Mental or Physical?!

[Azbeachboy1]

We all know that the pole vault is a huge mental event. But being a great athlete physically helps a lot too. I was wondering what kind of coach do you have and what kind of vaulter are you? Do you have the athletisism but struggle mentally, or visa versa. How does your coach like to coach you? Do you sit and watch lots of video, do lots of technique drills. Or do you do lots of weight lifting, long sprints physical activity that makes you need a nap after each practice?

[rainbowgirl28]

Hmmm... I am not a very physically gifted athlete, I make up for it somewhat by working super hard.

I haven't worked with my coach long enough to say what type of coach he is.

[PVJunkie]

A truly good coach can shift gears with each athlete. Their overall coaching style will not chage but they should be able to motivate all types of athletes. Some like the rough stuff while others need that motherly love the so miss. Deep down though its up to them how good they want to be. Some just need a bigger shove than others to get them going the right direction. How many vaulters have the luxury of having a coach that can still train and vault with them instead of talking about the good ol days. There is no better motivator than leadership by example.

On a side note a good friend of mine who recruits and coaches emerging elite athletes put down in writing some of his maxims for athletes that like to whine........they go something like:

For college graduates (post-grads have already or are in the process of learning the truth), here is a list of 11 things they did not teach you on campus in the "feel-good", "politically-correct" teachings of today..............having created a full generation of young adults with no concept of reality, and how this concept has set many of you up for initial failure in the real world.

MAXIM 1
Life is not fair; get over it and get after it.

MAXIM 2
The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you deserve to feel good about yourself and even then the world doesn't care about your self-esteem.

MAXIM 3
You will NOT make "six figures" a year on a big NIKE contract right out of college. Truth is you'll have to struggle to balance work and training just to put yourself in a position to have success at the national championships.

MAXIM 4
If you think your professors were tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

MAXIM 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

MAXIM 6
If you mess up, it is not someone else's fault; so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

MAXIM 7
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

MAXIM 8
Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

MAXIM 9
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

MAXIM 10
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

MAXIM 11
Soft coaching is not a professional service. No coaching is a disservice. Effective coaching is a two-way communication process.

[Robert schmitt]

That's an interesting question because I get to look at it from two perspectives as an athlete and coach.

Physical ability makes up for alot of things, but you are never going to reach your ultimate performance unless you've trained just as hard mentally. I used to believe that I could train harder than everyone else and that would make me the best. No matter what it was running, drills, gymnastics, or lifting I would always do more than anyone I knew or talked to. I was over training physically (maybe the stress fractures I sustained in my take off leg every year for three years should have been a clue.) When we finally got a coach that really under stood the vault he took me down to the weight room and said take your last look at it. Then he revoked my pass to the athletic training facilities. Not saying he did this to all the vaulters, just me. We did a lot of gymnastics and imitative(vault) strength exercises. Nothing that I would consider to difficult. He had us do visualization and watch a lot of tape, some of it was a little weird! like HYPNO-VAULT. My coach just really loved the vault. He would think of things to do when we were all in rut from practice, like going down to the river on a hot day and rope vaulting into the river over a 16' bungee, (You learn real quick not to lay back after clearing the bar like you would if there was a mat there), he would sit in a lawn chair in the water and score our landings. In the first year and a half he was there I added 4' to my PR, something that I was not able to do my first three years of college. So I became a big believer in less is sometimes more and pain doesn't always=gain.

For me now as a high school Coach. I would guess that 90% + of the kids I see are more limited by what is going on in between their ears than by their physical ability. I'm amazed at how hard they are on themselves and their ability. I sit at meets and just watch kids throw in the towel so to speak before the meet even begins because they get psyched out (head cased it) by a competitor.

What was the question? I've been rambling. For me and for most athletes I see at this level they are limited more by their mental prep and attitude than by physical ability. For me it was mostly mental. There is a difference from telling your self you going to do something and really deep down believing you can do it. I'm ashamed to admit some of the things that went through my head when I was standing on the run way, I don't think my worst enemy could come up with some of the thing I thought of. As I learned to work through those mental blocks in technique and over all attitude then my physical ability started to limit me.

[Azbeachboy1]

That was an awsome answer. I guess it is true that Mental always is mor eimportant than physical. Anyways, you have to have strong mental strength so you can push yourself physically. It's all about concentration in the vault.

[ChrisPetersen]

So I became a big believer in less is sometimes more and pain doesn't always=gain.

I totally agree with this philosophy. I'm a Decathlete and I think by far pole vault is the most demanding event in track, I like to think of it as a mini decathlon you have to SPRINT down the runway, JUMP for your take off, THROW your body over the bar, while maintaining FORM, and you need to have the ENDURANCE to do it over and over again. With this said I know people who vault almost everyday which baffles me, if you went to a strength coach and said you wanted to do cleans or bench everyday they'd say you are crazy.

I also think that PV is the most mental event in track via the fact that its one of the few events where a person can make up for a lack of physical ability with dedication and hard (but smart) work. There have been plenty of times when I have competed against vaulters in decathlons who couldn't sprint, jump, or throw to save there lives, but as soon as that 8th event roles around they're soaring over bars 15+ feet in the air.