PoleVaultPower.com

Hi everyone! I am extremely new at Poll Vaulting, in fact I had my very first practice last Thursday. And I already love it! Even though I am super sore. But I was just wondering if any of you guys have tips, advice, and workouts for a newbie like me. I would love a workout plan that was hard but not super hard since I am a beginner and I can’t do everything yet. But all the help I can get on this would be great! Thank you so much!!

first tip:

"pole"

I find that the best training for pole vault is to pole vault. (Seriously!)

It really depends on how much time you have. If you jump once a week, you're going to progress very slowly. If you jump twice a week, then you'll progress much more quickly.

If you have time for some other workouts during the week, speed-oriented running is good. Do lots of A's and B's, and short, fast sprints. Running uphill is great to improve your drive.

Weight training is good too, but maybe even better... go to an open gym time at a gymnastics club. Besides being a ton of fun, this will help give you balance, speed, and strength... all necessities for pole vault. Ask a coach when you get there to give you some suggestions. Trampoline, parallel bars, high bar, rope, vault, and rings are all good apparatus to use.

Hard to get specific without knowing you. But hey... good luck, and welcome to the best sport in the world!

You would probably be suprised, but a lot of sports you already do will build the skills needed for pole vaulting. Track of course will build your speed, gymnastics including diving, tumbling, trampoline will build your core strength and coordination. Soccer, football, basketball, all build an explosive and powerful leg and hip flexor. So basically as a beginner, just add pole vaulting to any of those regular kid things we all love to do! I did that the first 2 years i vaulted, and im not just getting specialized in my workouts. Basically the way to get better is to make sure you are having fun, which it sounds like already. Try to make every part of pole vault (the vault, the run, the drills, the speed training, the lifting, the mental aspects of vault) fun for you. I can tell you it will make vaulting a LOT more fun to try to find some people that love it as much as you do.... talk to a coach at your school or if you can find a club nearby that vaults for fun on a weekly basis, you will have a lot of fun. I got with my club a near ago, and now we not only vault together but party together and meet outside of the track all the time. Its a lifestyle, not just a sport . Good luck!

my advice is to use the search feature on this site and look up the countless posts with tips and other information you are looking for....

Hey! Thanks so much. Yeah my coach he's great, but I don’t know if he will always have practices 2 days a week or 1 day or not even any. cuz he coaches football too so its just whenever he has time. So yeah thanks a bunch for anything!

One of the best drills you can do for pole vaulting is a drill called the Slidebox. You should ask your coach if he has one. My dad built one for me, and I did it about every day in my front yard, and I got my plant down really good. It is a great drill, and helps your takeoff so much.

After every practice (which is Monday-Saturday) we do "taxes" which is basically 50 push-ups, 100 sit-ups(not crunches!).
I have to say it is working very well for me. My first "meet" (scrimmage) I jumped 8ft, and that was the first time I ever saw a pole underneath me.

Slidebox helps a lot too, we usually spend a day or half a day on the slidebox alone. (I saw that post)

Yeah, I'm a gymnast and the track coaches conspired together to get me to pole vault against my wishes. Now our pv coach is sayiong how lucky he was that the other coaches gave me his name. After having about 12 vaulting practices, i am in lovewith it. I've only done two meets so far. The first one, I cleared 7' without knowing how to do the turn correctly and the second meet I cleared the same heght, and my coach wasn't there(he showed up two hours late) . My gymnastics training has def. helped a lot I think. All the girls at my hs are brand new to vault, except one girl who isn' that good-she makes a/b six feet. The coach was desperate to get someone to make a varsity height and I did that for him.