How you would start a program from the ground up?

[bambam]

I am an x-decathlete working for a school district in Columbus, Ohio that just decided to incorporate pole-vaulting into their track and field program. We renovated our stadium and created a newly surfaced dual runway in the infield.

There are 16 boys and girls (all freshman/sophomores) that have been training with me for the past few weeks.

What are the biggest mistakes made by new coaches?
Are there any tips you can give?

[rainbowgirl28]

What are the biggest mistakes made by new coaches?
Are there any tips you can give?

1. Study this table and understand it: http://www.skyjumpers.com/articles/pvpr ... table.html
Too many new coaches have no concept of what the next pole is.

2. Lots of sand vaulting and grass vaulting. If the kids can't takeoff properly into the sand pit, it's just going to get worse when you take them to the real pit.

3. Keep the grips low and the standards back.

4. Make sure they are doing sprint workouts and working on other events as well (but I am am sure as a former decathlete you have this part down!)

5. I hate to make a sales pitch, but buy Beginner to Bubka. It really is one of the best resources out there for the pole vault. It has a very good section on how to coach beginners from Day 1.

[AVC Coach]

Great advice Becca!

I think one of the mistakes new coaches make with the vault is trying to test how high their kids can jump too soon. Save that for meets.

Try to find something positive in each athlete's vault. Encouragement goes a long way in retaining their enthusiasm. It's not an easy event to learn.

When you make an adjustment, always be ready to back that decision and discuss it with your athletes. They might not comprehend much of it at first, but keep plugging away. Your athletes will gradually understand where you're coming from and where you want them to be.

Keep it fun!

[Robert schmitt]

I see alot of kids running from too far too soon. A lot of my kids never run from more than 5 lefts their first year. They don't do this until near the end of the season also.

[bambam]

What about the length of time practicing on the runway per day/week?

In pre-season (1month) I would like to go M,W,F with a high velocity workout after vault training. T,Th training for HJ,LJ and Hurdles/Blocks with a volume workout. Saturday will be a day designated just for runway work.

[LoZart]

Many sure you arent vaulting too many days. I would not actually vault more than 2 days in week including competition. Rarely, if ever 3 days.

[souleman]

Many will disagree, but I feel immediate application of drills to the pit are a good thing. In other words, I like to see a little jumping with each day of practice to ingrain the reasons for the drills in the vaulters brain. Say if you're working on plant drills on Monday and don't let the athletes on the runway jumping into the pit till Wednesday, They won't have the chance to apply what they learned from the drills for two days and thus probably forgot what they worked on. This is especially true with new vaulters. Alan has his "newbies" jumping their height after roughly 80 minutes on the first day of training. I'm not saying that you need a full 3 hours of jumping everyday, but the bottom line is the track season is upon us and these vaulters basically need to be on a fast track. Confidence is the main ingredient in a successful jump no matter how high or low the bar is. A vaulter can't gain the confidence needed by only looking at a crossbar from the top of the runway only two times a week. The basic and best answer for your question however was listed in Becca's opening comment. Later...............Mike

[bambam]

Thanks everyone for the advice so far. We just had 20 inches of snow drop in 24 hours this weekend in Columbus. We are now waiting for the snow to melt. The workouts are going great due to a barn with synthetic turf to do grass drills on. It looks like another week until we get on the runway. This is probably a good thing so we can reinforce the little things and fix initial bad habits.

[rwelch]

I agree w/ soul man to some extent. I have seen kids do grass and sand pit vaults and then freeze when at the pit. I try to get them familiar with the pit by the end of the second week. Still, no jumps, or even lefts, unless they are progressing along nicely.

Some kids have a knack. Most don't, and will require TONS of repetition to get stuff right.

I have them do over 100 reps of different plant drills, every day. Two weeks in now, and some still don't have it even close, lol. And I will continue this, even with my veterans, all year. Sometimes the vets are the worse, cause they get lazy and start practicing lazy, next thing you know, the vault has gotten lazy too.

Anyway, my $.02

[LoZart]

I can appreciate that repetition is needed, and also agree that vaulting builds confidence. But changes, and improveents are not made on the runway, they are made by simplifing motor movements, and training responses. There is too much going on in a vault to concentrate on making changes to multiple things at once. Segmentation of movements allow you to specific train motor application, and then bring it all together on vault days.

It is unfair to imply, jumping twice a week is lazy. I am aware of many vaulters which have gone for weeks with one or actual vault sessions leadinginto major competitions and performed with their best seasonal performances. If you are developing an athlete and you vault everyday, what do you do to enhance jumping abilitiy, strength, conditioning, endurance? How can you take 20-30 full intensity jumps, and not provide some time for recovery.
How do you expand a vaulters grip height, speed, and intensity fromt he ground.

I agree there has been a lapse in vault performance. I think one of the challenges is that people want to vault all the time and not explore how to further develope strength, speed, and awareness to be applied in pushing thier vaults to new heights.

[souleman]

LoZart brings up some good points for vaulters who for the most part "have it figured out". What I refer to when getting an athlete on the runway is in teaching the newbie. As Becca stated, by doing the grass and sand vaulting initially, the general idea of vaulting is put in place, but that only transfers so far. I once worked with a coach who had the new vaulters work with a stubbie on plant drills for close to a month and didn't do much of anything else. By the time the season came, the vaulters did those drills very well but had no idea how those motions should be applied to the vault. What I am saying should be considered is if those drills had been done and then a short session at the pit to help the vaulter "connect the dots" I feel it would have yielded better results . As to endurance and conditioning? Most high school kids are made out of rubber bands and are in (or should come to the first day of practice) in as good of shape as they will probably be all year. That doesn't mean you forget about training and conditioning altogether, it just means (in my opinion) time spent during the season for those aspects could be better spent helping those kids put a pole in their hands, running or trotting down the runway, taking off nicely and hanging on and getting over a bar,SAFELY (and most importantly applying the fundamentals and techniques outlined in Beginner to Bubka). Warm weather states don't have a lot of the issues that we in the cold country do. They can jump all year. In Minnesota, I am not allowed (even as a volunteer coach) to work with the girls before March 1st or after (I think) July 31st. It's in violation of Minnesota State High School rules. School usually is out first week of June. So that means we have to get a lot done in just 3 months. That is my main reason for suggesting the "fast track". It would be wonderful to be able to have these kids work on vaulting year round. And, some do on their own. Those are the ones you usually see on the leader boards at the state tournament or major invitationals. For the most part however, I'd say 90% of our vaulters up here do the "vaulting thing" for only 3 months a year. Therefore we need to take that into account and work on correct fundamentals and techniques but also figure out a way to get the most out of them that they can give us.....and themselves as long as long as their safety is considered first and foremost. That's why I feel time at the pit early in the season and especially for the newbies is invaluable. Later............Mike

[rainbowgirl28]

As Becca stated, by doing the grass and sand vaulting initially, the general idea of vaulting is put in place, but that only transfers so far. I once worked with a coach who had the new vaulters work with a stubbie on plant drills for close to a month and didn't do much of anything else. By the time the season came, the vaulters did those drills very well but had no idea how those motions should be applied to the vault. What I am saying should be considered is if those drills had been done and then a short session at the pit to help the vaulter "connect the dots" I feel it would have yielded better results .

I think grass/sand vaulting and stubby drills are apples and oranges. Grass/sand vaulting IS pole vaulting. It is possible to bring hurdles or high jump standards to the sand pit and have the kids do a little swing and turn over a bungee, as long as they are not vaulting so high that the landing hurts.

Stubby drills only for a month would have so many kids bored to tears that they wander off and become a hurdler or triple jumper.