May 2017 Alysha Newman Cover of Vaulter Magazine

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MATTERS TIME TO FLY

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CONTENTS y a M

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DEVELOPING AN EXPLOSIVE APPROACH

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ALYSHA NEWMAN’S ROAD TO GREATNESS

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DEVELOPMENT OF POLE VAULTING SAFETY AND TECHNOLOGY

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Cover photo by Vaulter Magazine

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FROM THE EDITOR It’s May, and I swear this month will bring flowers for you and your track team. If not, find some and plant them for yourself for everyone to enjoy!

This month we have Alysha Newman’s Road to Greatness as the main feature. Follow along as she goes from a 100m hurdler to the sport that she loves today. She’s on a roll and as she keeps traveling and placing herself in the big meets for her home country of Canada. As promised when we met, Alysha wanted to be our first true Canadian on the

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cover, and the cover is where you will find her, as she makes her way to work for her Olympic Gold.

Kreager Taber comes to us with an article about an explosive approach and take-off before you even get off the ground. “Developing an Explosive Approach” This is the name of the game for this article and if you have what it takes you will follow along and achieve what you need to go big.

For our three-part series, you have Eliah Memmel with

an article from Indiana Institute of Technology about the Development of Pole Vaulting Safety and Technology. This article is sure to get you thinking and give you a better understanding of the history of pole vaulting and where most injuries occur in the vault.

Thank you for following along, and we look forward to bringing you more articles, news, and information about the sport.

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

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WWW.VAULTERMAGAZINE.COM Vaulter Clubs Stephanie Silverlake getting Inverted 8th Grade

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DEVELOPING AN EXPLOSIVE APPROACH By: Kreager Taber

Without an explosive run and takeoff, a vaulter’s potential is cut short before they even take off. The approach portion of the vault is arguably the easiest to practice with sprint drills, pole sprints, and slide box drills; however, it is more difficult to make the run explosive and as productive as possible. A more explosive approach can be developed with speed training, certain lifts, and a flexibility and hip-specific strength regimen.

Speed training utilizing soccer ladders and cones helps to develop the hip extension that is crucial for an explosive athlete. Intuitively, if one’s feet

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can hit the track at a faster rate, it will generate more forward force and a greater speed. For this reason, soccer agility skills using ladders and cones are perfect for improving an athlete’s ability to move their feet, and therefore, become faster on the runway.

The ladder drills also help to develop strength in the hip flexors, which is crucial to a quick and powerful knee drive while vaulting. High knee drills using the ladders condition the hips to react quickly with a powerful downward force, which can then be applied into the first few steps of the vaulter’s approach.

In addition to speed drills, weightlifting is an essential component to the development of an explosive athlete.

Exercises such as snatches, power cleans, and jerks both strengthen the hip flexors and condition the leg muscles to be explosive. Split snatches are especially useful, given that they force a powerful hip extension to get under the weight being lifted. Glute bridges using a barbell also help to develop hip extension and isolate the hip flexors. Box jumps strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, calves, and quads, and help prepare the vaulter for an explosive final step in the takeoff of the vault. As for

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body-weight exercises, lunges and burpees exercise the muscles in the legs without putting them under too much stress, which is useful to note before championship meets.

These lifts condition the muscles to react under stress more quickly, developing the “quick twitch� muscles that are important for short sprinters and jumpers.

Alysha Newman Explosvie Inversion

Tight or weak hip flexors are one of the most common causes for a slow run, given their commonality especially among high school and college athletes. If an athlete sits for eight hours a day in school, practices for two hours, and then goes home to sit and do homework, their hips remain sedentary nearly all day. For this reason, the hip flexors can be too tight or even too weak to run with a powerful knee drive. This is especially dangerous in vaulters, given that the running approach does not often exceed sixteen steps in total. If the knee drive is weak at any point in the run, each step is not maximized and the vault suffers. On the other hand, if the vaulter is tall and explosive on the runway, the energy gained from the run is maximized and they are able to translate more horizontal force into vertical height. In

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order to minimize the effects of tight and weak hip flexors, strength and flexibility routines should be incorporated into daily workouts. Lateral walks as well as inward and outward kicks with resistance bands are useful as a starting point to develop strength, and rolling out the hip flexors with lacrosse or tennis balls after workouts are a helpful start

Alysha Newman Explosvie Run

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to decreasing tightness. However, these are mere starting points- athletic trainers are an excellent resource to build off of the presented ideas and to develop individualized strength and flexibility routines.

