Vaulter Magazine July 2013

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Only Track & Field News can keep you fully informed about which athletes to watch, who’s hot and who’s not. We take you step-by-step, meet-by-meet, through the indoor season, outdoor conference championships, the domestic relay and invitational carnivals, the NCAAs, the U.S. Nationals, the Grand Prix events in Europe and of course the Olympics and World Championships.

Each issue is packed with meet stories, performer lists and other useful stats, interviews and profiles of your favorite athletes, action photos galore, opinion columns and feature articles, and everything else you need to keep abreast of the total track scene. If high school track is your special interest, seven issues during the year carry prep top performer lists and reports.

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TRACK PERIODICALS • BOOKS • TOURS TO THE OLYMPICS, WORLDS, ETC.

CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR

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PERFORMANCE CARE FOR POLE VAULTERS...

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YOUR COLLEGE APPLICATION QUESTIONS NOW ANSWERED! 10 LSU: A TEAM OF LEADERS

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MAXIMIZE YOUR SUMMER VAULTING EXPERIENCE

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GARY HUNTER SAYS, ‘GIVE MAXIMAL EFFORT’

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FROM THE EDITOR The staff of Vaulter Magazine wishes a happy summer to all of our readers. We hope you are enjoying your fun in the sun. Of course, we hope you are keeping in shape and working on that vaulting as well. To help you keep your vault going strong, Bubba Sparks has graced our magazine once again with some sound summer work out advice. If you are wondering where to go or what to do during your summer, this article is for you. Don’t miss it!

Summer also brings transition to those heading to college. Hopefully you are thinking about college well before you graduate, but it is never too late. We have a wonderful treat for our high school readers on the college track. This month we are introducing Penny Hanson of Hanson College Consultants. She has agreed to write a monthly column for Vaulter Magazine to help with college preparation. It is very exciting and we hope you will enjoy and take advantage of this experienced professional’s advice.

Speaking of college, we have an in-depth look at Louisiana State University this month. Coach Lane has his team going strong, and it’s amazing how much community support these athletes have. Coach Lane talked to us with so much pride about his school and team- it is contagious. You will have fun reading this article and this college is worth checking out- whether you are looking for a college to go to or just a track and field enthusiast.

Our veteran vaulter this month is Gary Hunter.

He is a self-taught, farm raised pole vaulter who has seen and accomplished a lot. We are very ex-

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cited to add his wisdom and experience to this issue and we know you will be excited to hear what he has to teach us.

As always, thank you for reading. Continue to enjoy your summer and stay cool out there. We will see you in August.

Editor Doug Bouma editor@thevaultermag.com April Steiner Bennett

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PERFORMANCE CARE FOR POLE VAULTERS...

By: Holley DeShaw

Whether you are a high school pole vaulter just beginning your career or a world class professional, knowing how your body is affected by your sport and how to care for it can make all the difference in not only the longevity of your career but also in decreasing your injury potential and increasing your performance potential. In this article we will look at how your sport affects your body and a perspective of your care that can help take you as a vaulter go further, farther and higher.

Let’s first take a moment to look at your sport. In looking at the dynamics of a pole vaulter the most common injuries typically are muscular strains, joint sprains, low back pain, shin splints, achilles problems and specifically tension throughout your muscle groups leading to a lack of range of motion and increased injury potential. If we look deeper into the movements that a pole vaulter goes through from start to finish you actually will find the most common tension pattern beginning in the top arm, moving diagonally across the body and ending in the trail leg. Being that there is unilateral load, tension

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Holley DeShaw

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typically would be found most prevalent in the right shoulder, through the neck (trapezius), down through the low back and hip rotators and stabilizers and down through the take off leg. Some specific injuries can happen due to the repetitive movements in pole vaulting, taking off under or too close which causes a huge amount of tension on the body and also the approach of

the vault can also create a predisposition to shin splints and/or low back pain. Having knowledge of how your sport affects your body is the first piece of how to actually take care of your body!

Now, how do you care for your body and incorporate the knowledge you have into your training? How and what do you do to treat or

US Nationals

prevent these potential sport related issues.

