Reno Summit after thoughts

[newPVer]

I had more fun this year in reno than last, but there were a few things i wanted to comment on.

I loved having all of the pits in the same room. It was easier to keep track of everyone, and you could watch all levels at the same time. The seats were nice, and it seemed like a very well run meet overall.

The elite meet was a different story though...
Everyone was pumped up to start with, but by the time the bar got going with the elites, all interest had been lost. Dont get me wrong, I love watching the Elite's, but this year, it was just, well, boring. The music was bad, too quite, kinda lame for the average age in that room, and i was a little confused about the band. It just wasnt like years past. Last year had everything, the lights, the music, the ceremony, the energy, and some great competition, it was just better. People were leaving before it was even over, because it wasnt exactly what they expected. Now i would bet, no one left the elite night early last year.

If there is anyway in the future to have the elites with the crossed runway and the normal competitions the way they were yesterday, I think that'd be the best overall. I didnt mind the drive, just a short 10 minutes on the freeway, and the buses were nice enough.

The hotel was pretty nice, especially the east tower. Reasonable prices for the weekend, but the snow storm helped to keep those down. The diner was pretty good, not too expensive and good food.

I just wanted to comment on that, but overall, I want to give my greatest thanks to everyone that helped out. The UCS staff, the hotel workers, the people that helped with the bars and standards. It was a great weekend, and hope they can all be this great.

Thanks again to everyone that made it possible!! See you all next year!!

Anyone else agree/disagree?

[bjvando]

Ofcourse you had good things to say, you tied your PR and had great shots at a new PR! way go to matt!

I do agree with what you said. Everyone had questions with the competition taking place at a seperate facility, but transportation didnt seem to be a problem. The only time you really had to wait was for the night of the elite comp.

Great work to UCS Spirit for holidng it down and to Fresno State, Fresno Pacific, Mt. Sac- Fraley, Yokoyama, Hull and all the USATF PV development staff...

[colby41]

def agree with this year's elite competition...not very dramatic, and everyone was tired since the elite men A started a couple hours after the Elite B group started..which took a long time. cool that people got some records though...

[polevaulter08nw]

I would have to say it was pretty amazing! Personally, though it was only my first year, i can agree with the seating being awesome and the pits that everyone jumped on being great! Though i pred 3 times so its hard to find bad things, haha, the flights losing my poles on the way out there and on the way back kind of ticked me off, but hey, thats not the summits fault. They were great at getting late poles to the event center when they showed up and really ran that whole ordeal wonderfully! The hotel said they didn't have a room for my mother and i even though she booked the room in august! But after about 10 hours of traveling that extra hour waiting at the desk just kind of seemed like for ever cause it was 4 in the morning my time before i got to sleep.

It being the first time i've ever seen anyone jumped over 5.60 i was pretty glued, but i do have to agree with the excitment level not being as high and the music not being as pumping though i can only compare to videos.

Overall, i loved it and i can't really say the summit had anything wrong with it but maybe next year they will go back to the other casino and i will get to go to both.

[kev44000]

scott what a deal 16.10 if i could have moved the standards where i needed them i would have done better great meet to do well in see you at the nike outdoor also becca thanks for the goody bag jack whitt

[VTechVaulter]

well im not really sure what it was like from up in the stands at the elite vault, but everyone on the floor was pumped. and it seems like especially at the bigger bars when toby and derek were just jumping out of their minds for january, people were really into it.

all the elites i talked to really had a great time.

[old vaulter]

After a couple of days to take it all in....I really liked having it at the new venue with everything on 1 floor and I dont think it could have been run much better than it was. I was on the floor for most of the elite comp and the energy was high down there...Derek jumps 19 right out of the chute and after talking to Toby he had never jumped that high (18-8) this early in the year. Hartwig jumps 18 at 40 and still looks every part of an elite...dont label him a masters jumper yet....the band was spotty but we can learn from that and make it better next year. We were supposed to leave on sunday morning but pussed out when the snow came on sat afternoon and changed our flight to make sure we got out. We wanted to see Nico jump real bad but hopefully there will be other chances