Taking daily steps, such as incorporating hip flexor-specific stretches and strength

exercises into post-workout routines, help to lay a solid foundation for the development of an explosive run. Combined with long-term strength and speed training in the weight room and on the track, a more explosive run will begin to emerge and propel the vaulter to higher heights.

Explosive approach Logan Cunningham

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ALYSHA NEWMAN’S ROAD TO GREATNESS By: Samantha Kaplan

One of the most famous faces in the world of upcoming track and field stars is Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman. The soon to be college graduate is taking the world of elite track by storm, and with the determination to become one of the best vaulters in history, it seems as though nothing is getting in her way on her road to greatness.

Believe it or not, Alysha did not start out as a vaulter, but as a 100m hurdler, and actually found training for the vault quite tedious and boring.

But London Legion Track and Field club manager Joe Ryder convinced her to stick it out. Six months later, Alysha jumped at her first meet, clearing 3.15m.

And with that first clearance, she was hooked. “That was day

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I decided this was the sport for me. Now eight years later I am more determined than ever.”

After that fateful meet, Alysha immediately made it her goal to become the best.

Her grade 9 year ended with a clearance of 3.50m. As a sophomore, Alysha cleared 3.91m, and jumped the 4.00m the next year, qualifying for the international team. In her final year of high school, Alysha became the first high school female in Canadian history to jump above 4.00m with a leap of 4.06m, which qualified her for World juniors. With the exception of the 4.06m jump, Alysha’s high school career was spent jumping on 13ft poles, jumping on a 14ft pole only for 4.06m. “Through the years of high school we didn’t

have much access to poles,” says Alysha. “I was forced to start on a 13ft poles!”

Alysha wasn’t nearly finished with pole vault after high school success. Determined to conquer even higher heights, Alysha made the decision to leave Canada and make the trek to Florida for college at the University of Miami.

Although moving to a new country is difficult, Alysha knew it was the right choice.

“Going to school in the States widened my perspective on athletics and made me realize that I could pursue athletics as my career.” In Canada, athletic success at University is not flaunted and honored as much as it is in the USA. With a newfound realization that athletics could actually become

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a career, Alysha’s confidence skyrocketed. “To aspire to be the best I had to walk around with that same belief and positive attitude and had to tell myself over and over again, ‘I’m going to be number one.’”

The passionate and driven environment of Division I track in America rubbed off, and in her years at the University of Miami, Alysha earned the following prestigious accolades: • 2016 Running up NCAA AllAmerican outdoors

• Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Record Holder

• 2016 USTFCCCA Indoor AllAmerican, First Team • 2016 All-ACC Indoor, First Team

• 2016 ACC Women’s Indoor Track Performer of the Week - 2/16/16 and 3/29/16 • 2014 Outdoor All-American, First Team • 2014 All-ACC, Outdoor

• 2014 Indoor All-American, First Team • 2014 All-ACC, Indoor

• 2013 MAC Champion in and outdoors

• 2013 All-American (second team- indoors)

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Not many college athletes get to pursue the elite stages of their sport after they graduate, but Alysha’s hard work and newfound outlook on the possibility of becoming a professional athlete, led her to begin competing at the elite level. And as an elite vaulter, Alysha has only fallen deeper in love with her sport and her dreams have only gotten wilder.

As a pro, Alysha won the bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, holds the Canadian National record with her PR of 4.71m, and competed at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics for Canada. With her college career coming to a close, Alysha has a bright future ahead of her as a professional athlete.