According to one of the Worlds Best Pole Vaulters… “Seek out Guided Purpose Driven Treatment.”-Brad Walker In observing our Worlds Best Pole Vaulters at competitions all over the World you will see that the core of their treatment is soft-tissue hands on therapy.

Specifically, Sports Massage, but also may include other modalities such as chiropractic,

acupuncture, electrical stim, laser, tecar, kinesiotaping applications, ART, needling, normatecs, fascial and muscular stretching and hydro therapy. All modalities are geared towards structural and soft tissue alignment, which decreases tension in the body and increases blood flow. But beyond that, you will see our World Class Professionals searching out care with direction, care with a knowledge

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of kinetic chain patterns and biomechanics specific to their sport. In seeking out treatment look for a LMT, DC, PT or ATC that is familiar with your sport, that has knowledge or will take direction of how your body is affected and which applications of treatment will most benefit you. Treatments can and should be incorporated into your training and pre and post event for maximum performance potential to be reached. Hands on therapy is key and finding a skilled therapist or practitioner may take time and research, but is well worth the results.

Ultimately, as an athlete know that treatment of your body along side proper rest, nutrition and training will help achieve your highest goals and aspirations in your sport!

Holley DeShaw, LMT, CKTP

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Your College Application Questions Now Answered!

I’m pleased to introduce to the vault world, a friend of mine of 40 years, Penny Hanson. When I was a pole vaulter at Texas State University, Penny was on a gymnastics scholarship. She has gone on to become one of the top college access professionals in the country. She assists all levels of high school students in finding the perfect college match for them.

Obviously we want to go to the best school that will let us pole vault. She and her partner have a proprietary database that matches financial resources with entry requirements and selects a range of schools that may work for you. Penny has a Masters in Counseling and has developed a parent program that was accepted as the standard in Colorado. Penny will write a monthly column about the college application process as it applies to all high school students, with additional focus on students hoping to vault in college. I’m thrilled that she wants to do this. Enjoy!

Bubba Sparks

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College Connections I am pleased to have the opportunity to provide college access information to readers of Vaulter Magazine. As Bubba said, I will be writing a column about the college application process in general with a focus on high school students who want to vault in college. I am a college consultant, not a pole vaulter (although I did try it once last fall!). However, the college search, financial aid and scholarship procedures and the application process are the same for all students. .

I was a Post Graduate Counselor at Littleton High School in Colorado for over 10 years.

While at Littleton, I worked with college bound students ranging from International Baccalaureate scholars to First Generation, English as a second language, immigrant students. I have helped hundreds of students get to college. Two years ago I started my own business as an Inde-

pendent College Counselor. I am partnering with another counselor who has 22 years of experience as an Independent Counselor. Together we utilize a database that he developed to create a list of best fit schools for students based on their beliefs and values. We believe that the biggest criterion for college success is choosing a school that meets a student’s personal values and needs.

What should college bound students be doing now? Rising seniors need to be writing essays for admittance and scholarship money, researching possible school choices, visiting campuses, determining a major focus, registering and prepping for standardized tests (ACT/ SAT) to be given in the fall, reviewing their schedule for next year to ensure that they are taking the appropriate classes to graduate and enter college. And then, how

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do you select a college that will let you pole vault?

I will be covering these steps and much more in this column.

I will also be answering questions and addressing concerns from you. Please email me at: Penny@hansoncollegeaccess. com with your questions and

I will answer them in this column. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you. I hope that this will be helpful to both students and parents. I look forward to this experience with Vaulter magazine!

Penny Hanson Hanson College Consultants

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MAGAZINE Reggie Henderson

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LSU: A Team of Leaders By: Michelle Walthall Thomas Reinecke

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After speaking with Track and Field Coach Todd Lane, it is easy to see why Louisiana State University is an exciting school.

“We are located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an hour northwest of New Orleans,” Coach Lane starts off. “Our mascot is Mike the Tiger. We are proud to say Mike VI, a live tiger who has his own 15,000-square-foot habitat with a waterfall, swimming pond, grass trees and enclosure, lives right here on campus. He lives one minute from the track and overlooks the loudest, craziest football stadium in the country. He is a national hero to the passionate LSU nation. If someone ever wanted to see the passion that there is in Louisiana for LSU, they just need to show up on campus on a Friday afternoon of a football game weekend and watch the motorhomes roll in.

