Pratt: Vaulting His Way to the Top

[uconnvaulta]

well they must be some ridiculous athletes if they are 40 and still cometing kudos to them.

[Skyin' Brian]

well they must be some ridiculous athletes if they are 40 and still cometing kudos to them.

i actually didnt mean competing in the ncaa, simply taking classes and graduating

[uconnvaulta]

yeah i know thats why i said it because it wasnt relevant to the conversation that was posted really, non athletes i could care less about im just saying 26 and competing in college is a little ridiculous, thats like a highschool senior vs a college senior do the math and try to understand what im saying, its about experience

[Skyin' Brian]

yeah i know thats why i said it because it wasnt relevant to the conversation that was posted really, non athletes i could care less about im just saying 26 and competing in college is a little ridiculous, thats like a highschool senior vs a college senior do the math and try to understand what im saying, its about experience

it isnt nearly as large as the gap between a high school senior and high school freshman...also, following your logic, it would be unfair for jeff hartwig to compete against brad walker because he has much more experience. college athletics isnt necessarily about age group competition. it is about student-athletes competing in sports that they have a passion for. and come on, it isnt like pratt is something out of the movie Necessary Roughness

you could have delayed your college studies and competing if you had wanted the same advantages.

skipper jumps higher than pratt and he started college right out of high school.

[TreyDECA]

it doesn't matter what age you are... if you jump high, you jump high...

it just looks a lot better and you recieve more praise if you do it younger than your competitors. and frankly, i think the whole "chris weinke" thing is kinda sorry... there's no right or wrong answer.

the fact of the matter is, to most people, pratt won't be a decent vaulter unless he wins every meet he enters in college cause he IS so much older than everyone. and he can't really brag or boast and most people won't throw praise his way cause of his age...

i've never even seen him jump. but from the way this forum talks about him, he's 6'9 160lbs, runs faster than me, mormon, old, and underservingly getting flak for being in college.

[Tommy_pv]

"It really is just a matter of time," Pratt said. "I probably need to get a little faster, a little bit stronger.â€Â

[Mecham]

Like I said, you guys are in for a treat!

[pelle3]

So the question of the hour is: Does the guy jump against his age-group peers, or his scholastic peers?

[carpedium24]

Hey I'm new to this posting thing, but after reading so many differing opinions/questions about Pratt I thought I would talk to him. Pratt says he would have chosen to go to Worlds, not because of the money but because I guess at the last indoor Worlds or maybe outdoors I can't remember 5.70 medaled. He says he's not too disappointed that he can't go though because he thinks Arkansas will be very good competition. He turned 26 just barely--the day he won the MWC indoor championships. He said he didn't train at all on his two year mission. The only exercise he was allowed to do was walk to his appointments. I asked if he thought it was worth it...I mean imagine where he'd be if he'd kept training. He said he wouldn't trade it for anything. (It sounded like he and his companions had a lot of fun and success sharing the gospel and helping the Mexicans). I asked him if he really thought it was only a matter of time before he broke the world record. He said, "No what I said was it is only a matter of time before I jump 19 feet. The reporter shifted things around a bit." I said I don't care what the reporter wrote, what do you think. Pratt said, "Right now I concentrating on the goals I have set for this year, and so presently my focus is on nationals."
I also asked him about being a Mormon--I mentioned there were a couple posts by Mormons and athletes with Mormon coaches etc. He said it's great and he challenged me to read the Book of Mormon to find out what I thought about it. He is actually speaking to a huge Mormon congregation at an LDS church on Sunday in Arkansas. After that he just gave me a few tips on training. He said to keep a detailed training journal. If practice doesn't go very well figure out what you can learn from it and write it down. If practice did go well, write down what you did so you can repeat it. He said make goals, develop a plan to accomplish them and go for it. That's about all I found out, but I'm pretty convinced he's a legit pole vaulter who is going to jump pretty high.

[jomrus]

well put.

[Mecham]

Thank you!

[VTechVaulter]

He said to keep a detailed training journal.

yeah this is a great tool. i watched an Earl Bell video 7 or 8 years ago where he said to do this. its kind of funny now to look back at my journal from like my sophmore year in h.s. and see what poles and length of runs i used. my 6 left run has moved back 23 feet in the last 6 years. haha.