Coaching interventions

[cdmilton]

We had a situation at our Sectional last night that made me feel pretty sick as a coach...

A senior vaulter who's a 13'+ jumper from another school has been overweight on his poles all year...

I'm not 100% positive on what exactly went down, but he was jumping on poles at the least 10lbs under his weight... and my team's other pole vault coach ended up calling him out on it and taking it to the official. Since he made the jumps and i guess the coaches had his weight marked wrong or knowingly were allowing him to jump on poles under his weight, he got disqualified.

He's a hell of a nice kid, and it was a bad way to go out at the sectionals nonetheless. It sucks that the only time officials are required to weigh athletes before vaulting is at the state meet. Plus if his coaches had done the right thing since the start of the season and had him jumping on the right poles, he'd have been jumping last night, and could have advanced.

What a hard call to make.

Was he over bending the pole or jumping unsafe? How did you guess that he was over weight? I always error on the side of caution with my athletes. Besides, the point is to get on a pole that is over your weight not under.

[BadMotherVaulter]

I'm in the dark for the most part because it wasn't me making the call, but i saw a run through of his on a small pole and he did bend the hell out of it.

I'm not sure how the other coach knew his weight. He had told us earlier that season what his weight was... i told him then that i hope he got up on bigger poles or it would come around to bite him in state competition.

[BadMotherVaulter]

In addition, every time i watched him jump, it would be like he was trying to straight pole with those little sticks (bottom arm was mush, etc.) and he'd have his standards at 15 1/2 and still come down on the crossbar, barely land in the pit.

[mooski33]

I guess I've lucked out--I'm in a district here all the PV coaches (bar one) seem very with it and aware of their shortcomings. At meets we've always been very honest with each other, tossing advice back and forth. We work together to help the teams that don't have coaches at all--telling them to lower their grip, move their step, etc. to make everyone safer.

I'm not sure how I would handle a situation where all the coaches didn't have the sort of relationship as those in our district, but I figure I would probably start to build that relationship with friendly advice. If its nothing too serious, I would start out by standing next to the other coach when his/her vaulter was practicing and start throwing out examples, like "ooh, yeah definitely lower that grip a bit" or "hey, what pole is he on--its looking a little big? We've got the one right below that if you're interested" or "wow, if you got him jumping off the ground better he'd be great--and you could move those standards back"

I think the trick is to be friendly, and not disrespectful to their positions--some people just really can't handle that.

If that doesn't work-- three strikes and their out. Its in the rules now, so if its not your pit, you can talk to the official to make sure its enforced.

[stormvault]

three strikes and their out. Its in the rules now, so if its not your pit, you can talk to the official to make sure its enforced.

Is that a WIAA rule? I would also like to point out that Washington has something very unique in there state, in that, the coaching certification is run by the coaches and there is a mentoring program. So all the coaches are on the same page, in the same book.

That is at least the understanding I got from talking to a Washington coach.

[rainbowgirl28]

three strikes and their out. Its in the rules now, so if its not your pit, you can talk to the official to make sure its enforced.

Is that a WIAA rule? I would also like to point out that Washington has something very unique in there state, in that, the coaching certification is run by the coaches and there is a mentoring program. So all the coaches are on the same page, in the same book.

That is at least the understanding I got from talking to a Washington coach.

Mooski is wrong, 3 strikes and you're out is actually not a rule, but it was proposed and seriously considered here.

I do think our certification program has been a very positive thing and helped create a good environment. It also gives us a resource to report a coach that is consistently unsafe and Tim Reilly will talk to them.

[mooski33]

I guess I thought it was a rule because I have had several officials enforce it--any idea if there is a similar rule, maybe not explicitly 3 strikes, but DQed at the officials disgression?

[rainbowgirl28]

I guess I thought it was a rule because I have had several officials enforce it--any idea if there is a similar rule, maybe not explicitly 3 strikes, but DQed at the officials disgression?

Nope, nothing in the rule book.

[mooski33]

Ha--well thats funny. Our first meet of the season the official enforced some such rule and I checked with my fellow coach and he told me it was in fact a rule.
Oh well--I don't mind them enforcing a rule about safety, even if it doesn't exist!

[bjvando]

It may not be in the NFHS rule book, but it could be a local association rule...

[mooski33]

It may be, but rainbowgirl and I are in the same state--just different divisions. And she would know about this more than I would! I would trust her and assume the officials I've encountered have been making up their own rules!

[Tim McMichael]

I have always advocated for a three strikes rule on unsafe vaulters. If they don't make it past the back of the box or hit the standards on three jumps they are out. Yellow card, Yellow card, Red card; simple as that. The most frustrating thing is that most of these vaulters seem to make bars on third attempts. You pray for them to miss and then have to watch them three more times.