Then come to practice Saturday morning with us and see the tailgaters who take over every inch of openness on campus.

Take in the smells of jambalaya, boudin, alligator, and porc du being cooked and tossed back with adult beverages. The football game Saturday night

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in Tiger Stadium is deafening with all 94,000 of those people in there (and, at times, the estimated 20,000 outside the stadium).”

Thomas Reinecke

“This is my 18th year of college coaching,” Coach Lane tells us. “I graduated from college with a degree in political science and was an average Division III distance runner. I realized I wanted to be in athletics when I graduated. I went and got a master’s in sport administration and, while doing that, taught classes and helped out with the cross country team at the university. Through other stops in coaching, I took on coaching other events. I eventually pursued another master’s in exercise science and attended coaches’ education every summer. I have coached just about every event in track and field through my career. I consider myself to be a track and field coach, not a pole vault or high jump coach etc. Physiology and mechanics of athletics applies across all spectrums.

I have been at LSU for six seasons. This was always a dream job for me and every day I feel incredibly humbled, honored and fortunate to have this opportunity.”

What’s also great is that the LSU track and field team has more than just one passionate coach. When asked about the

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staff, Coach Lane tells us: “We have the NCAA maximum of six paid coaches with our program at LSU, along with a director of operations to handle a lot of administrative work for us. I work with the combined event, long, triple, high jump and pole vault athletes for both men and women.” According to Coach Lane, LSU typically has five to six men and two to four women on the team in the vault.

We knew that joining this exciting track and field team would be desirable to many, so we asked what it takes to be a part of it. Coach Lane says, “Minimally we are looking for student athletes who have the ability to continue to grow and improve in the event area and help our team at an SEC or NCAA championship.

This probably means, in terms of heights, 15-6 for men and 12-6 for women along with the speed qualities that you see of vaulters who are scorers at the championship meets. We also want someone who is a competitor and who wants and can handle the pressure of being in the hunt to win championships.

We are a track and field TEAM. We look for people who can compete when things aren’t going well- people who can deal with adversity.”

Coach Lane explains why perseverance through adver-

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sity is so important to the LSU team: “We talk a lot about overcoming adversity and problem solving as part of the road to being good. The process of developing as an athlete constantly has shifts in it. I always remember several years ago at the NCAA Meet in Eugene; the weather was horrendous, it was raining, cold, there were delays, and there was an officiating error in not raising the bar when it was supposed to go up- all kinds of things. We had a guy, who probably was not the best vaulter there, go out at the bar they forgot to raise, get back in because of the error, take 17 jumps that day and somehow finish second for eight huge points for our team.

He was a competitor and handled the adversity better than many and wanted to excel for the team.”

“Our setup at LSU is, I think, the most ideal in the country for a track and field athlete,” says Coach Lane proudly of the track and field facilities. “Our track is centrally located on campus; it is a five-minute walk to pretty much any academic obligation. We have an indoor track which is right next to our outdoor. It is currently being renovated, but will include boarded runways that are flush in the ground. We are a little soft in Louisiana, so if practice gets a little cold or rainy, we are

able to walk 50 meters right indoors. Outdoors we have three to four pole vault pits that run north and south and eight boxes total, so we can host multiple competitions at once. The outdoor track was renovated in 2011 and the surface is ideal for training and competing.

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Our entire infield is track surface, so there is plenty of room for all event areas to train. We get great competitions every year. We also have a track-only weight room and a large storage area at the track. Our athletic training room is a twominute walk from the track.

We vault on UCS Spirit poles and all of our pits are UCS. The gymnastics practice facility is attached to the indoor track so we are able to utilize that easily as well.”

“I think all the vaulters, in some way, have been a lead-

er within the group and the team,” continues the proud Coach Lane of his team. “Our men and women train together.

What I find is the women tend to lead the guys more in practice, in terms of staying on task and moving efficiently through practice. They don’t put up with Joseph Caraway

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a lot of wasted time. In terms of the highest vaulter this year, on the men’s side it has varied from meet to meet.”

