New pole vaulter

[TechDragon]

I compete in Southern California in one of the weaker leagues in CIF. There are about two or three other schools in our league with polevault teams, primarily because the other schools don't have regulation size pits.

This is my junior year, and we recently upgraded our pits to a little bigger than regulation size, so we just started pole vaulting last week. I've been running the boys 800, 1600, and 3200 for the past three years along with cross country and now I'm trying out pole vaulting. I'm not a great runner, usually I'm in the end of the group.

I'm having a little trouble getting everything to work right, we haven't really measured our jumps yet so I can't give an accurate measurement of any vaults.

Will the two seasons I have left be enough to get a good height in? I really want to break 12'8" by the end of senior year. Do you think this is plausible? I weigh about 145 lbs, I'm about 5'7", and have a relatively weak upperbody... I try to focus myself on academics mostly and I juggle about five AP classes with a few other extracurricular activities.

Thanks for any input you may have.

[vaulter894]

in high school I was 5-8 130 with a weak upperbody and I jumped 14-3 so your size isn't a problem, try working on ur speed, you need some speed in the vault, and start working on your technique as soon as you can. 2 seasons should be enough, but start lifting if you can. Good Luck.

[bvpv07]

For this season, focus on learning the basics of the vault: good technique that allows for you to not have to break any bad habits in order to get to a new height. If you're just starting, focus on drills, pole runs, turn ups, etc. Then, especially during the offseason between this season and your senior season, work on lifting weights, gaining upper body and core strength (your current strength will probably increase from doing the vaulting and drills that you are starting now), and working a lot on speed work. I think that, for your first year, learning the basics, becoming familiar with the event, and vaulting safely will be some of your most important concerns. Vaulting isn't an instant gratification type of sport, everything builds upon what you've learned, and breakthroughs come after long periods of work. However, it is one of the most enjoyable sports that you can do out there. Just keep working hard, keep positive, and never give up if you feel like you're going nowhere.

[Markpv314]

Where in southern california are you from?

[TechDragon]

Our school competes in Almont League.

Our coach polevaulted for our school a few years back and he's been coaching wrestling. He just started coaching pole vault for us.
Right now all I've got down in vaulting other than the take off/plant is to sort of get my feet up (not so much my waist) and pushing the stick away. I can't seem to get myself to turn the right way or invert. Bending the stick is also hard for me to get through my skull.

Thanks for all the help.

[USMC Vaulter]

Dont worry about bending the pole - that comes automatically with speed and good form/technique. Work hard on the basics and all your vaulting drills. You've gotta be able to do the motions from a short aproach and holding low before you can expect to do them in a full vault. I know there are a whole bunch of drills listed in other forums on this site so do a search for em, read up, and then start practicing. Trust me - if you work hard on all the basics, itll all come together eventually and you'll do great.

Also - dont worry about your height and weight. There have been pleanty of lightweight not-so-tall vaulters who have done incredibly well. (I believe Adam Sarafian was about 135-140 and 5'8 when he went 17'4 - **correct me if I'm wrong Adam**)

For the upper body strength issue - I would say just start slowly working on it. A good basis for building upper body strength are just excersices that use your own body weight. So start doing push ups at the end of your work out or every night - and hit the pull up bar whenever you get a chance. These will give you a great base for both vaulting and weight training if you want to get into that as well.
PM me if you want some simple upper body work outs that require no equipment - I've learned a whole bunch from both vault training and the Marine Corps