hamstring/college scouting

[tikrapt]

If you pulled up on a plant, you may have torqued it by a poor step - along with being dehydrated, etc. Be aware of your hip mobility. My coach calls the hamstring a victim because it's the end result of something wrong somewhere else. Your hips lacking mobility could have aided in the hamstring pull. If you find it is a mobility issue, try hanging out with the hurdlers for a week and run through hurdle drills. Stepovers, Lunges, etc. It can't hurt while your laid up, the drills will help strengthen your hammy too. Good luck

sounds good. thanks man. actually i run the 110m hurdles anyway so i guess some hurdle mobility drills will help double

[polehopper]

[quote="tikrapt"]well thanks for the advice guys

with my running... 99% sure i have no problems running... basically heres my problem... i have no running problems i just hate stretching. im guessing there are a lot of people out there like me who just hate stretching. i do it, but i obviously dont do it enough. learn from my mistake.... GO STRETCH A LOT! in a way this injury is maybe somewhat good for me cuz now im gonna stretch my a@@ off. injury occured in my jumping leg when i was taking off mostly because it was not stretched properly. now if i were reading this and someone else was in my place i'd be thinking "ah i hate stretching, but it wont happen to me" thats what i did think... but go freaking stretch people... being injured sucks. knowing you can do something (jump very very high) but not being able to show it off really really sucks.[/

Be careful with the stretching. There is new research that suggest static stretching before the activity can actually be counterproductive. Static stretching starts a series of micro tears in the muscle making it weaker for the activity. It's been proven a progressive gradual warm-up is better then stretching before the activity. Progressive, build ups to the max effort. I agree, stretching sucks but should not be neglected all together. Your stretching should be done on off days and after the activity so your muscles have time to repair. Recovery/repair is as important as the training itself and has to be part of your training cycle. That's why at the end of a peaking period it is usually with less activty and more rest. I've jumped many PR's after taking a week or two off from vaulting. Why? Because I felt great on the runway. If your school doesn't have a good athletic training program, you might check into a good sports medicine program.
One more thing I would recommend is not doing hamstring curls.
This exercise loads the muscle in a contracted shortened state. A better exercise is romanian deadlifts. This exercise loads the muscle when it is elongated. Strengtening it in its longest position. This accompolishises 2 things. It can help equilize the balance between your quads and hams and lengthen the muscle. That's win win. You can find information on the internet by typing in romainian deadlift. It's basically a modified straight legged deadlift. Modified to take the pressure off your back and load the hams.

Good luck

[tikrapt]

Be careful with the stretching. There is new research that suggest static stretching before the activity can actually be counterproductive. Static stretching starts a series of micro tears in the muscle making it weaker for the activity. It's been proven a progressive gradual warm-up is better then stretching before the activity. Progressive, build ups to the max effort. I agree, stretching sucks but should not be neglected all together. Your stretching should be done on off days and after the activity so your muscles have time to repair. Recovery/repair is as important as the training itself and has to be part of your training cycle. That's why at the end of a peaking period it is usually with less activty and more rest. I've jumped many PR's after taking a week or two off from vaulting. Why? Because I felt great on the runway. If your school doesn't have a good athletic training program, you might check into a good sports medicine program.
One more thing I would recommend is not doing hamstring curls.
This exercise loads the muscle in a contracted shortened state. A better exercise is romanian deadlifts. This exercise loads the muscle when it is elongated. Strengtening it in its longest position. This accompolishises 2 things. It can help equilize the balance between your quads and hams and lengthen the muscle. That's win win. You can find information on the internet by typing in romainian deadlift. It's basically a modified straight legged deadlift. Modified to take the pressure off your back and load the hams.

Good luck[/quote]

yeah i've heard the dont static stretch thing. its not really that even, we do active warmups (like skips and all that crap). would you say static stretching isnt good at all if combined with active stretching before a workout? we do active but we then do some static. thanks

[rainbowgirl28]

yeah i've heard the dont static stretch thing. its not really that even, we do active warmups (like skips and all that crap). would you say static stretching isnt good at all if combined with active stretching before a workout? we do active but we then do some static. thanks

Static stretching is good to do AFTER your workout.

[polehopper]

yeah i've heard the dont static stretch thing. its not really that even, we do active warmups (like skips and all that crap). would you say static stretching isnt good at all if combined with active stretching before a workout? we do active but we then do some static. thanks

Static stretching is good to do AFTER your workout.