According to Coach Lane, competition has been fierce for the Tiger vaulters recently. He tells us, “We compete in the SEC and NCAA Division I. It’s a challenging conference in every single event, including the pole vault. When you can vault 18 feet for the men and 14 feet for the women and only be third, you get a perspective on what is really good. The SEC Conference Meet, indoor and outdoor, every year is the greatest team competition across the board in the United States in my opinion. You go into that meet knowing you are going to see some incredible performances and you walk out of it shaking your head at the amazing things the human body can do. Our men’s and women’s teams are always in a

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battle for a championship, both at the Conference and NCAA level. We view track as a team sport. The vault group embraces doing their part to help the TEAM win.”

together a men’s vault 4 x 100 meter relay at one of our home meets. No records were set and they did manage to run slightly faster than our women’s relay team who is always battling to win a national championship in that event. The best part of that relay may have been the full diving extension that took place on the first exchange that didn’t miss a beat. Russ Buller, our school record holder in the vault, ran on a topthree-NCAA-finishing 4 x 100 relay team.”

Here is a detailed look at the training Coach Lane has put in place for his team:

“We ask for two to three weeks totally off of physical work after the last meet,” he says.

“Summer workouts are mailed out July 1st for those who did not make it to the NCAA Meet.

Those who are competing in the summer take their break later at some point. We officialRachel Laurent ly start practice together the day after Labor Not only has the competition Day (first Monday in Septembeen fierce, but Coach Lane tells ber). Our training progresses us this interesting fact about through the fall into January this year for the LSU track and when we begin competitions.” field team: “This spring we put

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Coach Lane also tells us, “We run our training in four-week cycles. The fourth week sees a reduction in volume, with Saturday and Wednesday training removed, and the work of those days shifted. This is to allow recovery and adaptation to the previous training.”

“A typical week in the fall (Sept- December) would look like this (gymnastics work is included, but varies as to the day we do it):” Monday

Acceleration Development: 20, 30, 40m acceleration runs from various start positions, including starting blocks and resisted runs, with total volume of 180-350 meters of work.

Periods of the fall we would do these with poles also: Short jumps such as standing long jump, standing triple, double leg hops; Strength training consisting of a clean or snatch, squats, and bench movements; Explosive multiple throws (overhead back, between the legs forward, squat chest, and a rotational throw) performed with shot puts.

Tuesday

Technique/General strength: Technique workstarting with remedial work in the early fall of skips, run-run-jumps, hurdle skips moving to stiff pole to short run jumps; General body strength work done in circuit style; Weight room circuit.

Wednesday

Speed Development: Stadium runs (singles and doubles) without poles, then progressing to stadium runs with poles to pole runs on the track; Stadium hops- single leg going up, going lateral and medial and a 180 jump; Strength training consisting of a clean or snatch, single leg squat/ lunges and overhead squats, and an incline bench.

Thursday Technique/General strength: In the early fall, because of NCAA rules; this is often a day that the athletes will complete practice on their own. Later in the fall we can add this day in as a coaching day under NCAA rules. Similar to Tuesday. When we are later in the fall doing our short run jumps from Tuesday by either running a different number of steps or vaulting with a narrower grip to work on swing, something that provides variance from what was down on Tuesday. Motor learning research shows that variance is important in practice.

Friday

Acceleration/Speed Development Day: In the early fall we will run a lot of resistance runs during this day and then graduate to a more speed-oriented day. We have an exercise that involves running 8-10 steps full speed into 10-20 mini hurdles in which the athlete steps between each hurdle running as fast as possible. The distance is calculated based on the athlete’s speed. Eventually we add in running with a pole and will complete a drop and plant coming out of the run with fewer hurdles. Mini hurdles hop jumps; Heavy clean pulls, very deep squats, bench press variation and a pull up series.

Saturday

Stamina day: We run a total of 1,200 meters with a four-week cycle being outlined below. The rest starts short and through each cycle gets longer, so naturally the intensity gets higher; Week 1- 8 * 150m; Week 2- 10 * 120m; Week 3- 12 * 100 m; Week 4- Off. After these runs we gather the entire jumps group for “Words of Wisdom”, with a different member of the group providing some words and thoughts of inspiration and motivation to the group each time.

