Limit Opening Heights in High School/Youth

[dj]

PV Safety 2…

Limit Opening Heights in High School/Youth

good morning,

i hope everyone copied and printed the "The Direct Approach to Pole Vaulting"…

in the coaches thread...Follow it … please..

this is the minimum process a coach or beginning jumper should take. if you were not started this way i urge you to do this in the off season. You don't need a pit.. just the pole, track, LJ pit and playground bars... and some cones...

what we are doing with LOW starting heights is letting the coaches enter athletes in the meet WITHOUT ANY PRACTICE OR COACHING.

all nine schools, here in my area, have done this at every first year meet i have gone to in the six years i have been here. Only a few schools have a vault coach. i try and help run the event off and the head coach without a coach usually asks me to "coach his kids"... (who have NEVER tried the event).

Q. Does gymnastics "change" the apparatuses' ???!!!!! Does gymnastics require skill levels to continue to move on? If the gymnasts can't "get over" the horse or swing around the parrell bars are they in the meet?

as much as i love the event i quit going to meets and helping with the vault. The several occasions where I told the coach "No" he put them in anyway, on several occasions where they were vaulting very "unsafe", holding high and landing on the grass in front of the pit or girls that were so afraid and had no "concept, run fast… try to stop, slide into the box or jump off the ground (not vault) throw the pole and at least land on their butt on the pit..

I can give you a thousand IE's and you can too.

Stop the insanity… use some logic…we eliminate student s that should not enter the event without "minimum" standards and preparations….

Did we have deaths before fiberglass??? What has changed… we had ninth grade boys jumping 9 feet on steel, 12 feet as seniors!!!

Nine feet for 9th grade boys is minimum…….. that means all this boy has to do is grip 10-6 (go through the 5 day training progression and meet the sand pit standard) with the 8" in the box and say a 7 foot reach that would only mean that his feet would "maybe" be 3 feet from the ground if he missed up and couldn't swing correctly.

Do you get what I'm saying with that? If your feet are only 3 feet from the sand in the sand pit you should land safe… while you are learning the event.

For girls a 7 foot vault opening height standard would mean a 9-6 grip… a 9-6 grip with a 6-6/7-0 reach would mean your feet 3 feet above the sand for swing drills to meet the "grip" standard.

Two ways to increase safety…

1. RAISE THE OPENING HEIGHT STANDARDS RIGHT NOW!!!

for beginner boys and girls AND for College boys and girls… college opening heights… 12 feet boys 10 feet girls..



2. correct the OVERSTRIDING on the run. NOW!!!

If you don't know how my "blog" should be up in a day or two… www.oneapproachrun.com

Force the athlete with the "desire" to develop the physical and mental skills to jump safely.

Logic… if you want a 4.0+ in high school what do you have to do? Either develop the skills or "cheat"..

Right now we allowing coaches to "cheat" and it's has and will continue to cause injury and death.


dj

[rainbowgirl28]

We don't need two threads about this, and I don't know anyone else who agrees with DJ that forcing opening heights to be higher will make the event safer. You can discuss this issue here: http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtop ... 28&t=23451