PV'er Shortage?

[JTred]

In my school we seem to have a serious shortage of PV'ers. we have 2 guys (used to have 3 but he quit for scouts) and 2 girls(also used to have 3). Our coach has tried to recruit some more kids but to no avail. It really sucks always giving the team a gauranteed 3rd place or higher. Does anyone else have this problem? Anyone have any ideas for getting more kids to try it?

[PVPirate26]

we actually have a lot of vaulters in our program: about 11 or 12 kids in total that show up regularly. lots of the other track kids come over and show interest in pole vaulting but never stick around.

our coach has started trying to recruit on the junior high level to get kids going when they're younger, and he's been getting some pretty good turnout. he also hosts little PV clinics whenever he can to give younger kids an opportunity to try vaulting.

[izzystikchik]

I wish we had cuts, PVPirate26!!!! So many dang kids i don't know what to do with!!!

[PVPirate26]

i agree, izzy. if we had another pit, i wouldn't mind so much, but there comes a point where cuts would definitely be a good idea...

[VaultMarq26]

good lord, how long does practice take with 12 vaulters????

[csuvaulter]

I coach 16...and I had to make cuts when we had over 20. It's kinda crazy sometimes, but we jump in 2 different groups and there are always a few kids that are sick or injured that I don't have to worry about as much as the others. I actually wish I had fewer vaulters, but it's too late now...can't really give as much attention as I'd like to the really dedicated ones.

[Antihero43]

After graduation this year there are only 4 pole vaulters for next year unless we get some fresh meat. 3 girls and 1 guy. Its a sad sad turn of events. Hopefuly we can recruit, im even thinking about coming back after i graduate to help recruit these kids.

[ashcraftpv]

I started out with about 22 kids, but all I had to do was crank up the running to weed a couple out. I also let my brand new vaulters only do pole plants, pole runs, and sand vault for the first couple weeks. That's usually good for getting rid of the kids who wanted to "try" it and get tired of doing drills. i'm down to 15 now, which is still a PITA most days, but since I have them in 2 groups that jump on alternate days, its alot more manageable.

[izzystikchik]

good lord, how long does practice take with 12 vaulters????

We have really long vaulting practices almost everyday like 3 hours on average, and its frustrating because, even though a few of us are the ones actually care and do well in meets though yet we don't get the quality time needed to improve due to long lines and such

[Aviendha]

we have 6 seniors (3 guys, 3 girls), 2 juniors, and one sophomore...but rarely does everyone show up to practice, and even then, only about 5 of us actually work every practice (occasionally i don't, dead legs, hurt, or whatnot)....next year is really going to stink because our current coach knows nothing about pv, so we've been basically coaching ourselves (which is okay, because all the seniors have gone to camps, and we had a good coach the last three years...we're the only ones that work anyway)...and we're all the good vaulters who know what we're talking about, so once we're gone, they're not gonna have anyone to teach the new people (well).

[mcmvaulter15]

see...most of ya'll (if not all of ya'll) go to a bigger school then i do...im a senior at strwan high school in texas...half way between abilene and fort worth on the interstate and my school has 165 kids in it...thats pre-k through 12th grade...and we play six-man football(we were the 2003 six-man football state champions!) and we only had me and another guy and one girl pole vaulter in high school vaulting...so ya'll have it easy

[mcminkz05]

Last year we had 3, but right now we have about 12 vaulters, our coach just kinda sent a bunch of people over.. we all have to do hard runnign workouts before vaulting, so rarely does more than half those kids show up at once, but when they do I take our top 3 vaulters besides me over to do drills, then I just kick everyone else over to the sand pit while we use the runway.. its a pretty good strategy, the serious vaulters get the runway time we need, and all the new kids are developing great runs and plant habbits due to all the time spent doing sand pits and other drills And as ashcraft said, its also great for getting rid of the kids that dont want to work hard for it..