February 2018 Tom Hays Cover

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CONTENTS y r a b ru

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FROM THE EDITOR

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VAULTING WITH INTENTION: GOAL DRIVEN BEHAVIOR TO ENHANCE VAULTING PERFORMANCE

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COACH TOM HAYS: A LIFELONG COLLECTION OF VAULTING EXPERTISE

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Cover photo by Jeff Jacobsen

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FROM THE EDITOR The college season for Vaulter Magazine is over, and we will move on to the Coaches and legends of the sport of pole vaulting. For the first time, we will highlight the coaches only on the cover of Vaulter Magazine.

Pole Vault news, “Mondo’s Swedish Indoor Record, Men’s Pole Vault Summit Marks Invalidated” (The 2018 UCS/Spirit National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada, featured some of the best elite performances in the event’s 28-year history, including world-leading marks

by Mondo Duplantis and Sandi Morris. (2018). (Retrieved from https://www.flotrack.org/ articles/6085005-mondosswedish-indoor-record-menspole-vault-summit-marks-invalidated/) “Jacobus flies high to win pole vault

” (Arkansas pole vaulter Lexi Weeks watches during the Arkansas Invitational on Friday, Jan. 13 (2018). Retrieved from (http://www.wholehogsports.

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com/news/2018/jan/27/ jacobus-flies-high-to-win-polevault-20/) On the cover, Coach Tom Hays, University of Kansas Pole Vault Coach. “Hays’s vaulting career may have started unstructured, but his dad was quick to change that, purchasing Hays his first fiberglass pole in sixth grade. Hays and his friend Jimmy Metzger from his backyard vaulting days went on to jump throughout middle and high school together, coached

by Hays’s dad.” You don’t want to miss this article from one the pole vault legends amongst us.

Catch this article and see what it takes to live and breathe the sport of pole vault. Good job and a wonderful article and insight by Samantha Kaplan.

Kreager Taber writes about Vaulting with Intention: GoalDriven Behavior to Enhance Vaulting Performance. What a great read and inspiration for the athlete that need that little extra push. “Although 80% of New Year’s resolutions are

said to fail by the second week of February, making goals for improving pole vault technique and achieving higher marks can help vaulters improve and remain motivated throughout the season.” Come check out this read and get a better understanding of your goal-driven behavior.

Check us out next month when we sit down and talk to Coach Tim St. Lawrence and his knowledge of the sport. Fun times ahead, stay tuned!

Doug Bouma Editor, Vaulter Magazine Vaulter Club Inc. editor@thevaultermag.com

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Sandi Morris 16’ Fall

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VAULTING WITH INTENTION:

GOAL DRIVEN BEHAVIOR TO ENHANCE VAULTING PERFORMANCE By: Kreager Taber Although 80% of New Year’s resolutions are said to fail by the second week of February, making goals for improving pole vault technique and achieving higher marks can help vaulters improve and remain motivated throughout the season. The New Year provides the perfect opportunity to get athletes excited for the upcoming season, while forcing them to evaluate where they currently are as an athlete. Making a specific list of goals, recording them, and sharing them publicly have been shown to make an athlete more likely to better themselves throughout the season and achieve more than athletes who forego setting goals for themselves. These goals could be concrete improvements that can be made to the vaulter’s technique, a certain height

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they want to achieve by the end of the season, a qualification standard the athlete wants to meet, or even weightlifting and sprinting goals that can help the athlete reach their full potential over the course of the season. Any and all goals can help the vaulter remain motivated through difficult training and to become more innovative with their practices in order to improve.

According to Locke’s research, goal setting works to improve athletic performance because of four main mechanisms. First, it directs the athlete’s attention towards goal-related activity that will aid their performance, and away from irrelevant activities, such as social media. Secondly, they serve as an energizer for the athlete

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Masters Vaulter with Goals

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to train more intensely. The athlete gains a renewed sense of motivation as achieving the goal becomes more and more likely, seen throughout the track season as the athlete’s ability develops. They are also more likely to train through difficult practices after their goal has been verbalized and communicated to others because they can be held accountable.

Third, goals can influence the athletes’ persistence: hard to reach goals prolong the effort that athletes are willing to exert in order to achieve them.

This makes athletes more likely to suffer through grueling sprint practices or difficult weightlifting sessions without losing steam. Lastly, the process of achieving goals leads to discovery of novel, effective training methods that can help the athlete and their team in the future. Setting goals forces athletes to synthesize a repertoire of skills, drills, and technique they already know, and use them in conjuncture with newly acquired knowledge.

