First Year Coaching Blog

[VaultPurple]

Pole vaulting is officially under way for the first time in 10 years at J.H. Rose High school In Greenville NC. I am in charge of taking a group of kids that have never really seen anyone pole vault, let alone tried it them selves, and this is my first year being in charge of coaching a group of kids so I thought I would just post the progress on here.

Today was my second day working with the kids on pole vaulting and I feel like I hit the jack pot when it comes to finding talent, but I may be a little ahead of myself.

The first day almost everyone on the team tried grass vaulting on the football field and about 15 or so could successfully jump off one foot and ride the pole. We just worked on that going up and down the field.

Today was day two and I got about 10 of those kids back. We started by grass vaulting down the field and back. After that I took them to the sand pit and just had them all do one left long jumping and just concentrating on jumping as high as they could and really reaching their top and as high as they could do it. After they could all jump off one foot into the sand I had them do the exact same thing but with a pole in their hand holding the same place they were grass vaulting. I told them to do it exactly like they did in the grass and to just concentrate on jumping as high as they could. A few of them did it perfect the first time but it took the other few several times to get the hold of it.

After they had done several reps in the sand I moved them over to the pit and had them do the exact same thing from one left and just try and land on the pit. Here I got to see which ones had the most coordination and mostly who was not worried about missing the box. I found when you get them to not worry about the box and just jumping, things work much better. Almost everyone could do one left and ride the pole into the pit holding about a foot over their max hand reach (hand reached in air standing straight up).

It was starting to get later so a few people were leaving, but the ones I had left I moved back to two lefts and had them really run fast and jump as high as they could. Here is where a few guys really started to stick out. I had three guys (all juniors who are decently good sprinters) who were able to smoothly land in the pit from about a 10'6 grip from two lefts while just carrying the pole over their shoulder.

After everyone had left because their parents had came, there were two guys (two of the best, lucky for me) that wanted to stay and keep learning. So I started working with them on the proper way to carry the pole and drop it over.

So after two days I am very pleased with how fast everyone is catching on and learning. I wouldn't be surprised if I had three guys jump over 12'6 outdoors this year.

[vaultmd]

Nice progression and great about not rushing things.

Don't forget the bail-out lesson. Landings before take-offs . . .

[souleman]

I'm pretty sure you have BTB and those first couple of chapters are very good for the newbees. The problem you will find is the clock is really ticking right now. Vaultmd is correct about not rushing but you also have to keep in mind that you have to have kids ready and performing in a very short time. If you're practicing 5 days a week, I might suggest picking one of those days (like Friday) as a "reward day". The reward is they get to jump at bars. This will give them something to look forward to and also a chance for you to see (in full application) how well the drills are sinking in. Keep in mind, Altius reminds us that he usually has his brand new vaulters jumping their own height after an 80 minute session. By making "reward time" at the end of each practice, that may be incentive for those that leave early to stick around to jump. My point is, don't get too focused on drills and not give the kids a chance to jump. That's where they "connect the dots". From what you've written, I'm quite impressed. I'm currently participating in a track camp at UWRF and the vault program there is very similar to what you are laying out so I think you're on the right track.