to copy my comments and have your coach read them. Should your coach need an academic re-alignment on the idiocy of self-serving coaching, I'll be more than happy to give you my number to pass on to him!

I was much less vocal in what I said, but I really agree with "bentleyw".

Thanks, I really tried to tone it down.