By recording their goals, the athlete is held accountable for their ambitions. They are also required to examine where they are as athletes and compare it to where they want to be at the end of the season. This examination highlights the dis-

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Pole Vault Goals

parity between the athlete that they are and the jumper they aim to be, and makes them create a plan of action to narrow that disparity. In a study per-

formed by Dr. Edwin Locke and his lab in 1981, it was shown that in 90% of the cases studied, goals that were considered to be “specific” and “challeng-

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ing” led to higher performance, even when compared to other forms of goal driven behavior. This alludes to the idea that rather than having athletes make easy-to-accomplish goals, “do your best” goals, or no goals at all, vaulters should make concrete, specific goals that may be out of reach. While “do your best” goals are hailed as sportsmanlike, encouraging, and the most laid-back of aims, they also lack external reference. As an example, it would be more effective for a vaulter to aim to get their last step before jumping to ten feet outside of the pit, rather than just “fixing their takeoff”.

Locke also went on to argue that the most difficult goals produced the highest level of effort and performance from athletes, and that public commitment to goals enhances the likelihood that they will be achieved. For this reason, keeping the list that athletes make close at hand, such as on a board near their pole vault pit, on their bathroom mirror, or even written on the bottom of their spikes, can help to keep the athlete motivated to work at the goal daily.

Setting goals as a pole vault team, rather than just having athletes set individual goals, can also have a desirable influ-

ence the team’s cohesion. In studies performed by sports psychologist researchers at McGill University and the University of Windsor, athletes who had undergone a group goal-setting program had higher perceptions of team cohesion at the end of their season than athletes that had not partaken in the program.

This principle can be useful for coaches to create a positive, uplifting, and cohesive team to push athletes to perform to their potential. Keeping track of athletes’ goals, as well as publicly acknowledging the athletes’ progress to achieve them, can also help to create a more positive perception of the coach among their athletes.

Furthermore, encouraging the vaulter on a daily basis to take active steps towards achieving

their goal can foster a higher sense of comradery between coach and athlete.

In summary, setting goals as an individual and as a team can initiate and sustain motivation throughout the long season, push athletes to identify specific portions of their vault to improve, and evaluate where they are as athletes in conjuncture with where they aim to be. Although New Years resolutions are notoriously ineffective, the same mentality of a new year as a fresh start can be used with vaulters at the beginning of their winter season. The upcoming season is a blank slate, and setting, recording, and verbalizing goals allows the vaulter to create their own path.

Further Information and References Locke, E.A., Latham, G.P., (2002). Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey. The American Psychologist.

57(9), 705-717.

Locke, E. A., Shaw, K. N., Saari, L. M., & Latham, G. P. (1981). Goal setting and task performance: 1969–1980. Psychological Bulletin. 90(1), 125-152.

Senécal, J.M., Loughead, T.M., & Bloom, G.A. (2008). A Season-Long TeamBuilding Intervention: Examining the Effect of Team Goal Setting on Cohesion.

Journal of Sport &Exercise Psychology, 30(2) 186-199.

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MAGAZINE Devin King - When you know the pole is coming back

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COACH TOM HAYS:

A Lifelong Collection of Vaulting Expertise

By Samantha Kaplan

Instagram: @eat_sleep_pv_repeat

Ever since he picked up the broken crossbar he called his first pole and vaulted into a pile of straw in his backyard, pole vault has been a part of Tom Hays’s life. From those humble beginnings coaching himself at home, Coach Tom Hays has created a legacy as one of the most successful collegiate pole vault coaches around. His long journey from troubleshooting the sport in his own backyard to coaching nine NCAA Division I National Champions at the University of Kansas is filled with learning and inspiration from all sorts of coaches and athletes alike,

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but it’s how Hays has combined everything he’s experienced along the way that makes him the coach he is today.

Hays’s vaulting career may have started unstructured, but his dad was quick to change that, purchasing Hays his first fiberglass pole in sixth grade.

Hays and his friend Jimmy Metzger from his backyard vaulting days went on to jump throughout middle and high school together, coached by Hays’s dad. With the hire of Head Coach Cliff Rovelto during his junior year of high school came Hays’s first lesson in

organization. “Coach Rovelto taught me to keep a log and become a student of the sport,” recounts Hays. Training partner Jeff Buckingham taught Hays to seize the moment and not let opportunities slip away.

Teammates Doug Lytle, Scott Huffman and childhood buddy turned college teammate Jimmy Metzger have all played important roles in Hays’s pole vaulting life. Hays received a lot of intelligent coaching while on the athlete side of the sport, but it was not until college at The University of Kansas, where he got to experience the collaborative nature of pole

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vault, did he discover his own love for coaching.

Hays began his collegiate coaching career by becoming a student assistant with The University of Kansas, the very program he jumped for. His next step up the coaching ladder took him to Johnson County Community College where he was assistant coach for two seasons. Hays then took the trek out west for his first Division I coaching job in Reno, Nevada under his own former college coach, Roger Bowen. “After a year with Coach Bowen,” explains Hays, “I had the opportunity to coach in my home state of Kansas.” The first Division I coaching offer from a Kansas school came from Wichita State University, where Hays coached for seven years.