It was really good this year with everyone providing hand-outs, color copies and all. We then go to the weight room for a circuit and finish with some work barefooted in the sand. Saturday is the day that I know we’ve done a good job when I see them sitting on the bench outside the weight room after it’s all said and done and they don’t have the energy to go home.

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Left to right ground level: Jacques Dugas, Joseph Caraway JULY 2013 ISSUE with alligator head, Jaora Johnson with crawfish pot, Todd WWW.THEVAULTERMAG.COM Lane, Brianne Bergeron sitting in canoe, Lacey Sanchez Left to right flight: Andreas Duplantis, Thomas Reinecke

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“I mentioned the fourth week being lower in volume- or unloading as we call it,” Coach Lane continues.

“During this fourth week we run several field tests to help measure responses to training in speed and power and to evaluate areas of weakness for athletes. At the end of the third cycle, we run. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we have a huge team-wide testing competition. It has been held at LSU for 20-plus years, so we have records for each event group.

These 20 years of test results give us some norms for desired speed-power numbers if one wants to vault at certain heights. We usually have twenty men and women who comprise our jumps group and training on some days is identical across all events, so you will see our vaulters training with that group. Pound for pound, our combined event and horizontal jumpers are the most powerful group on the team, so it doesn’t hurt to train with them, it keeps everything in perspective. Plus, again, we are a TEAM and we want to foster that environment.”

Coach Lane is not against his team having fun in the midst of all their hard work. “Practice itself is fun,” he says. “We have a group of men who all have similar abilities, so there is a good bit of trash talk that goes on in practice or overall records

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against each other throughout the meets. It is not uncommon for competition of some sort to break out, from a game of stick ball to inventing new techniques for the standing triple jump. Late this spring, one of our vaulters was able to talk himself into being faster than one of our triple jumpers. During a session of some fast 120s, a race broke out. He got beat, but is claiming a false start to this day. I missed this one, but there was a good bit of talk between the distance runners and pole vaulters over who would win a 4 x 100. Apparently a 4 x 200 race was set up on a day the coaching staff was gone between the two groups. With 100 or so spectators, the race went off. The vault squad won handily.”

This program Coach Lane has in place seems to work, as many successful alumni vaulters have graduated from LSU. He could not say enough about the amazing vaulters he has seen through his program. He tells us, “The alumni we have within our track and field program, period, is incredible athletically,” he says. “When you talk specifically about the vault, it has had incredible athletes; also incredible in life. Our pole vault group, currently and in the past, has been 99.9 per-

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cent Louisiana high schoolers.

There is a fantastic development group for the vault in Louisiana high schools, now and throughout the past years.

Doug Fraley and Mark Rose in

New Orleans, Shane LeLeux in New Iberia, Erica Bartolina with her club, Steve Sorrell, and Greg Duplantis are a few of the wonderful pole vault coaches we have in Louisiana

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who promote, coach and work with many of the young pole vaulters in our state. When you take the talent and the pride that so many kids have in Louisiana and LSU, it shows through when they have the opportunity to wear the uniform and compete across the country. At our home meets there are quite a few of our alumni back, either working or watching the meets. It is neat to see the generations of vaulters, going back to the mid-60s through now. We’ve had five individuals clear 18 feet in LSU history, so it’s a good group talent wise.”

deal?’ Of course, looking back on it, that move was wellwarranted with the success he has had now in the medical world.”

“In terms of vaulting high, Russ Buller, our school record holder, had a great career and was so close to making the 2008 Olympic team before an injury hit him in the midAndreas Duplantis

“I would start with two individuals who are less famous for their pole vaulting and more for their professional work since then. The first is Dr. James Andrews, world-renowned orthopedic surgeon, the guy who just about every professional athlete goes to see for knee and shoulder injuries. He was the SEC Champ in the pole vault in 1963 for LSU. One of his teammates, Pete Boudreaux, who won the SEC Indoor vault in 1965, coaches here in town at powerhouse Catholic High School and was also the 2010 National High School coach of the year. He tells me that he always would tell Dr. Andrews ‘Why do you want to quit track to go do this medical school

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dle of the competition during the Trials. Greg Duplantis had a long career after LSU on the professional circuit and

topped the 19-foot barrier during this time.”

