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Hi, I am a first-year head coach and am learning more and more about pole vault as I go along (I coach every event at my school). Two of my athletes are first-year vaulters who qualified for the state meet (my girl qualified in 7-00 and my guy in 9-02). Below I have one video of each athlete vaulting at practice. The Maryland State Championships are this Thursday and Saturday, so any tips will be greatly appreciated!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfMyPdITb1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K3RgGbqNfs

Also, this is the only suitable pole we have for these two athletes and its a 150lb 13-6 pole

Not that people do not want to help. I just do not think u will get many responses to this because all of your athletes look to just be learning how to pole vault. And right now they just need to pole vault, and get the feel for the event, slowly gathering better body control and understanding of what they are supposed to do in the event. Nothing anyone could tell you would make them improve rapidly over the next 4 days.

VaultPurple wrote:Not that people do not want to help. I just do not think u will get many responses to this because all of your athletes look to just be learning how to pole vault. And right now they just need to pole vault, and get the feel for the event, slowly gathering better body control and understanding of what they are supposed to do in the event. Nothing anyone could tell you would make them improve rapidly over the next 4 days.

A superb piece of advice!

Thanks for the reminder. I know that they werent going to suddenly become great vaulters in a few days, but I was wondering if there was just one thing (a glaring flaw) that should be worked on this week which could help take them to one height higher.

Although both vaulters are at very early stages of development, they can probably be helped by focusing on the following:

At it's most basic element, the pole vault is a jumping sport. If they focus on only one or two things it should be to jump strongly off the ground without losing speed and reaching their top hand to maximum height just as they leave the ground to minimize the shock of the plant. Tell them the tip of the pole should be as quiet as possible as it makes contact with the box and the pole rolls into the pit to understand the jumping up aspect.

This needs to be done with a straight plant bisecting the face/body. If the pole is planted off to the side, all is likely lost.

As their coach, check their step to make sure it is as close to directly under their take off step as possible and adjust the approach as needed.

I sometime describe the vault to kids as though they are trying to dunk a basketball, but taking off from the free-throw line. Imagine how much speed and jump is necessary for this, but keep in mind timing of a tall plant is very important.

Review:
1. Straight, middle pole plant position.
2. Accelerating speed and JUMP at take-off with a tall reach and a good take-off step under the top hand.
3. Pick up the feet and make effort to turn.
4. Standards all the way back (required).
5. If the vaulter is hitting the bar quickly on the way up because they are jumping well, small increases in grip height can be made (2 inches at a time) to give them a little more time to get the legs up, but don't forget to move the start of the run back just a little if the grip is raised (my general rule at this level is to move the step back half as much as the grip is raised. (Example: if you raise the grip 2 inches, back the step up one inch from the prior jump with the lower grip).


Good luck. Hope this is helpful to all of you.