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Coach Calls USATF Stuczynski's Toughest Meet All Year

Although Jenn Stuczynski comes into the USATF Nationals as the women's pole vault world leader, the American Record holder and the first U.S. 16-footer, she is not exactly looking forward to the World Champs selection competition. Her coach, Rick Suhr, makes no bones about that even though Stuczynski won the U.S. title meet last year.

Let's let Suhr tell it in his own words.

T&FN: Rick, is Jenn looking forward to the USATF meet?

Suhr: I'm glad you asked me that. No. I think the U.S. Nationals is the hardest pole vault competition that we have ever jumped in, and I can tell you why. Jennifer will be the only athlete who will enter that meet, warm up and then have to sit on a sunny, hot infield for about two hours before she even comes in the meet. I cannot tell you how much of a problem and a disadvantage that is. That is the biggest downfall for us at the U.S. Nationals.

"Three girls qualify, but I'll tell you being the top seed in that meet in the pole vault is so difficult because they take 18 girls in the field and it takes a long time for 18 girls to warm up and to jump.

"So the difficulty is both in the warmup with the number of people in the meet and the fact that literally she will have to sit on that infield for probably 2 hours before she enters the meet. It doesn't make sense to me. Something is eventually probably going to have to change in the way that qualifier is run because I really believe we're going to start not sending our three best people to represent the U.S. to get a medal.

"The U.S. Nationals is an absolute pressure-cooker and it's a definite disadvantage in my opinion to the best jumper. They don't even give them a warmup run anymore. They used to but they did away with that rule a few years ago.

"It would be like telling Maurice Greene to warm up, now sit down for 2 hours and get up and run a 100 meters. It ain't gonna happen.

"So when you say am I looking forward to the U.S. Nationals, the answer is no.

"The biggest thing is the increments. Last year indoors the men warmed up and jumped four heights to the placing height. The women I think jumped eight heights before they got to the placing height and that usually is the height that Jenn will come in at. So if you do the math, it is just way too long a wait.

"So it comes down to one thing: if Jenn makes her opening height she'll qualify. But making that opening height will probably be the hardest jump she'll take all year because of the delay.

"At the world class meets, the Golden League meets, the Super Grand Prix meets, those fields will only have 7 or 8 girls. At most they'll have 9. But to sit there and wait for 18 girls and then have to come out, that's the hardest pole vaulting you'll do right there.

"The invitational meets are much easier to calculate because if you wait 2 hours you don't even know where the wind's going to be coming out of. Your steps could be so far off.

"These other athletes warmup and they're in the meet within 10 minutes. The wind hasn't changed, the temperature hasn't changed. Last year when it was light when Jenn warmed up and it was getting dark when we finished."

T&FN: But I guess she's still the favorite.

Suhr: Yeah. She is accelerating still. That's the only thing I can say. She jumps our system, and our system I think early was under some criticism when we had our first high school national champ, but we've produced one after another to the point now where I think the system is very fool-proof. And she has not even perfected the system yet. I think when she perfects it, she'll be going even higher. It looks good. It looks real good.
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Sure the Grand Prix meets have small fields, but the World Champs and Olympics will have big fields.

I don't know Rick but I am sure he is an OK guy and obviously he is doing some great coaching, but come on man what's with the belly aching, suck it up and play the game.

Top vaulters have always had to face the problem he is complaining about. From high school, to college, to open, to masters compeitions I think we have all had to face having to come in hours after our warm up and put together that opeing height clearance.

Surely they have experienced this and Rick has incorporated some practice situations into his training regimes to prepare for this.

It might not be fair but is part of the system and making excuses just doesn't seem like a good way to prepare for a championship competition. I hope Jenn is not affected by the negative vibes.

Vault On

That sounds just like what Isi said.
[quote]
“I think my jumps at 4.75 and 4.85 were good. At 4.95 I was too tired and couldn’t do the swing right.â€Â

vaultwest wrote:Top vaulters have always had to face the problem he is complaining about. From high school, to college, to open, to masters compeitions I think we have all had to face having to come in hours after our warm up and put together that opeing height clearance.

It might not be fair but is part of the system and making excuses just doesn't seem like a good way to prepare for a championship competition. I hope Jenn is not affected by the negative vibes.

Vault On

Then perhaps it's time to change the system. What other sport, or event, penalizes it's top competitors? And the better you are, the more you are punished. Not to mention consistantly higher expectations from everyone, even though most people do not fully understand this challenge.

mjaubbs40 wrote:

vaultwest wrote:Top vaulters have always had to face the problem he is complaining about. From high school, to college, to open, to masters compeitions I think we have all had to face having to come in hours after our warm up and put together that opeing height clearance.

It might not be fair but is part of the system and making excuses just doesn't seem like a good way to prepare for a championship competition. I hope Jenn is not affected by the negative vibes.