“What’s interesting now is that we are starting to get

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the sons and daughters and, probably soon, grandsons and granddaughters of some of our former greats. Mark Rose, Rachel Laurent

was a 17-5 vaulter for LSU back in the 80s. We have had both his son Kyle and daughter Laura with us recently.

Greg Duplantis’ son, Andreas, vaults for us now. I know Pete

has a granddaughter or two in elementary school whom he is teaching to vault in the back yard, so you never know.”

“On the women’s side, Katelyn Rodrigue graduated in 2010 and may have been the shortest and lightest vaulter to jump as high as she did.

She was all of 4’11.5” and 100 pounds with a PR of 13-7. She could move on the runway and was a regular at NCAA meets.

She probably maximized her talent the most of any athlete I have worked with in any event group. Rachel Laurent was one of the first 14-foot high school vaulters in the U.S. who joined us. She had a great career, earning several AllAmerican honors and helping our team to some top-three NCAA finishes during her career. Katelyn and Rachel were, and still are, such good human beings. They both were actively involved in community service in helping people and continue with that today.”

Good coaching, good people, and passionate community-- all three come together to make an ideal vaulting and track and field situation. We hope LSU continues to thrive.

If the vaulters they are putting out now are anything like their predecessors, there will be no holding this team back.

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Maximize Your Summer Vaulting Experience By: Buba Sparks

Understanding and selecting the right summer vaulting program is one of the most important aspects of your continued success. You have to be able to determine when you’re done for the present year and ready to move on to the next year.

Example – I was at a meet with a college freshman just after their season had ended.

Conditions were beautiful and he felt great. We both expected big things based on warm ups. He cleared 5.40m (17’ 8 1/2”) to tie his PR set the previous summer just after high school. The problem is that his standards were already at 50cm (20”) and he needed to move up poles. When he moved up a pole he couldn’t get in and bailed on all three jumps.

When the meet was over I told him his season was over.

After he got over the shock

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of my statement I simply told him that he is at his present physical and technical limit. In perfect conditions and feeling good this is as far as you got so you’re done. TOUGH call but you have to be able to make it because continuing on brings inconsistency, lack of confidence, risk of injury and a large dose of burnout.

OK, you’ve called it a season, now what? The very first thing is to take two weeks off and do nothing vault related at all.

Think about your season and what you need to do to make the next year better. Make some technical goals and start figuring out how you’re going to raise yourself to the next level physically. BTW – you can contact me to bounce ideas off me at any time about anything – polevaulter@msn. com. I know nothing but WE know everything.

NOW – assess whether you are ready to start for next year or if you want the summer to work out new technical enhancements. I prefer the latter. I want my kids to jump 2-3 days a week with absolutely no running or lifting. I want it to be a fun summer full of low level vaulting working on a new technical foundation changes for the coming year. We know we’re going to blast the running, lifting, bars, etc., right after school starts, so let’s just have fun and enjoy the summer while gaining new confidence in our technique.

Benefits? A very good friend of mine, Paul Babbits has set many masters WRs. I saw him jump an indoor WR of 16’ 10 ½” (5.15m) at age 46 in Reno and it reminded me of the story he told me at breakfast that morning.

He told me that the previous

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year all of his jumps were on big poles with long runs and that he was so mentally and physical exhausted that he rarely was able to complete many jumps. I’ve often told vaulters that elite vaulting is about being on a pole that feels too big, with a grip that feels too high, and that

any little thing out of place drops your chance to turn up to about 70%. If you can deal with that then you have a chance to succeed. Though this is expected, you can’t “live” in that place as Paul had the previous year. In fact he was so frustrated he almost gave away his poles and quit.

After a short break he decided he would move into 4 strides/8 steps and start over on tiny poles and complete as many jumps as he could and try to rediscover the fun of vaulting. No spikes, just flats.

