Stressing the BASICS

[Gchap7]

And then at best case senerio, the vaulter never gets hurt, but they move onto college with an endless amount of bad habits - near impossible to break

[baggettpv]

I have an idea......go back 10 years in the top 10 listings of high school kids and see who made it to the next level. Thats 100 of the best the USA has to offer. Make the list then wonder why the others didn't. Your thoughts will be interesting.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[vault3rb0y]

I have an idea......go back 10 years in the top 10 listings of high school kids and see who made it to the next level. Thats 100 of the best the USA has to offer. Make the list then wonder why the others didn't. Your thoughts will be interesting.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

I would assume injuries would be the first reason, followed closely by coaches who followed a different path with their vaulters than elite coaches, and the athletes leveled off in their training when certain parts of their vault couldnt be fixed. Basically lack of sufficient elite-level coaching.

[altius]

A major factor - already alluded to above - is that they have achieved some success - but with 'dead end' techniques which prevent further improvement beyond a certain point. Specifically they have learned to take off under and compress the pole before they leave the ground.

[bjvando]

I have an idea......go back 10 years in the top 10 listings of high school kids and see who made it to the next level. Thats 100 of the best the USA has to offer. Make the list then wonder why the others didn't. Your thoughts will be interesting.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

I am doing a semi-research study on this exact topic.

My sprint coach at Cal. State fullerton did a nation-wide research of the elite athletes a few years ago and what they ran in High School. (mainly 100m and 200m atheltes)

I plan on doing a similar study on the vault... So far its very interesting.

[vault3rb0y]

Keep us posted, i would love to see the results of that study, to see what specifically makes the best high school elites slow down in their training as they approach a professional elite.

[vault3rb0y]

A major factor - already alluded to above - is that they have achieved some success - but with 'dead end' techniques which prevent further improvement beyond a certain point. Specifically they have learned to take off under and compress the pole before they leave the ground.

So a question that leads us to is, "If these above-average vaulters in high school and college learn to take off under and compress the pole before they leave the ground, but they begin vaulting under a coach who attempts to break this habit, when- if ever- would they finally break that habit and begin a free take off?"

Or simply, are these 'dead end' vaulters doomed or is there a possibility of re-building them, and how long would that take?

[altius]

I would guess around two years of serious work - but of course it will depend of every athlete and the context in which they are training. For example how well does their new coach understand the Petrov model - and how well do they understand the principles of instruction - especially those elements dealing with modifying movement patterns!!!

[vault3rb0y]

Thats understandable. Its too bad these athletes aren't under these circumstances. I know of several amazing 15'6 vaulters with close to no influence from the petrov model in high school. I just wish everyone had access to coaching of the petrov model, because there would be hundreds of 16+ or even 17+ jumpers in high school, and no telling what they could do in college or professionally.