After the workout and on off days when you have time to recover. The key is to maintain flexibility. Staying flexible is just another aspect of your training. If you work on being flexible your dynamic warm-ups will be enough to perform well without tearing down muscle fiber prior to the event.

[vault3rb0y]

Well now that i have a strained quad i cant be hypocritical and say "go out and do it". Because thats exactly what i did, and i didnt complain if it hurt a little. Then it hurt a lot, and before i knew it i had re-injured it. Ive decided being healthy is #1 before anything else, at least to the point where you will not get hurt more by jumping. If your muscles are sore, suck it up and jump. But if there is something really getting worse, take the rest. Im now going into a college P.T. and have already decided to do whatever it is he tells me to for re-hab... whether that means 5 days of strength building or a month of serious rehab. That would mean missing the first 3 meets of my season, and it would kill me inside, but its better than the risk of blowing out something for the rest of your life. But ill pray for the best and GET BETTER just like you should.

[tikrapt]

Well now that i have a strained quad i cant be hypocritical and say "go out and do it". Because thats exactly what i did, and i didnt complain if it hurt a little. Then it hurt a lot, and before i knew it i had re-injured it. Ive decided being healthy is #1 before anything else, at least to the point where you will not get hurt more by jumping. If your muscles are sore, suck it up and jump. But if there is something really getting worse, take the rest. Im now going into a college P.T. and have already decided to do whatever it is he tells me to for re-hab... whether that means 5 days of strength building or a month of serious rehab. That would mean missing the first 3 meets of my season, and it would kill me inside, but its better than the risk of blowing out something for the rest of your life. But ill pray for the best and GET BETTER just like you should.

yeah sucks huh. at first i thought it would be the 1-2 week injury kinda thing. then i hurt it agian trying to come back. then again. now im taking a lot of time off so im not hurt for the spring season and end up ending my vaulting career a little early. good luck man.... but take it easy. think the best way to tell is if its a major thing and you take time off.... when you come back if anything at all or any movement has any feeling at all dont do anything. before you try something hard like jumping move you body every way you can think of and if any movement hurts then take more time off.

[tikrapt]

thought i'd also add... pain is something you can deal with. you can play throught pain... which is what i thought at first... its just pain i can play through it if i want it enough (which i did) but i then realized no matter how much pain i can deal with.... its not physically possible for me to jump if a major muscle is ripped in two peices so yeah pain... deal with it... real injury... dont try to go through the pain

[Lax PV]

if you completely tore your hammy in two pieces, it is not likely you will compete at a high level for a very long time. Im not saying a high level compared to others, but a high level based on your personal athletic abilities. Not to say that it can't ever happen, but if your hamstring is sincerely torn in two, thats a MAJOR injury, involing a lot of time.

If you ran the hurdles, that probably didn't help your hammy at all. Running hurdles causes an emense dynamic stretching on your hamstrings, much farther from your rested state or any static stretch.

P.S. if you threw down a 16 mid mark in June, colleges would find a way to get you there... we had a kid decide he wanted to come here in the middle of July, and he was talented, so they made it happen... strings can get puled if you are good.

[tikrapt]

P.S. if you threw down a 16 mid mark in June, colleges would find a way to get you there... we had a kid decide he wanted to come here in the middle of July, and he was talented, so they made it happen... strings can get puled if you are good.

yeah in addition to pole vault i also run the 100m hurdles. im told this is a good combination of events though so. with the july thing.... i realize there are application deadlines... but is it possible for a coach to pull strings with that. i obviously havnt applied to every school i have talked to (already applied to 7 which is a lot (got into 6/6 so far!)) so is it possible for a coach to sneak your application in after the app. deadline? and what about the may 1 deadline to let colleges know of your attendance or now... can they pull that string too?

[rainbowgirl28]

so is it possible for a coach to sneak your application in after the app. deadline? and what about the may 1 deadline to let colleges know of your attendance or now... can they pull that string too?

Yes, and the latter is not an issue at most schools if you are going to be an athlete there.

[tikrapt]

so is it possible for a coach to sneak your application in after the app. deadline? and what about the may 1 deadline to let colleges know of your attendance or now... can they pull that string too?

Yes, and the latter is not an issue at most schools if you are going to be an athlete there.

sooo basically you can suck all the way through indoor of your senior year (or be hurt... BLAH) and as long as you kick a** at some point you can stil get in wherever? just not as much oportunity for scholarship money because by may most of its gone