The pole vault is actually very simple

[GeorgeN]

You are in agreement with me also then. Desire and ability are 90-95 of what you achieve. 5-10% on coaching.

I look at it the way golfing is shown to golfers. Usually a gofer is pictured from the chest and a nice 360 arch is drawn and golfer is told that this is what you are supposed to do.
NO one can try and make this arch in practice. This arch is the result of practice and one does not consciously think of this during the swing.
The same with the vault. I cleared 14'6" with both feet coming off the ground and together. I did not have a coach until I did this, then I was asked to attend a vaulting club at a University. I learned better technique and went to 16'6", but I figure it only gave me perhaps 1 foot since I was increasing by about 1-1 1/2 feet a year anyway from growing and training.
I then was injured until 30 years later, and now I am beginning to vault again.
Point it: coaching is good, but nothing can replace natural desire and ability, and I think coaches with big egos try and take credit for an 18 foot vaulter when the vaulter was already doing 15 or 16 feet on his own before that.
I am a coach by the way at a high school. I can coach a 16 foot high school vaulter....once an athlete with desire and ability comes along.

[vault3rb0y]

I believe its the combination of pure desire and ability, with the instruction of someone who has gone through the same things, and can guide that desire and ability in the right direction. Pole vaulting will require some coaching to go 16+.... that is unless a vaulter is so determined and without a coach, that he or she studies physics themselves, comes up with most efficient ways of vaulting, and puts them on the runway. Thats what a coach does at a basic level, takes his/her knowledge of vaulting, and gives it to a determined and gifted athlete who thrives on it. To me, thats the difference between a 15 foot high school vaulter and a 16+. Although a 15 foot vaulter without a coach and that kind of desire and ability, would most likely have the desire and ability to find a coach in their area, even if that be 2, 3 hours away.

[GeorgeN]

the point ( I like to make points), is that I think many on this site are over thinking the vault and taking the fun away.
I never thought about physice. I just ran hard, worked out hard and questioned other vaulters at meets when I was in high school to seek info.
The more you think, the more you become a whimp. You lmust be cold, be determined, have major guts, and DO IT!

Don't talk, do it!

That is my point. I gurantee Bubka didn't over analyze things. He had more guts than the rest of the 19 foot vaulters combined. Everyone else ( including me) is chicken to throw his body 22 feet in the air off a pole. He had ability, desire and the cold, unanalyzing mind required to do what he did.

American are becoming too soft. I hope that thru these discussions I some how encourage some vaulters to be non-whimps. I want to see great vaulting again. It seems now everyone depends on the pole, and they just plop off of them. They don't throw their bodies without a second thought to safety.

[vault3rb0y]

Well yes, bubka probably did not think about every stage of the jump before we went and did it, but i am betting that in his practices he wasnt just born with the raw ability to perform each stage of the jump. When it came down to meets, i would assume he did what he had trained and body to do and did not over-analyze it. Thinking will definitly save your life and take it at the same time if you are going 18 feet in the air. This site isnt meant to help you with the last minute physchological aspect every great vaulter goes through when he/she vaults. If someone does not want to over-analyze the vault, and just wants to go do it, power to them, they dont need to read the posts on this website if they dont want to.

They don't throw their bodies without a second thought to safety.

^^If thats your idea of being a non-wimp, and that kids should throw their bodies without thinking about safety, i strongly disagree.

[AVC Coach]

I then was injured until 30 years later, and now I am beginning to vault again.

With all due respect, I really like your intense, "eat sawdust and crap logs" attitude, but I think that's more suited for football players. That's a good way to get a kid hurt in the pole vault or destroy his or her confidence when guts don't prevail over basic physics. Perhaps with some good coaching, you might have stayed healthy, jumped high.... then told everyone else to quit being a wimp and just do it. Americans aren't a bunch of wimps and I can't let you say that unchecked. The smart ones are careful enough to make sure they have a long career. That doesn't make them soft, that makes them Olympic gold and silver medalists.

I never thought about physice. I just ran hard, worked out hard and questioned other vaulters at meets when I was in high school to seek info.

What if the other vaulters at the meets didn't have a clue what they were doing and they were just following the same plan as you. You say you're a coach, but you don't put too much stock in education.

I think coaches with big egos try and take credit for an 18 foot vaulter when the vaulter was already doing 15 or 16 feet on his own before that.
I am a coach by the way at a high school. I can coach a 16 foot high school vaulter....once an athlete with desire and ability comes along.

There's a huge difference between 15 or 16 feet and 18 feet. It's going to take a lot of coaching to get there. It's our job as coaches to cultivate their desire and ability. I don't have the luxury of waiting for one of those 16 footers to come along. I have to develop them every year like every other high school coach in this forum does.

[altius]

[quote="GeorgeN"]You are in agreement with me also then. Desire and ability are 90-95 of what you achieve. 5-10% on coaching."

