am i screwed already?? XC for pole vault

[rainbowgirl28]

X Country is great for young athletes,even pole vaulters. The gains you will get from cross country you can not get from any vault specific work. The body is very adaptable to various types of work and cross country will improve your work load for the spring. Also, if you are doing runs of 6mi to 8mi, even 1 or 2 of these every few months your recovery from hard run days will increase two fold.
I believe it is a great sport, and anything in the fall which keeps you active and competing whether its football, soccer or tennis is wonderful too. Don't get caught up in being one dementional, especially in HS. It dosent develop a total athlete concept and is a receipe for burnout.
You are doing the right thing. Keep it up

I agree.

[xjoeyx]

i live near charleston in sc and majority of the clubs around here are done for the year.. i think i have found one and one of the coaches is doing clinics around here so i might go look into that. i just want to work on my fundamentals but i dont have a place for it really.

[powerplant42]

If you can find a long, stiff metal pole and a patch of sand, you are out of excuses.

[xjoeyx]

i got the metal pole lol. went searchin around today on my day off of school. might go hit up the elementary school playground for the sand haha

[KYLE ELLIS]

X Country is great for young athletes,even pole vaulters. The gains you will get from cross country you can not get from any vault specific work. The body is very adaptable to various types of work and cross country will improve your work load for the spring. Also, if you are doing runs of 6mi to 8mi, even 1 or 2 of these every few months your recovery from hard run days will increase two fold.
I believe it is a great sport, and anything in the fall which keeps you active and competing whether its football, soccer or tennis is wonderful too. Don't get caught up in being one dementional, especially in HS. It dosent develop a total athlete concept and is a receipe for burnout.
You are doing the right thing. Keep it up

I agree.

I disagree, and please stop miss informing people unless you have sience to back it up.

[rainbowgirl28]

I disagree, and please stop miss informing people unless you have sience to back it up.

You need to factor in more than just straight physiology. There are several other sciences that factor into successful vaulting such as sociology and psychology.

You could give a high schooler the most scientifically perfect workouts in the world, and the majority of them will lack the environment to successfully complete them. Most kids will not have the social support necessary and will get bored and quit.

You need to look at the bigger picture. Most high school pole vaulters who run cross country are not doing _that_ much mileage. Most of them also do not have an indoor season. There is no reason that most cannot transition from cross country season to track season just fine.


Every kid is different, but quit scaring the high schoolers into thinking they will never amount to anything unless they specialize in pole vault year round. That's not even an option for most kids, and certainly not the best option for all of them.

[SinCity]

"I disagree, and please stop miss informing people unless you have sience to back it up"

Ok, that is your right to disagree and it is my right to disagree with you. Not all young vaulters are gonna be or want to be elite level vaulters. Some just want to have fun for the enjoyment of vaulting. Secondly, I've coached many vaulters and my best two vaulters (15'+) hs kids both ran x-country in only their senior yrs. They were not competitive, but both were able to train harder and recover faster because their body adapted to the types of training distance running requires, and funny thing is they became faster also and their running form improved because their core and legs were stronger.
The weird thing about coaching is that is not a science. Everybody adapts to different types of training methods and one way, scientific or not, dosen't work for all. I coach my kiddos to what I think they need, part science, part intuition, and part feedback from testing and discussion with each athlete. I may have not coached any elite level vaulters, but I haven't had the type of athlete who could be considered elite either. Also, my athletes have always progressed, had fun, competed and never had any type of injury that was training related. If you want to try to degrade me, go ahead. It dosen't bother me. I know I'm doing the right thing for the kids I train.
The bad thing about your post is that these young kids reading this will be turned off, either of the vault or of trying other sports. Which is the worst thing you could do is to put limitations on young minds. Pole vault training year round, like you are suggesting is just bad. A young body needs all types of movement and convincing young athletes to be one dimensional is a receipe for disaster.
Just a suggestion, but let your vaulters be kids, let them try other things and compete in other sports or events. You never know even your best vaulter just might be a tremendous soccer player and in turn you just might be fortunate enough to coach his buddy who was a descent soccer player who becomes a great vaulter. Do not limit kids, it is bad bad bad.

[powerplant42]

Let's all just breathe. Realize that we are all right, and wrong in some perspectives.

If a high school athlete is totally serious about the vault, has the know-how and capability to train themselves, they should do it. Scientifically, in the end, cross country limits. It might be very little, it might be very much... it depends on the athlete and his/her situation (like you said SinCity... although, I disagree about coaching not being a science. I would call it an 'imperfect science', very imperfect indeed... but whatever, back to the main topic). Not only could stride pattern be altered greatly, let alone muscle fiber type, but time that could have been spent training specifically for the vault is not maximized.

If a vaulter does not have the know-how, capability, or drive to train themselves off/pre-season, then of course they should play a sport, and cross country is fine to do if they keep the mileage low and stay aware of their stride pattern.

Some personal examples:

I am now one of the year-round trainers. I have the capability, drive, and of course, the know-how to train myself (and others that want to vault this year). You do not need much of each, just enough... Capability: a pole, a sandpit, and a track, (and a high bar and mat if possible). Drive: a dream to set a certain record, reach a high PR goal, or make a scholarship height for your school of choice, and the willingness to sacrifice some things to do so. Know-how: all you really need is the BTB2 package and this board for reference.

You also can read Split's description of his approach after a few weeks of cross country practice somewhere in this forum.

Rainbowgirl will tell you that for her athletes, it's all good, and I'm sure for the most part it's just fine. The same for SinCity.

I will end my post with these two words:

It depends.

[KirkB]

You do not need much of each, just enough... Capability: a pole, a sandpit, and a track, (and a high bar and mat if possible).

PP, you don't have the highbar yet, but I guess you'll have that next week, eh?

Kirk

[powerplant42]

I will have it tonight! (It will not be all set up, but all the parts will be here for me to assemble this weekend.)