What are your personal records?:Weight lifting

[achtungpv]

Knew a guy that jumped 17'8 1/2" in college with a bench press PR of 155 lbs...which was 10 lbs more than his body weight.

Weight lifting is by far the least important training activity related to pole vaulting. You can look good on the beach though.

[Lax PV]

Knew a guy that jumped 17'8 1/2" in college with a bench press PR of 155 lbs...which was 10 lbs more than his body weight.

Weight lifting is by far the least important training activity related to pole vaulting. You can look good on the beach though.

That is sick.

[VaultPurple]

Everyone has their different strengths. Some people are naturally strong, some people are naturally fast, and some people are good at everything. Then there are us mere mortals.

It is obvious technique training is far more important than weight training, and if you don't have that much time, then that should be taken care of first. Unless the athlete is not strong enough to do certain drills, in which body weight exercises will probably get you strong enough to handle those.

But to argue there is no correlation between weight training and vaulting can be greatly argued at least. If you have enough time in your week to get in enough technique and vaulting, to add in speed work and weight training then there is no reason not to. Leg strength has a direct correlation to sprinting speed, and sprinting speed has a direct correlation to pole vaulting.

Yes some people are naturally fast sprinters and are not that strong, so i guess they are just really luck athletes. And some people are naturally explosive and never have to touch a weight in their life. But I don't think you can argue they wouldn't get better from weight training is false.

Someone stated that they knew someone that benched 155 and jumped 17'8. That truly is amazing! But what if they did have time to weight train, imagine how high they could jump.

And for those of you that think it would not have helped, at least one good example is Greg Duplantis. In high school he was 5'5 125 lb and jumped about 18'. That is what you call a natural born athlete! Anyone could be happy with those stats! But about 10 years later and 25 lb of body weight more (now about 150) he jumped over 19'.

To be the best, you have to have something everyone else don't have. So in Duplantis case, he was about 5'6 and really fast. But there were really fast guys that were over 6' that had good technique. I'm not saying the 25 lb of muscle were the complete reason he gained an extra foot in his vault, but I'm sure it helped.

[EIUvltr]

Both Achtung and Vaultpurple make good points, but there are problems with both.

@Achtung; just because some guy jumped 17-8 and didn't lift much doesn't mean that lifting is useless for pole vaulters. By the same logic I could argue that sending inappropriate pics to women will lead to me being the Minnesota Vikings quarterback someday. I do agree that vaulters (mainly American) have incorrect ideas about lifting as far as what lifts to do, what intensity, what volume, when should you do them, what order, how to incorporate shock training (plyometrics), etc. Lifting incorrectly can greatly limit its effectiveness and even hinder pole vaulting performance. As can giving it too much emphasis compared to proper technique work.

@Vaultpurple; The Greg Duplantis argument does counter Achtung's argument somewhat well, however it has the same problems. Perhaps Greg would have jumped 23' if he had never bothered with lifting. I don't believe this but I can't prove it wrong. Also I do not believe there is a direct correlation between leg strength (in terms of 1RMs for lifts like squats and deads) and sprint speed. In fact, the soviets would argue against this and say that there is a negative relation between leg strength and sprint speed. However, they still had their athletes do lots and lots of squats in programs designed to increase lower body reactivity. Why? Because when combined with shock methods, it yielded better results than shock training alone.

@Everyone; Yes, lifting is beneficial for pole vaulters. However it shouldn't be given the Rocky IV type emphasis in our training that it gets. Lifting is a means, not an end. Your Deadlift 1RM should not be the highest when you peak, because you are not a powerlifter. The motor abilities specific to the pole vault should be highest and nothing else. Also we are not body builders, nor do our muscles work in isolation. You want an effective, easy, low volume pre/early season lifting program?? Squat and swing around on a high bar. There you're done. After a good 8-12 weeks (less for trained athletes) of squatting, you can start to incorporate some jumping exercises. This should take up a very small portion of your training. Even though Altius sounds like a broken record when he jumps in and suggests that you should just vault vault vault if you want to get better at vaulting, he is correct. But only because we overemphasize lifting and we all have terrible form. The pole vault is a finesse event really, and great heights can be achieved by simply jumping alone, but even greater heights can be achieved with the proper implementation of a little resistance training in various phases throughout the year.