After being home for some time, Hays had the chance to coach for The University of Arizona. Hays made this move around the time that women’s pole vault was added to the NCAA. “This really allowed my career to flourish,” explains Hays. “Pole vault numbers in the US doubled overnight, making a pole vault coach’s job much more valuable.” Longing for home once again, Hays moved backed to Kansas after six years with Arizona to coach for Johnson County again. That gig lasted merely one season, when Hays was brought back to

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where it all began with an offer from The University of Kansas, where he has been happily coaching for the past 14 years, his longest bout yet.

Coach Hays has had a lot of experience with different types of athletes all around the country, and as his years immersed in pole vault went on, he began to develop his own coaching philosophy.

Hays describes himself as “an athlete’s coach.” “I try to coach the athlete and not the event,” explains Hays. “I believe you must coach the athlete’s strengths, and at the same time work on their weaknesses.

Sometimes when a coaches try to change too much, it actually destroys what a vaulter is good at.” For instance, if a vaulter has a big take off, but struggles up top, Hays will work on maintaining and mastering the benefits of the strong take off, while also trying to work on a better swing. He will always play to the individual’s strengths, rather than solely focus on fixing their weaknesses, “coaching the athlete in what he or she does best.” Hays’s ultimate goal as a coach is to “simplify the event.” “As a coach, what really makes me tick is simplifying a vaulter’s conception of what’s possible. Basically, when the light bulb goes off and a vaulter starts to figure it all out.”

When his vaulters begin to see

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Meyer Nick Photo By Jeff & Laura Jacobsen

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and understand more about themselves, Coach Hays feels that he has done his job.

Every coach dreams of their ideal athlete, the one who would be a dream to coach. “My ultimate vaulter,” says Coach Hays, “would be big, strong, and fast, with long limbs, the ability to listen, have a strong desire for success, have physical and mental durability, and be confident, yet have the ability to accept criticism.” Luckily for Coach Hays, his vaulters at KU have been pretty much his coaching dream come true. Two special experiences really stand out when Coach Hays reflects on his greatest achievements as a coach. Of course he acknowledges the 2013 NCAA Team Championship as the greatest team achievement in team history, but the stories of his individual athletes are more emotional memories.

When Amy Linnen took home an NCAA National Title and a collegiate record in the same day, Coach Hays was more impressed with Amy’s maturity and composure than anything else. “Going into the meet, Amy lead the NCAA by almost a foot,” recalls Coach Hays. “Because of this, all the pressure was starting to mount, and it was the first time Amy had ever been this nervous. But after making a

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winning height, I started to see Amy relax and just pole vault.

It was a pretty cool feeling to watch her achieve her goals.”

The second stand out meet of Coach Hays’s career was Jordan Scott’s 2010 Outdoor National Championship win. “Again, it was not the championship itself that was rewarding, but watching Jordan nature and grow throughout the 2010 season.” Seeing his athletes grow not only into outstanding vaulters but also outstanding human beings proved to Coach Hays that the ones who do the little things each and every day are the ones who expand their opportunities and potential in the long run.

Of course it isn’t only the stand out vaulters who meet Coach Hays’s standards. Every vaulter at The University of Kansas has the perfect blend of physical attributes and mental determination. High schoolers hoping to jump for Coach Hays should be fast, have a good strength to weight ratio, run with high knees, jump around 16 to 17 feet for men and 13 feet for women, but above all else, have a “no quit” attitude. “How high someone jumps is far outweighed if an athlete shows promise in the other categories,” explains Coach Hays. “My first National Champion, Andrea Detoit, was

Linnen Amy Photo By Jeff & Laura Jacobsen

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Al Hizam Hussain Photo By Jeff & Laura Jacobsen

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an 8 foot high school jumper who eventually went 15’1”.

Vaulters who are hard working and dedicated enough to jump for Coach Hays are treaded to any piece of equipment a pole vaulter’s heart could desire. “We are a little spoiled,” admits Coach Hays. Equipped with two indoor and two outdoor pits, hundreds of poles ranging from 10 feet to 17 feet long, two high bars, two sets of rings, a rope, and a

specialized weight room, The University of Kansas provides Coach Hays with everything he needs to create champions, so long as the vaulters want success just as badly as he does.

Coach Hays finds a way to make each and every one of his vaulters feel appreciated, and part of that has to do with his views on fun. “Our basic philosophy here at the University of Kansas is that practice should be, and will

be, the best part of your day. I believe an athlete having fun learns faster, does better, and achieves more.” As one of the most successful collegiate pole vault coaches at any school today, with a lifelong history of studying the sport and thirty years practicing what he does best, Coach Tom Hays definitely has sound philosophies on how to create success, what a committed athlete needs to put in, and what a great coach can do for his athletes in return.

Take Off Bartnovskaya Natalia Photo By Jeff & Laura Jacobsen

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