Within a few months he was back on his 4.90m/16’ ¾” poles and blowing through Bubba Sparks

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them all from 6 lefts. So here’s the 46 year old guy who almost quit who nine months later is in Reno on 5m/16’ 4 ¾” poles breaking yet another world record and having fun again. He’s telling me this story with so much passion and excitement that I was recharged myself.

Big lesson – you MUST be willing to go backward in order to move forward. The summer is about ripping your

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vault apart and exploring new technical directions and finding your love for the sport again. Surfers go out no matter what the waves or the weather. Pole vaulters have the same joy and you need to remind yourself that the event and the process is supposed to be fun.

Enjoy your summer as you have earned it. And remember, it’s easy to pass up others who took the time off, but if

you don’t approach it with the right mindset and goals, you’re not helping yourself.

All the best! Shoot for the stars and land in the clouds.

Who knows, maybe you will find that you are better than you ever thought you could be, and that’s not such a bad thing is it?

Bubba

Abbie Sharkey

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Gary Hunter Says, ‘Give Maximal Effort’

By Michelle Walthall

Veteran pole vaulter Gary Hunter tells us, “I taught myself how to pole vault from a library book at age 13. I grew up on a farm, so I used pitchforks, rakes, and a 2x2 and eventually graduated to bamboo. My brother and I used to jump over fences, clotheslines and whatever we could find. We graded some ground in our garden, made a wooden box and used three bales of hay, and we had a sophisticated facility.”

“Bob Crites (current masters pole vaulter) was a world age record-holder for ages 13, 14, 15 and 16.

He went to high school in Kokomo and jumped in our regional meet. We all tried to emulate everything that he

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did. Bob dragged the tip of the pole most of the way down the runway and picked it up just before he planted it. We had such strong crosswinds in our area that it seemed to make sense, so we all did it.

In the late 60s and 70s, track was a very popular spectator sport and every kid in my class knew who the best pole vaulters were,” says Hunter of his influences.

Since his days on the farm, Hunter has seen many changes in pole vaulting. Here are some of what he feels are the most noteworthy changes: “The changes have been profound,” Hunter says. “The biggest change has been to the pole vault pits. In high

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school we jumped on scrap foam pits, air pits, tires with nothing but canvas over them and tires with a 2-inch gymnastics mat over them. I jumped 16-3 in high school on an Adjust-a-Pit which was 11x12x1 feet. We learned to land on our feet and roll. One of my teammates jumped 15-0 with this pit and completely missed it, without injury.”

“Poles and runways are certainly better, but the box has contributed most to performances. Although the 105-degree box was required by 1971, 95 percent of the facilities had a 90-degree one.

We wrapped three roles of tape around the tip of the pole so as to not compromise the bend of the pole, making the effective weight of the pole much heavier.”

“Some of the recent changes have hurt pole vaulting a great deal. The high school requirement that kids cannot

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jump on a pole rated less than their body weight discourages many from continuing in the sport and has contributed to a greater risk of injury. This was followed by increasing the size of the pit, making pole vaulting cost-prohibitive to many schools. It is a shame to see the deleterious effect that these rules have had on the sport.”

When asked about his greatest accomplishment in pole vaulting, Hunter says, “I am most pleased with my longevity. I pole vaulted 16-0 at age 17 and was still jumping 16-0 at age 53.”

“I recently jumped an American indoor record, but I have not jumped a world record since I was 53,” Hunter added. When asked about the training required to soar so high, he says, “I enjoy sprinting and lifting weights, and I found years ago that short intense training is the

only way that I can continue in the sport. I work an average of more than 70 hours per week and I travel daily, so I wear track shorts under my suit and run sprints on my way home. I have to keep the training time to a minimum, so I limit my training to less than 30 minutes per day unless I am jumping. On the days that I vault, I will typically take less than 45 minutes.”

We also got this wise advice from Hunter: “Train for quality and specificity.

Number One: Quality- Do not just go through the motions. You must train with maximal effort. Number Two: Specificity- You get what you train for. Make all training consistent with what you want to achieve. To get faster, you must do speed work. To get stronger, you must do maximal-effort strength or gymnastic exercises that mimic the demands of the pole vault.”

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WWW.THEVAULTERMAG.COM Mike Arnold

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