PoleVaultPower.com

So my pole vault coach and I dont always see things the same way. For example, he suggested that i could possibly get one of our girl athletes disqualified for bringing her to a vaulting session at a college track being coached by someone without connections to our high school with experience in the vault. The cost is $40 dollars a session, the college coach said he couldnt think of any rules against it, my head coach thought it was a great idea to be working so hard on form, but the vaulter coach played the "I was college coach for two years" card and said it was risky.

Now, that all sounds quite reasonable, but my anger stems from the remark he made to me. When i questioned why her getting "caught" (like being caught paying for help in a sport you love is a bad thing) would be any different than me getting caught he said it might affect her recruitment. We're both seniors, and yes for a girl she has some great marks, but this year i'm expecting to hopefully go into the high 14's which i would think is pretty damn good. So in essence he was telling me that if i get "caught" then nobody gives a s*** because I have no chance at getting recruited, but if she does then the whole world falls apart. This is all in the pre-season and i've been working my a** off for the past 7 weeks on sundays to have a good senior year, so im a little bummed that his expectations are that low and hes telling me that now.

Forgive my rant and language, but can anybody provide me with the entire set of rules for pole vaulting so i cant quit having to rely on him to tell me how things work, and avoid the bulls*** (he can be very condescending). I checked the NFHS but theres no clear link to the rules, why athletes don't have the ability to read the rules easily is beyond me when were the ones who get disqualified if something is wrong.

He is referring to the limitations the NCAA puts on contact between college coaches and high school athletes. They do exist but there are loop holes that allow college coaches to coach high school athletes.

1) A college coach can coach club vaulters as long as they pay, he can not do it for free.

2) A college coach can only coach high school vaulters within a 50 mile radius of the college campus.

3) The college coach can not coach the high school athlete during competition because it would violate NCAA rule that coaches can not communicate with athletes during competition.

3.1) This essentially means he can only coach during the club practice and not go to the meets.

However some high schools have their own set of rules and do not allow athletes to compete for club coaches in season, and that is just up to the coach and usually a battle of egos. I have known a few athletes who stopped competing for high school because they thought they would have better chance of jumping higher with club coach if they wanted to vault in college.

So unless your coach is threatening to kick anyone off the team for paying to practice with a club coach, there are no real rules against it finding coaching outside of your school.

I appreciate the response, the club and coach meets all those requirements. I'm certain that my coach was mixing up the "coaching for free" with "payed coaches" as being illegal. The only thing I'm remotely concerned about is using our high school poles at the track. Right now i have 8 poles in my garage that technically belong to the school but are under my care until indoor track.

Am I legally allowed to use those at the club or do i have to rely on the college poles which lack the lower weights that i normally use?

THANKS AGAIN! The girl was really excited about vaulting but she was a little confused/angry when she learned that our coach was trying to keep her from going. I honestly would not be anywhere close to 14' without the college coach's help, he is amazing and i attribute alot of my success to his coaching ability and great attitude.

There are no NFHS rules that prohibit you from training with an outside coach. The NFHS rulebook is not available online, you have to buy it, but I can tell you there's nothing in there that pertains to your situation.

Each state can also make up their own rules. It's possible your state has some sort of rule about this, though I doubt it. My state (WA) has rules about the contact HS coaches can have with their athletes between August and the start of track season, but nothing that prevents them from training with other coaches.

Your school can basically make up whatever rules they want. But if your head coach is supportive of this, I'm not sure why they are letting the vault coach undermine that? If it gets to be a problem, a chat between your/her parents and the athletic director may be in order.