For Alysha, pole vault isn’t just a sport; it’s a way of life.

As a “die-hard pole vault fan,” Alysha never wants to leave practice, and finds that even during the bad practices, the runway is still her favorite place to be. However, Alysha’s biggest motivation doesn’t come from striving for the perfect vault, but from recognizing how imperfect the event is. “Our event is constantly ending in failure,” Alysha states, “but as an elite athlete, I hate to lose, especially to a bar.” Pole vault always ends with three misses, a height the vaulter

just couldn’t clear, and this fact pushes Alysha. “I have so much drive to push myself to my max potential, so to give up before I discover it is not an option.

Every time I PR, I get a rush of power, that I have conquered something I wanted so bad, and as humans that feeling is addicting.”

“I have big dreams for myself, being one of the best Pole Vaulters in history is one of them and I won’t quit until that becomes a reality.”

Alysha’s ability to dream big and pursue those dreams each and every day is something rare, but it’s no coincidence she has this capability. “My family is my everything! Especially my mom and dad, I truly owe them all the credit.” Alysha comes from a unique family, where everyone loves to push each other’s boundaries, believing no goal in unattainable. “From a vaulting perspective, my coaches Doug and Zdenek have helped me grow my confidence as a pole vaulter.”

Alysha has learned to always think positively, and take lessons from practices that feel unsuccessful; to learn from the bad days. Alysha thrives on the positive environment. “Being around that positivity makes it nearly impossible not to go into

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every practice confident and ready to take on the world.”

This upcoming summer has a lot in store for Alysha. It will be her first season of intense traveling, sometimes going straight to compete right off the plane, with multiple meets per week. “I usually have a bit of a break between meets,” says Alysha, “so this will be a great growth opportunity for me.” Alysha will be jumping at several European meets, but is most looking forward to the Diamond League competition, and securing herself a spot for Worlds and the FISU Games.

Although Alysha has a busy summer ahead of her, she never loses sight of her longterm goals. “I want to compete in 5 Olympics total, and bring home a gold medal for my country, as well as be the first Canadian woman to jump over 5 meters.” With such focus on her future, Alysha still makes sure to enjoy every moment of her time as a professional athlete, and stay grateful to her sponsors Nike and Athletics Canada, her coaches, and everyone that supports her amazing journey.

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DEVELOPMENT OF POLE VAULTING SAFETY AND TECHNOLOGY By: Eliah Memmel Indiana Institute of Technology Part One

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sport of pole vault and how it has changed. The history of pole vault is rich and the sport has changed greatly due to different techniques and ideas that have arisen. These changes brought more injuries but they were later prevented with advancing technology. One of the leading causes of injuries was caused by athletes not landing on the safety mats. These pads have changed throughout the years to help prevent more injuries. Related equipment has also changed with the mats. This equipment includes the standards, cross bars, and box collar which have all evolved to help reduce the risk involved in the sport. One of the greatest increases in height and risk can be attributed to the change of material used to make poles. Pole vaulting technology and safety have advanced greatly throughout its history to create higher heights while attempting to slow the rate of injuries. This paper will discuss detailed history, injuries related to pole vault, competitions, correct technique, pole vault poles, safety equipment, and how to pole vault.

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I. History and Background of Pole Vault The beginning of pole vault competitions can be traced back to 1829 B.C. but it is believed the concepts of pole vault began in 2500 B.C. Ancient Egyptian artifacts and sculptures showed the use of poles to surmount enemy walls in warfare and to pass over irrigation ditches. It is also thought that the Egyptians used their vast knowledge of poles and lever systems to construct their massive pyramids and temples. Coming in the fifth century B.C., the Ancient Greeks created more evidence that they knew the concepts of pole vault. Paintings on vases recovered from this era depict the Greeks using spears or poles and using some of the same technique known today to jump onto or over objects.

More evidence is provided by a writing from Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths which provides details of a boy placing his spear in the ground and propelling himself into a nearby tree to escape his enemy. Pole vaulting then progressed into being practiced in competition in 1829 B.C. per the Irish Book of Leinster.

