coaching other athletes... while still trying to compete

[sooch90]

So I'm a senior in high school, and my coach wants me to start training some other vaulters. Currently the somewhat experienced vaulters include me, another senior, and a junior, and then we have a 2 beginning guys, 1 senior, 1 junior and 3 beginning girls, 2 sophmore, 1 freshman. Also, my coach wants me to take a look at 2 freshman guys who might be interested.

It's kinda difficult to coach all 5 - 7 of these beginners and still try to get in some of my own practice and give tips to the other 2 more experienced vaulters.

An idea is to get rid of some of the beginners with less potential, but I'd feel horrible cutting people.

Another idea is to maybe pair up the experienced vaulters with some of the beginners to maybe split up the work load, but the other senior vaulter is totally against the idea of having any beginners at all.


gah, I'm not sure what to do. I really do want to coach some beginners, but I'm still trying to get better too.
please leave any thoughts, comments, or advice!

thanks!

[VaultPurple]

i have the same problme at my school (im a senior vaulter and have a bunch of new people).

the way i did it was the first two weeks of practice i worked with then new people and went over a bunch of pop up drills and basicaly how to make it onto the mat and how to run. I was lucky enough to have all but one of my guys to start jumping 9+ after two weeks. But after that period i started working on my stuff, and when im resting between jumps i can tell people what they are doing wrong and suggest drills but that is a bout it. The coach still tries to bring people over there to vault 4 weeks into the outdoor season and i spend about 5min telling them how to cary the pole and how to plant it, but if they cant figure out what to do from there then they are on their own and it may be too late for this year (we have had some people acculay figure out most everything on their own and start poppin goof 8+ on the first day with no instructions).

The biggest problem is the coaches bring the people that cant do anything else over to pole vault and im like thats not how it works, you have to have some athletic ability to pole vault.

and for new people, i find that if you have to spend more time convencing them to jump because its not that "scary" then they just need to move on to a diffrent event.

[learning to fly]

does your coach coach any other events? because teaching the beginners how to vault isn't your job, it sounds like your coach is slacking off. but i agree with what vaultpurple said- spend some time teaching the basics, but you should focus on yourself. it can help you to coach other vaulters, because you become more aware of what youre doing wrong, but the bottom line is that your coach shouldn't be piling all this responsibility on you

[powerplant42]

I select the drills that our freshmen do, and I do them myself, constantly critiquing and advising.

[sooch90]

does your coach coach any other events? because teaching the beginners how to vault isn't your job, it sounds like your coach is slacking off. but i agree with what vaultpurple said- spend some time teaching the basics, but you should focus on yourself. it can help you to coach other vaulters, because you become more aware of what youre doing wrong, but the bottom line is that your coach shouldn't be piling all this responsibility on you

well, it's not that he's piling it up on me because I'm more than willing to train a few students, but it's just getting to be a lot. Plus, my coaches know very little about pole vaulting.

[vaultmd]

The only way for this to work it is for you to complete your workout before trying to coach others. At first it may seem to the others as if you're being a prima donna; however, after while they will realize that they benefit from your undivided attention is much as you benefit from not having to coach while training. This means that you train by yourself with them helping you and then they all train with you helping them. Just make sure that they know when the end of your workout is imminent so that they can prepare for their workout and so that there is no lag between sessions.

[sooch90]

The only way for this to work it is for you to complete your workout before trying to coach others. At first it may seem to the others as if you're being a prima donna; however, after while they will realize that they benefit from your undivided attention is much as you benefit from not having to coach while training. This means that you train by yourself with them helping you and then they all train with you helping them. Just make sure that they know when the end of your workout is imminent so that they can prepare for their workout and so that there is no lag between sessions.

hmm, that's a very interesting idea.

So maybe I could have the experienced vaulters vault at the start of practice while assign beginners to maybe work on the rope swing and do grass/sand drills? Then do a little switch?

The only problem I could see with that is the experienced vaulters, including myself, not wanting to stop vaulting. We only have a maximum of 2 hours of vaulting, and usually I vault to the last minute of it, even when I don't have to coach.



Actually I just thought of another idea. Maybe have the experienced vaulters vault on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while beginners vault on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Or maybe just switch off every other day. Then on the non-vaulting days, have whichever group do plyometrics, some running and possibly some lifting?
There should always be a rest period right? even from short approach vaulting/drills?

[VaultMarq26]

The only way for this to work it is for you to complete your workout before trying to coach others. At first it may seem to the others as if you're being a prima donna; however, after while they will realize that they benefit from your undivided attention is much as you benefit from not having to coach while training. This means that you train by yourself with them helping you and then they all train with you helping them. Just make sure that they know when the end of your workout is imminent so that they can prepare for their workout and so that there is no lag between sessions.

I agree 100%.......it will also help keep you sane.

[AeroVault]

A beginner vaulter and a professional can still benefit from some of the same drills. Also, it can help immensely for a new vaulter to simply see what a proper drill or vault looks like.

I agree that it shouldn't be your job to coach all the new athletes, you have your own vaulting to worry about. However, I bet it would mean a lot to the newbies for you to just explain what you're doing and tell them to watch. Kind of the monkey see, monkey do attitude, but that is how we learn the fastest.

Lastly, keeping your vault days limited to 2-3 a week is a good idea. It'll help prevent burnout early in the season.