New member looking for constructive review!

[whoisjohnlamb]

Hi, i'm john. I am a sophomore in Highschool, and heading into my 2nd season as a vaulter. my PR is 11' and i am looking to improve that greatly this year.

Overall, my goal is winning a state title in vaulting, and getting a scholarship to vault in college. I am more than dedicated to achieving this goal.

I have a few questions, 1) how likely is to get a scholarship? 2) What kind of training do i need to do for vaulting? 3) does anyone know of clubs or camps around indiana?

These are are my last two jumps of my freshman year.... PLEASE point out anything i can do to get better! Pole vaulting is my passion.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=389388289298

[VaultPurple]

http://www.usatf.org/clubs/search/info. ... nNumber=16

There is a list of the USATF clubs in Indiana. I see three related to pole vault on there.

Secondly, don't chase scholarships chase big bars. Just work hard and try your best. There is no set height for a scholarship and all depends on the coach and what is available. Very few pole vaulters will ever get a full scholarship unless they are going to a very small school or are number one in the nation.

As far as training, just read around the site as much as possible. Youtube is awesome. Id recommend From Beginner to Bubka the book and DVD. And find a club and coach. The number one thing that produces high pole vaulters is resources, coaching, and having the right poles.

But to you scholarships do not matter right now. Coaches can not contact you until you are a senior and you have no Idea how good you will be right now since you are still getting going. Some people jump 11' their freshman year and 12' their senior. And some jump 7' their freshman year and 18' their senior. And I am going to guess that if you find out you can get a full ride with a 11' jump or it will take 19', you are going to still keep vaulting.

But since everyone still wan'ts a solid number. The good range is around 14 for a small DIII in a bad conference, all the way to 16'-17' for a BCS school. Guy vaulters rarely get much because the team of about 45 guys is only allowed 12.6 scholarships and coaches wan't to give big scholarships to people who score a lot of points, and since most vaulters just do one event vs a sprinter doing about 4 races per meet, they get the priority. Girls vary more because a coach will probably prefer a girl jumping 11' that runs the 100 hurdles in 11.5 vs. a girl that just jumpes 12'6 and comes from a really good coach.

[vault3rb0y]

Can't view your video due to "privacy settings".

It's great to have that goal in mind, but three things come to mind immediately:

1.) all the smaller goals it will take for you to achieve that large goal. Until you start achieving these smaller goals, and enjoying the PROCESS not the outcome, you won't know how realistic that goal really is. Maybe it's too high, maybe in a year it'll be too low.

2.) You should never make your major goals dependent on others decisions. What if you jump 16', but don't get a scholarship from the school you want? Is your goal not met? You should make your goals more dependent on YOU than ANYONE else.

3.) Say you achieve that goal, and you get a scholarship to vault in college.... now what? Where is your motivation? Believe me... it doesn't just APPEAR because you are a collegiate vaulter. Unless you are vaulting because you love the sport, and because you love the process and excitement of day-to-day HARD training, you won't last. I don't mean to discourage you, but to give you some perspective from someone who LOVES the sport, but still found a transition period into collegiate vaulting where I struggled to find motivation to train 25 hours a week and plant poles while tired, sore, beat up, and mentally fatigued. It takes another level of motivation and a true love for vaulting, not just achieving goals.

I hope that gives you some healthy things to think about. Keep pole vaulting in perspective, and definitely don't do it for the title of "scholarship athlete". Not that you are, but trust me... unless you play football/basketball in college, no one really gives you much "street cred" as a pole vaulter LOL.

[bel142]

Well you wanna win the state comp... well... what state do you live in?

Anyhoo, the above advice may sound harsh but it is pretty accurate. There are very few scholarships at the men's collegiate level. There are only scholarships at the D1 - 2 level, D3 has no money to give for athletics, however, the school may give you money for academics. Keep in mind that at the collegiate level you are there for an education... even if you are jumping at a big school, track may seem like a 40 hour a week job, but you are still there for the piece of paper upon graduation... Heck, I pole vaulted full time for 5 years, and managed to get my degree in Kineseology... Turns out that went hand in hand with pole vault...

I digress... when you look into schools, talk to the coach, observe a practice, start training at a club... Keep chippin away and big bars will come...

track is fun, the harder and smarter you train, the better the results are... its really a self fulfilling prophecy... You say you want to jump high? train hard, keep chippin away and don't get discouraged, yea eventually it will happen...
cheers
bel

[Tumbleweed]

First off DIII schools do not offer athletic scholarships, but they do recruit vaulters. They will sell you on academic scholarships and their program/location.
DIII schools generaly are looking for anyone above 12'.

NAIA Schools do offer athletic scholarships and start looknig at vaulters usualy in the 12' - 6" to 14' range.
DII schools start looking at vaulters usualy around 14' - 6" - 16'-6"
DI schools start looking at 17'

But others are correct, just train the best you can, which means year round. Then use a recruiting site such as www.berecruited.com to list yourself once your Junior year is over.
This will get you in contact with all schools and coaches.

Good Luck and enjoy your High School jumping, it will be over faster than you think!

[bel142]

C'mon lets be reasonable, at the D1 level there are only about 50-60 guys on any given year who jump 5.20 or above... to say that schools start looking at 5.20 is really not true... and what, only less than a hand full of high school-ers jump 5.20 on any given year.

A schools need is also taken into account, if they have 5 guys all in their 2nd year jumping 4.90 then yea, they are probably only going to take on a vaulter if he is jumping 5.20...

if they have NO vaulters, and they want 5 they are probably looking for some different criteria....

[vault3rb0y]

A Div. 1 school in the SEC of Big Ten conference is fairly likely to offer a little scholarship to someone who jumps 16'6". If you jump 16', you might have a little shot at a little money from one of these big time D.1's.

A Div. 1 school in a smaller, less competitive conference might offer some money to someone jumping 15'8". You can't really tell for sure.

A pretty damn good indicator of whether a school would or SHOULD pay you to come jump for them is based on their conference meet results. Look back 4-5 years at their conference pole vault finishes, and if you could store points on most of those years, chances are they should give you a couple of bucks to come vault for them.

[whoisjohnlamb]

Sorry for the absence! I am in central indiana.

I read through everything, and gladly appreciate the advice. My season is going fairly well, i just broke my main pole into 5 pieces right before county but hey, 4 new poles came my way today even though, they are brand new from 1985.

I now know I need to just train train train... I have found a club close to home where I will vault two times a week. I have a good workout program made up, and i have a rope, rings, and a high bar. I'm set.... just gotta juggle work, football, basketball, girls and track Pole vaulting is my passion though, i love it.

Oh, btw... i found out im a good high jumper (6'0") and long jumper (20'0") too. If i can continue to do good at all three i might i have a scholarship in my future haha.