[achtungpv]

I think it is useless for 99% of those who would attempt to get advice from this thread...which would be high schoolers. they are better served stiff pole vaulting, sprinting, long jumping, and light plyos. Very few high schoolers should be lifting significant weights with any frequency IMO.

[VaultMarq26]

I think it is useless for 99% of those who would attempt to get advice from this thread...which would be high schoolers. they are better served stiff pole vaulting, sprinting, long jumping, and light plyos. Very few high schoolers should be lifting significant weights with any frequency IMO.

When you put it that way I have to agree.

[altius]

Am presently a recovering invalid so have time to continue the discussion.

"I think it is useless for 99% of those who would attempt to get advice from this thread...which would be high schoolers. they are better served stiff pole vaulting, sprinting, long jumping, and light plyos. Very few high schoolers should be lifting significant weights with any frequency IMO". Thank you again - always sanity from the Luftwaffe.

"But only because we overemphasize lifting and we all have terrible form. The pole vault is a finesse event really, and great heights can be achieved by simply jumping alone!!!!! but even greater heights can be achieved with the proper implementation of a little resistance training in various phases throughout the year." Yes you are correct and i am very glad we agree.

However the broken record will continue to add that it is all about priorities. Also finesse is a good word because many athletes, and I suspect their coaches, see the vault as a macho activity rather than one that demands the movement excellence of a gymnast. As a result many athletes do not progress because they never master the fundamental movement patterns of the event and so can never apply their forces efficiently or effectively. This can only be done through repetition of those basic patterns -something boys especially do not want to do and coaches are often unwilling to enforce. Here we come back to the critical issue of execution - of doing it right. Study the history of any of the great coaches and this is one thing they have in common.

Just as a reminder EIUvltr - I do understand the importance of physical preparation in this sport - as anyone who has coached international level athletes in the shot,discus,javelin and long jump as well as Olympians in the Vault, decathlon and heptathlon would. Apart from that somewhere in BTB you will find the phrase I coined, "What is technically desirable must be technically possible". So for example Bubka knew that there were certain minimal levels he needed to maintain in this are - 130% of body weight in the bench press for example - he knew he had no need to find out what his max was - although knowing him I suspect he did try to find out on occasion!!!!! Have a good day.

[titanpv07]

i've only ever used weight lifting as a supplement. In highschool the only real lifting i ever did was for swim practice before track even started. i did some basic plyos and body lifts(pullups, situps, pushups) stuff liek that and had moerate sucess. even in college out lifting is pretty basic and is short(only about 45min in the wight room at max 3 times a week) and part of it is injury prevention stuff. we do a lot of plyos, resistance bands, sled pulls, stuff like that but out of anything ive done, the biggest payoff has been VAULTING. i ended up having shoulder surgery after my freshman year, and lost most of my muscle during the rehab that took about 9 months......once i was back, i focues only on technical work and just vaulting and jumped 15' from only 4 lefts with a PR of 5.00 ....VAULTING is important, with lifitng as oinly a supplement to what your doing

[altius]

SORRY FOLKS - "What is technically desirable must be PHYSICALLY possible".

[starkey480]

I think that anyone who says weight lifting isnt very beneficial to the vault should go talk to someone that has jumped 19 feet +. My dads training philosophy in 1997 was to get as strong in every lift possible and to reach certain goals for maxes. What was the result? The best year of his life and a bronze medal at the World champs against bubka and tarasov.
Simon Arkell is another example. He always told me that he was not a natural born athlete and was not very fast naturally. But what he did do was train his butt off and lift and he got really strong and fast. He also vaulted very correctly too, but vaulting correctly alone does not get you over 19 feet.

[altius]

Well you are now off my birthday card list 480. Accept what you say but your father could have jumped MUCH higher with a technique that channelled his power - he knows that.

[Bruce Caldwell]

I have been having much difficulty training shot putters and hammer throwers to bend the pole from the swing grin!
You do need to be fit, however it is how you transfer the energy not how much you force the energy!

Bruce Caldwell

Get well Alan any possible Aborigine serums to help? smile!