[munsoned]

I have gone to Reno the last 5 years. I usually take between 5 and 11 vaulters each year. I vaulted in college, I now coach and teach at the high school level. I dont think we will be back unless it goes back to the other hotel (Grand Sierra). There were just to many things to worry about. When I was with one vaulter who was competing I was not sure if the others would make it to their session, or catch the shuttle/bus to the live stock arena. It was just a lot more convienent having everything in the same hotel. I also thought the Nugget was just to smokey with a really poor selection of places to eat. It just was not the same experience as last year. THe elite vaulting had no excitement to it whatsoever. People were more concerned with getting a spot on the bus than who actually ended up vaulting well. Also, there were a few world records broken by older vaulters, but we never heard about it. Just was not the same.

[kev44000]

the smoke was terrible but the meet was great

[kenny]

I have gone to Reno the last 5 years. I usually take between 5 and 11 vaulters each year. I vaulted in college, I now coach and teach at the high school level. I dont think we will be back unless it goes back to the other hotel (Grand Sierra). There were just to many things to worry about. When I was with one vaulter who was competing I was not sure if the others would make it to their session, or catch the shuttle/bus to the live stock arena. It was just a lot more convienent having everything in the same hotel. I also thought the Nugget was just to smokey with a really poor selection of places to eat. It just was not the same experience as last year. THe elite vaulting had no excitement to it whatsoever. People were more concerned with getting a spot on the bus than who actually ended up vaulting well. Also, there were a few world records broken by older vaulters, but we never heard about it. Just was not the same.

Coach if your High School athletes can't take care of themselves, then maybe you shouldn't bring them. I thought this was one of the best ever and I truly enjoyed the setup. Yes, the invite wasn't the same, but I am sure the staff will work on it for the future. If your the type of coach who has to babysit your vaulters, you are in the wrong sport. I personally though the food was 10 times better at the Nugget.

[1yeldud1]

Kenny I'm sorry but i diasgree with your post. If you look at Munsoned's location he comes from Missouri. For a coach to bring vaulters half way across the United States and not monitor their locations / actions would be professional suicide. This man cares about vaulters and thier safety. As a parent I would definitely appreciate his concerns for kids. Just my opinion.

[rainbowgirl28]

I have mixed feelings about these last few posts.

From a Summit staff perspective, we worked hard to supervise the transportation of the athletes on Friday. The number of parents and coaches who insisted on riding the busses with some of the groups was a little frustrating for several reasons:
1. It filled up the busses faster.
2. It meant they were missing the speakers that were designed for them.
3. The idea behind the Friday clinics is for the athletes to interact directly with the National Staff. This is why parents/coaches were not allowed on the infield. I still witnessed several cases of parents trying to coach their kids from the stands! At best the kids suffer from information overload, and at worst they are receiving bad/unsafe information.

However, I also understand that things could have been smoother from a bus coordination standpoint. The nasty weather (out of our control) made things way worse, because people were rushing to hop on whatever bus they could which led to more groups being split up.

I understand coaches wanting to "hear what the athletes are hearing", but with the current setup, that is hard to do. Why not ask the kids what they learned?

I also understand the desire to make sure the kids are in the right place. However, for the most part, it should have been pretty clear to everyone where they were supposed to be and when. The kids all had a schedule dangling around their necks the whole time. If you were in the Arena there were frequent announcements.

The staff also had lists of the kids in every group and were checking them in and out. If they didn't take the bus, they had to be signed out by their parent or coach. It didn't work perfectly, but we certainly tried to monitor the location of each athlete while they were under our care.

Also, every kid nowadays has a cell phone. I think it would be easy enough for them to coordinate with parents/coaches their location.

And again, it really is a shame how many of the coaches and parents missed some great lectures because they were too busy worrying excessively about their kids.

I will grant that some of the beginner athletes were very young (under 14) and I am a little more understanding of parents who wanted to ride over with them.

Overall I thought things went fairly well for a first year setup. I hope next year that more of the parents and coaches will trust the staff to supervise the kids and they will learn from the lectures instead.