PoleVaultPower.com

What do most of you guys do during off-season to stay in shape for pole vaulting? This was a tough year for our track team, we lost 3 coaches, so now we only have our head coach, who was also the pv coach, so I'm left being the pv coach for next year. We all signed up for Cross Country except one girl who plays softball, and a guy that failed a class, so he has to re-take it next year We will run, do pole runs, lift, and go to OU to vault every now n' then in their indoor facility. What are some other good training methods?

I can tell you as a former HS distance runner who pole-vaulted, cross country is only good for helping one to keep conditioned but it doesn't help one prepare for pole vaulting. Are you able to attend any vaulting camps like 'skyjumpers'? Thats a good way of getting familiar with everyday training methods.

If your not able to participate in such camps, as for actual drills, you can work on a variety of running & pole vaulting drills to increase speed and strength:

-sprint drills: working on pole runs on track, straight-away sprints while jogging on track bends to help increase endurance. sprint runs on football field (grass helps avoid shock on feet), using sprint vests to help on resistence sprint & increase takeoff on toes
- at PV facilities: do short-run rockbacks, knee lunges during takeoffs, rowing arms during takeoffs
-you can also create a 'vaulting slide box' to help work takeoffs: our team used wood box frame with wheels on bottom. We also had extra metal vault box and used it in parking lots w/ practice poles.
-in gym: besides free-weight workouts, working on dips, pull ups, crunches/situps, leg swings all help. Might want to talk to gymnists to see what kind of workouts they do.

It's tough to loose a coach during the season and i'm pretty sure others here know good training methods to help if your at a pv site or not.

LOL we are not actually running cross country, we signed up for it so we can have an off-season, i seemed to forget to mention it but yea, thanks for your tips

you must have connections down to ou? maybe a big brother?

well...you can say that i guess...our school has given OU some good vaulters in the past(Mike Westlund and Leslie Dunlap) plus Westlunds lil sis is in high school right now

I joined a vaulting club.
You can find one near you if you check http://www.usatf.com/clubs/search/

I was lucky enough to find one with a very great coach. He's definitely one of the best in the state.