These competitions took place in the Taliteann Games

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in Ancient Ireland until 554 B.C. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance were a mysterious time for pole vaulting because there was an 8-century time lapse before another mention of pole vault was found. The

next recorded history can be traced to 1792 in the form of a book written by GutsMuths. He is considered by many as the father of modern pole vaulting.

This is because he discusses jumping standards, general

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principles of pole vaulting, the distance of the approach, and recommendations on hand grip. From there, pole vaulting progressed to England and the United States in the 1800s.

In 1826, Professor Voelker, a German gymnastics coach, had more than 1300 members at The London Gymnastic Society who competed in pole vault for distance and height [1]. Another early recorded vaulting competition was in 1846 at the Ulverston Football and Cricket Club. From here the sport began to grow and became a staple in the track and field world [2]. All but two states in the United States offer a scholastic championship.

In 1877 the first collegiate pole vault championship was held. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) started a men’s outdoors championship pole vault event in 1921 and began another indoor championship in 1965.

Women’s pole vault was later added in 1998 and owns its own championships for indoor and outdoor [3]. Pole vaulting has developed greatly over different eras to where it is today.

II. How to Pole Vault Pole Vaulting is an incredibly difficult and complex sport so it is broken down into many sections and explanations.

Many coaches divide pole vault into seven different parts: (i) run-up, (ii) transition with arm elevation in the last three steps, (iii) take-off including the pole plant, (iv) swing phase, (v) rockback, (vi) inversion position, and (vii) bar clearance [4].

The run-up is one of the most important parts of the jump.

This is depicted in the picture as 1. The higher speed will lead to being able to jump on bigger sticks which leads to bigger heights. The transition with arm elevation in the last three

steps (pole transition) and the take-off are shown in step 2 in the image. During these steps, the pole comes from the back of the hip to above the head and the tip goes into the plant box. The vaulter then jumps and runs off the ground which will begin to bend the pole and lead to the next steps. Those next steps are shown in the 3rd phase of the picture and are the swing phase and the rock back.

Here the vaulter kicks or swings the trail leg toward the hands on the pole to end up in a pike position. From here the vaulter proceeds to the inversion and bar clearance shown in the picture in part 4. The athlete brings both feet up towards the crossbar and begins a turn

Figure 1: Pole Vault Progression [1]

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towards their pole. They then are upside down with a straight body and push off the top of the pole. To avoid knocking the bar off, they pike over it and maneuver the top half of their body over the bar.

III. Brief Physics

Now knowing the basics of pole vault, basic elements of physics can be used to predict the height of a vault. The kinetic energy of a vaulter can be found if the velocity at take-off and mass are known. As the athlete runs down the run way, speed is increased and therefore kinetic energy also increased.

After the take-off, the kinetic energy is transferred from the vaulter to the pole as it bends. As the pole begins to uncoil, the kinetic energy is transferred back to the vaulter in the form of gravitational potential energy which pulls the vaulter back down. Based on physics, the faster the vaulter is, the higher that vaulter can go [5]. The physics are a lot more complicated with all the equipment and moves involved in the sport. A general idea of what is happening with the energy is important to understand.

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IV. Pole Vault Competitions There are many places that one can acquire meet procedures and how to run a competition. Organizations like the NCAA, USA Track and Field Association, NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) will provide rule booklets upon request. There are some varying rules based on whether it is a college or high school meet but both sets of rules are nearly identical.

Each competition has a starting height decided by the meet director based on athletes’

entry heights. Any vaulter may decide to pass a height and open at a higher height. Any vaulter that passes three consecutive heights or doesn’t vault for an hour is permitted two minutes of warmups without a cross bar or bungee. The vaulters progress heights typically of six inch increments until they have three consecutive misses.

The last competitor then can decide what to place the bar at [6]. There are plenty of more specific rules on the vault but they can be found in the rule booklets.

Continue Next month

Figure 2: Example of most injuries occurred [7]

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