Vault On

Then perhaps it's time to change the system. What other sport, or event, penalizes it's top competitors? And the better you are, the more you are punished. Not to mention consistantly higher expectations from everyone, even though most people do not fully understand this challenge.

its even tougher over seas. from the people ive talked to, even if your sitting for over an hour you dont get a run through like we do here. you just go. its just another mental challenge to overcome as a great vaulter. if she hasn't allready figured out her strategy, im sure she will soon

They did not give the JR guys any run throughs, I doubt Jenn will get one either.

I talked to Rick a little yesterday and he made some good points. If you are going to have a big field to simulate Worlds, then have a qualifying round like worlds does. (Olympic Trials does this but the other 3 years they don't).

I like the idea of having a qualifying round every year. It gives more girls a chance to get into the meet, which is good for our emerging elites, and it gets the elites more used to competing in qualifying rounds.

It's not a fair to assume they will get this experience in college. We have elites like Jenn, Jessie Gallaher, Mary Sauer, etc who have come up from the NAIA where they don't do this.

In fact, has Jenn ever jumped in a qualifying round before? She has never been on a championship team before, was not in the 04 Trials, and she never had to do it in college.

The advantages still outweight the disadvantages.

In the prelim round at NCAA, when Tommy was opening at 5.30 and was the only one juming, he had five minutes to select the best wind conditions. Everyone else had 60 seconds at their opening bar.

If you come in at a low bar and there is a big field you will jump, wait an hour, jump again, wait 45 minutes, jump again... etc. Once a top rated vaulter enters the meet they never have to cool off and then warm up again.

Since they will be waiting a while anyway between warm-ups and their opening bar, top vaulters often will warm up very early, when there isn't a line of 25 people trying to warm up.

And of course the ultimate advantage is that a top rated vaulter can come in at a relatively high height and still be well below their PR and in total control. For example, at NIKE and JR nationals when their was a pretty good head wind at times the better guys just went down a pole or two and down a little grip and still had plenty of height for the bars being jumped.

The thing you have to be careful of is weather condition changes. That is why at outdoor meets I tend to have my kids start a little lower or pass one height at a time as we keep an eye on the wind and clouds.

vtcoach wrote:Since they will be waiting a while anyway between warm-ups and their opening bar, top vaulters often will warm up very early, when there isn't a line of 25 people trying to warm up.

I think that is less of an option at USAs where they bring all of girls onto the field at the same time.

mjaubbs40 wrote:[Then perhaps it's time to change the system. What other sport, or event, penalizes it's top competitors? And the better you are, the more you are punished. Not to mention consistantly higher expectations from everyone, even though most people do not fully understand this challenge.

I should have offered a solution to the problem instead of just complaining about it: have qualifying rounds, like Becca and Rick said, to give lots of vaulters experience and the top vaulters experience of going through rounds & finals OR if there are no qualifying rounds, have higher qualifying standards and higher opening heights. Yes, pole vaulting is a sport where we want to maximize our participation, but at a certain point, especially championships, we don't want to water it down and have performances suffer. I mean, if there are 18 women vaulters competing, how many have a realistic shot at winning or qualifying? This is supposed to be our national championship/world qualifier, the best of the best. Qualifying rounds of 6-10 vaulters per flight would help...

vaultwest wrote:I don't know Rick but I am sure he is an OK guy and obviously he is doing some great coaching, but come on man what's with the belly aching, suck it up and play the game.

Top vaulters have always had to face the problem he is complaining about. From high school, to college, to open, to masters compeitions I think we have all had to face having to come in hours after our warm up and put together that opeing height clearance.

Surely they have experienced this and Rick has incorporated some practice situations into his training regimes to prepare for this.

It might not be fair but is part of the system and making excuses just doesn't seem like a good way to prepare for a championship competition. I hope Jenn is not affected by the negative vibes.

Vault On

I agree,if I were the top American jumper in the country I would not complain. I would thank my lucky stars everyday. If I was jumping a foot higher like Jenn is I would take one jump at the higher qualifying mark and call it a day. When you are jumping 16 feet, jumping at 14’3â€Â

Looking at this logically you have to wonder why is suhr worried.He clearly has the best US vaulter. He did not complain about the other meets.Maybe he has a point. THE FIELD SIZE HAS BEEN INCREASED TO 22 NOW!This is getting out of hand to have a championship meet with 22 in the field.Only about 5 to 6 girls have a real shot.The other 15 or 16 are simply jumping to jump.I believe that this situation is going to affect stuzinkis jumping along with the other top dogs.jenn will probable still win but it will be close and the hieght will be low.Our top vaulters will be pulled down by the numbers and not jump as they would have. Hay man i want to see the best perform the best thats why i came to indy.So reduce the field and get to the top 7 or 8 and lets get the best 3.Idon't want to watch a 4.35 jumper bidding for a spot on our world team.No offense to them but this is not the place for them