Scholarships

[Tumbleweed]

When recruiting I try to look at the whole person/package. First and foremost is ask, "Is this person going to be a solid student?" College athletics is too demanding for kids who are not going to make academics a priority in their lives. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you do have to be responsible enough to go to class.

Secondly I look for athletic ability and mental stability. You need these two things are absolutely required to be successful in the pole vault. I really don't care much about how good or bad the technique is of a 17 or 18 year old kid. We are going to re-teach them to vault from the ground up anyway; but, they must have the potential to develop the physical abilities needed to pole vault or we are both wasting our time. Additionally, I am looking for mental stability. College and pole vaulting are two unbelievably stressful additions to a person's life. They can both be very rewarding as well; but, if an individual is not mentally stabile enough to cope with whatever comes at them on a day to day basis then it becomes very difficult to progress in the pole vault.

The issue of club vaulters versus school vaulters never really comes up other than in the context of the above criteria. The primary questions I need answered in the recruiting process are: "Is this person going to be a solid college student?", "Does this person posses the physical and mental abilities to become a quality pole vaulter?", and "Can this person create enough stability in their personal life to allow them to develop?" This last question is something that is very often overlooked and not discussed in these types of forums, but I have found it to be crucial in finding kids who are going to be successful. Successful athletes find ways to create stability in their lives. Unsuccessful ones do not.

I hope this helps. I am only one coach, but I believe most coaches are looking for the same qualities that I have described here.

My question is, then what do you look for in your recruits if you don't care much about technique of a High School vaulter? I mean if a kid is a great student/citizen, but does'nt jump 15 feet+ ? Do you recruit him based on his grades/ interviews? My son is in the process of choosing a school, so where do you coach at and are your looking for freshman vaulters? Any advise helps!

[superpipe]

Another thing I see all of the time and it still happens to me is "translation". When a skill is learned it begins to mean something different to the vaulter than it did when he/she first learned it. The better you get at certain things changes your frame of reference. I've had athletes tell me, "NOW I know what you mean when you were telling me that. I always thought I understood it but now I really do".

Still off topic ...

Yeh ... what Bubba said.

You can't properly COACH something unless you first LEARN it yourself. You think you know BTB2 (for example), but then after another year's experience (either coaching or vaulting) you need to read it (and learn it) all over again, becuz your frame of reference has changed!

This is what our young protoge PP hasn't realized yet.

OK ... back to Scholarships ...

Kirk

Sorry about the off topic thing, but I have to comment on this too. What Kirk said above couldn't be more right on. I'm still vaulting myself and it helps my coaching so much more because of it. I also re-read alot of material because of the "frame of reference" change from learning by doing and coaching. And when I say "learning by doing," I mean doing with good supervised coaching.

[jonheath]

Can anyone explain why they did not hire Tim McMichael???

Call and ask Martin <I may not be here long anyway Smith>. I think he really does not want the vault to be successfull ,with Tim it would have been. He wants only walk-ons and to give book scholorships at best. He only offered an 18 foot high schooler 50%. That was an insult. He won the big 12 with the past coach's recruits and athletes.

Supposedly they gave some 11'6" girl 50%.

His policies about the vault have just been all over the place. I don't know how a coach in good conscience can recruit a kid to a program like that and make them any promises about the future of the program.

But if it's really the SCHOOL someone wants to go to, and they would be happy there even without pole vaulting, then more power to them.

Supposedly is correct. We brought in an 11'6" girl for 15% and that was for 2 reasons:
1) We are starting from scratch and we needed someone to come and hopefully develope and being that I came on quite late in the game, there were not many HS vaulters left that could have a hope of competing in the Big 12.
2) 11'6" with no coaching and a 15.87 100H time and stronger than some of the men I've coached. We didn't just pick any 11'6" vaulter.

On a note to all the Coach Martin Smith "critics", I am working and learning under one of the great coaches of track and field. He makes decisions based on information that is not prevy to those that seem to critisize. I have yet to meet anyone that has as much passion for the sport of track and field than Martin Smith. He truely loves the sport with all his being. I want nothing more than to coach track and field at the highest level, and I am honored to learn from Coach Smith. As far as scholarships go, ask any college coach, it depends on the fit with the right timing nationally, conference, and team wise.

We plan on nothing less than turning OU into a great vault program. We have a great start so far and every kid on the team has lifetime PR's through our first indoor season. I have the feeling that every vaulter on the OU roster is very happy and excited to be here because I have never coached a collective crew that works as hard as these kids do. This is an example of our leadership.