Sorry GeorgeN - I certainly do not agree with you. Desire and determination are key qualities for success in any walk of life but they will not get you too far - or should i say too high - in pole vaulting. As I indicated before, the vault in essence is simple - just like going to the moon - but it does not mean that it is easy!

The vault is very much a coach driven sport - even to get kids started, and you will never find a nest of vaulters unless there is an enthusiastic -even fanatical - coach around. Then it becomes a question of how much potential does the athlete have, how well set up is the context in which the coach and athlete work, and how good the coach is. I agree that few - if any - coaches could take a five foot tall endomorph and turn them into a good pole vaulter but I am also certain that Bubka could never have become a 19' vaulter on his own! In fact he has said that often.
He met Petrov when he was ten and he has made it clear that he, Petrov , was the reason for his success.

Sure he had great ability and desire but as he himself has said, there are many athletes around the world with great desire and even more ability than him. He believed that the reason they have not jumped 20' is that their technique let them down.

Note these are not my words -although i agree with them - they are Bubkas.

A gung ho attitude is great for jumping out of a plane into enemy held territory - but it may get you killed in the pole vault.

[vault3rb0y]

The vault is very much a coach driven sport - even to get kids started, and you will never find a nest of vaulters unless there is an enthusiastic -even fanatical - coach around.

Amen. My first year of vaulting, thank god i was not over 10 feet, because i had a thrower as an attempted coach. Then my freshman year i thought about quiting after leveling off around 11 feet because i was straight poling. Then i meet my first pole vault coach, who owns a club and gives clinics for a local group of vaulters. That outdoor season was hard work but i was hooked, after changing countless parts of my jump to become better. Without a coach to push you and keep you enthused, a vaulter like myself probably wouldnt be vaulting and making it a part of his/ her life. I had all the desire and ability to go high, but without the coaching it just wasnt going to happen.

[dj]

HELLO

it is simple but not easy...

Run........... Plant.............Swing

i have spent most of my time on here trying to show coaches and athletes how to have the correct and most effective run.. regardless of the talent level...

more times than not i have been "slammed" for making it sound simple..

my point has been and will continue to be.. if you are not willing to address your approach run and correct it.. which everyone can do, regardless of ability/talent level... i needn't offer anything else from a technical stand point..

crazy? doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result..

i have seen and contiune to see some great vaulters, emerging elite, good high school and even some elite vaulters refuse to fix their run... sometimes they are on and jump good.. sometimes they are not running correctly and they blame the pole.. sometimes they run awesome by chance and can't get on the right pole with the right grip quick enough and NH...

honestly...why should i spend time with an athlete that refuses to fix their run and can't understand the logic of .. a correct run = more potential force to apply at the takeoff.. creating a potential higher vault and a champion/record vault!!!!

why should i answer .. why can't i get upside down? or my plant is late and/or low? or How do i correct stretching my last step and taking off under?

90% of the questions on here are answered and corrected with the run!!

damn we are a hard headed bunch with a lot of talent in a fun event...

we fix the run and then it does become very simple.. RUN... PLANT... SWING.. with the right grip and the right pole...

do you think bubka's plant..takeoff...swing and 20 foot jump would have happened without his run???

do you think you can perform "the Model" without the technical correctness of his run...

no..

dj

[lonestar]

Amen, DJ, AMEN!

[Tim McMichael]

Psychology has demonstrated that most people who are younger than their mid 20’s have no real sense of their own mortality and will do unsafe things as a result. If you don’t believe me, just check the differences in insurance premiums between adolescents and adults. As coaches, we have the obligation to hold this recklessness in check, not to encourage it. Young athletes will do the dangerous things that coaches ask them to, not because they are courageous, but because they have no real sense of the dangers involved.

There was a college kid in front of me at a meet once who was afraid to plant his pole. His coach had been yelling at him and bullying him all warm-up long. The only reason he made it to the pit on the few attempts he did manage to get off the ground was that his coach was also pushing him in. (This was long before the rule changes.) This kid was clearly terrified, and the pole was far too big for the plant he was putting up. In an attempt to screw up his courage to jump, he turned to me and said, “What’s the worst thing that could happen? Die and go to heaven?â€Â

[baggettpv]

If I ever did anything that caused someone to get hurt because of negligence or anything overlooked, I don't think I would be able to do this thing much more.....Accidents are serious business! Just ask the football players that are paralyzed for life!!!!

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[Tim McMichael]

I agree with dj. If the run is sound, the rest becomes much easier. The very fist few steps of the run have as much to do with the success of the jump as anything that happens afterward. If something goes wrong here, it means that there will be problems later on. The earlier the run goes wrong, the worse the effect on the rest of the vault. The last three steps are crucial, but cannot be properly executed if the general shape of the run and the posture of the athlete won’t allow it. I will even go so far as to say that how the athlete places their hands on the pole can ruin their ability to run correctly, and sometimes problems at the top of the jump can be traced back to what happened when they picked the pole up.