wfpv wrote:My pr last year as a freshman was 11 feet, and I could occasionally clear the bungee at 12. I was only holding at 11, but I've been working on my speed a lot and quit cross country. I was only going 9 at the end of the school year and I got 11 at camp this summer. Obviously I wasn't expecting to be ENTERING this year at this hight so idk what a realistic goal should be.
Keep doing what your doing, you are doing things right. A jump from 9 to 11 with any kind of coaching is quite normal and if you catch on relatively quick and do what your coach says having a goal in the 12-13 foot range is not out of the question. A lot of things determining progression rate just depend on how fast you end up getting as well as how strong and coordinated you are. Being in high school thought you still want to make sure you do not over stress your body by doing too hard of sprint workouts all year round. As an 11 foot vaulter you are still going to benefit more by just doing high bar and actually pole vaulting. This is because you are still at a beginner level and just need the feel of it. Some things you will just figure out by vaulting a lot (the ah' ha! moment where things just click). But on that same note pole vault is very explosive when done correctly and if you were to try and vault 5 times a week you would probably get hurt, so 2-3 days of vaulting is probably best while filling the other days with high bar and strength training in the weight room (in moderation depending on your age). But as far as staying in shape, swimming is great! It is one of my favorite activities for conditioning because it is so good on the joints and muscles and pretty much covers the entire body. Just keep working hard and listening to your coach and I am sure you'll do good, just keep us up to date on your progression and if you have any videos throw em up here occasionally!
grandevaulter wrote:Now WFPV is going to find time to do his pole vault practice and participate on the swim team but felt it necessary to quit cross. What ????? I've heard this song and dance before. Finishing something is a good habit, quitting isn't. I think I've heard every excuse.
I do not why you are obsessed with the idea that the guy quitting cross country makes him a quitter. If you did not realize this is a pole vault forum filled with a lot of the top coaches in the country/world and it is a generally accepted idea that there are better things you can do with your time than run cross country and this guy is using the information he has available to him to be the best pole vaulter he can be. People around him and his coach have told him if he wanted to take pole vaulting seriously he should quit and even gave him running workouts to do instead. If you would like to have a debate on the physiology behind if cross country is harmful for pole vaulting, look up in the top right and check out that search bar because you will probably find a hand full or so of threads on that topic on pole vault power. But this is a pole vaulting website and although every high school athlete can not become a college vaulter, if they are on polevaultpower.com they are probably looking for how the best athletes are being developed, and according to all the elite coaches and people developing top level pole vaulters, they are having their athletes train like sprinters year round and not run cross country so stop calling someone a quitter for trying to do what the experts say.